Wednesday, June 4, 2008

J Dilla - Trucks


This is James Yancey's take on Gary Numan's Cars. James is of course better known as J Dilla who emerged from Detroit hip hop group Slum Village in the 90s and immediately started leaving his undeniable mark on music in a way that in many ways changed the way how people produced records. Quite literally anybody you care to mention in the realm of hip hop and soul holds Dilla in the highest regard, he is quite literally your favourite producer's favourite producer. Unfortunately Dilla passed away in February 2006 but his legacy lives on through his music. Kelvin Brown once told me that whenever he was influenced by a new genre of music, be it hip hop, techno, brasilian, soul, latin etc. there was always a Dilla record that he could turn to that would compliment his new discoveries. Benji B recently kicked off one of his shows with this and it is certainly one of those records that immediately grabs your attention whether or not you know the original. It is particularly pertinent now as General Motors has just closed four SUV plants in the US as a backlash to the increasing gas prices and what they see as a result as a permanent change in the amount of SUVs people are going to buy in the coming years. Driving in LA in a standard size car, as I do, you do realise how many huge trucks there are when you're dwarfed on the 405-S by a plethora of soccer moms driving Hummers. Play this one stupidly loud and watch the dancefloor explode.

J Dilla - Trucks

Oh, and I just realized that this is my 250th post. All done in under a year, someone needs to get out the house more often.

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