Feature: J Dilla, five years gone

• Today marks the fifth anniversary of hip-hop pioneer J Dilla’s death. Photo by Roger Erickson.

• Today marks the fifth anniversary of hip-hop pioneer J Dilla’s death. Photo by Roger Erickson, AP.

• Today marks the fifth anniversary of hip-hop pioneer J Dilla’s death. Photo by Roger Erickson, AP

When someone dies young, cultural norms tell us to celebrate the life that was, rather than mourn the death that is all too present. It can sometimes feel like a bromide against emotions that may feel too disturbing, too raw and real. We are also greatly inclined to lionize the achievements of those who pass seemingly before their time. But when hip-hop producer J Dilla died at age 32 in 2006, both of these sentiments strangely rang true.

A reverent but joyous remembrance of J Dilla and his music began when he passed away from complications due to an incurable blood disease five years ago today — February 10, 2006 — and it has continued steadily since. For many in the hip-hop, soul and electronic music community, overstating the importance of the work he left behind is nearly impossible.

If anyone lived to make beats, it was J Dilla, born James Dewitt Yancey on Feb. 7, 1974, near Seven Mile Road in the Conant Gardens neighborhood of north Detroit. In 2009, Stones Throw Records declared February to be “Dilla Month,” an observance that, evidenced by the spate of Facebook and Twitter activity recently, is gaining traction among fans.

A self-described nerd, J Dilla allegedly wanted to be an Air Force pilot at one point in his life. His father, a jazz bassist, encouraged his son’s early engagement with music, and his opera-singer mother, affectionately known as “Ma Dukes,” made sure to carry that support through to the end. The talents he developed would eventually cross into the terrain of legend.

According to those he worked with, J Dilla could map out entire songs in his head before even finding the materials to make them. He was a perfectionist and also someone who treasured rawness in music, spending well upwards of 12 hours a day in the studio, but often laying down the beat for an individual song in 15 minutes or less. In an anecdote attributed to musical collaborator Erykah Badu, she relates Dilla telling her she could pick any record she could find and he would be able make a beat from it.

A wide roster of recording artists benefitted from J Dilla’s unique productions skills in the mid ‘90s, from A Tribe Called Quest to Janet Jackson. Even while never receiving credit for producing Jackson’s Grammy-winning single, “Got Till It’s Gone,” musicians’ demand for his work never flagged. His signature sound appears on the Pharcyde’s “Lacabinacalifornia,” Busta Rhymes’ “The Coming,” Tribe’s “Beats, Rhymes and Life,” Common’s breakthrough album, “Like Water for Chocolate,” as well as a slew of other singles and remixes for the likes of De La Soul, Brand New Heavies and Macy Gray, among many others. He also collaborated with artists like Madlib, Pete Rock (his early idol), Kanye West, Q-Tip and ?uestlove.

While innovating a new sound for hip-hop and soul in the ‘90s, Dilla still managed to dedicate priority to his own project, Slum Village, a group he co-founded with T3 and Baatin, two friends from Pershing High School in Conant Gardens. Slum Village allowed Dilla to hone his sound as well as work as an MC. Baatin (Titus Glover) passed away mysteriously in 2009, but Slum Village’s influence, witnessed by albums like “Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol. 1),” “Fantastic (Vol. 2)” and “Detroit Deli,” helped create new musical avenues for the hip-hop form. The group remains vital today, carried on by T3, Elzhi and Illa J, the younger brother of J Dilla.

To review J Dilla’s body of work five years after his death means to reach an odd conclusion: His musical output hasn’t stopped. Besides the host of tribute and compilation albums, his estate continues to release original material. So, what’s made his shadow so prodigious and far-reaching?

When the rest of the music world was “quantizing” or perfecting beats, bestowing vocal tracks with inhuman precision, and, in general, producing every last tone to the nth degree, Dilla forced us to remember what was incalculable about music. With all of his vocal cuts, fuzzy synthesizers and messy beats, he still somehow made us feel music was, first and foremost, human. It didn’t matter if he was sampling 1950s commercials from electronic pioneer Raymond Scott, lifting from Frank Zappa’s “Dance Contest” or chopping up James Brown — it all sounded soulful. And if it didn’t, he could remember what album contained the particular handclap needed to make it so.

What we discover through his work is that precision does not always equal clarity in music. The straight line is sometimes not the most direct path for a song. Dilla kept things loose, outside the boundaries, off-beat even. Listen to the namesake of one his tracks — “Thelonious” — and you hear it there, too, in the timing. You don’t know where you’re going, but you feel better when you get there. Chopping and flipping samples, making beats to the very end, J Dilla knew the importance of “Workinonit” while you have the time.

When an artist like J Dilla changes the way music is made, a good way to measure that tidal shift is to solicit people he influenced. Click to page 2 to read how various musicians weighed in on Dilla’s passing.

DJ Pete Mariott: “Dilla is a more of a muse for me to continue my lifelong path of making my music my way, with my own sound and style. Dilla was truly one of us in the sense of being so in love with the music and so obsessed with the craftsmanship of the art that he pushed the clock forward every time he made his music. He not only future-proofed his music, but he injected his personality and emotions into the beat he was creating at that moment. The message I get every time I listen to Dilla’s work is to stay true to my own soul and what I believe in musically.”

Charlie Parker Mertens (Impromptu, Big Wheel, Future Jazz Project): “To me, J Dilla’s music production completely embraced and exploited the most basic element of being human — imperfection. But he knew perfectly well what he was doing, and through that he helped create many new options for producing and conceptualizing music.”

Mike Wird (Denver Avengerz, Babah Wird): “J Dilla’s music is so influential because of his innovation in drum sounds that he created. He also followed tradition in the fact that he did sample records on a MPC, he was a master at sound frequencies, very refined in that aspect. He was one of the few people behind the so-called East Coast ‘boombap.’ I was put in a trance at a Slum Village show at the Fox in 2005, and J Dilla made the beats that put me in that trance. That’s impact.”

Tyler Gilmore (leader, Ninth + Lincoln Jazz Orchestra, winner of ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award 2008, 2009, 2010): “Whereas pre-Dilla we had the 16th note grid that outlined just about all the rhythmic complexity one could come up with, Dilla threw that out the window and explored the space between those 16th notes. By putting the snare a bit behind the beat, or the high hat just before it, he introduced a new dimension to the concept of groove. His loops sound more alive than just about anyone’s and, at the same time, his sound comes from sampler wizardry, not from actual players. It seems to me to be one of the first times that a new way of thinking about groove comes from sequencing, not from performers. That said, a lot of performers are now trying to learn how to do it. The music feels like he spent hours rhythmically nudging every element of the drums and bass. It’s what makes those beats feel so quirky. Dilla was working out some deep stuff with his tunes, and you can hear it in his harmonies, beats and bass lines.”

Molina (performer and recording artist): “From love songs to conscious music to gritty street joints, Dilla’s production credits read like a soundtrack to the lives of countless unsuspecting music listeners. We say he died before his time but he accomplished a lifetime of love work in his 32 years.”

Dameion Hines (DJ CheckOne, Big Wheel): “As a drummer, there are so many different wavelengths to occupy. The ‘80s consolidated that, put everything on a grid. And Dilla blew that all up.”

Desiree Ross (co-host Soulstice Radio, promoter Sony Music): “J Dilla’s music was so influential because he had a way of making you see the beauty in off beats, bass lines, drums and rhymes. His work ethic alone has helped bring a lot of hip-hop’s influential groups and artists together in a way never seen before. He was loyal to where he came from, made no qualms about it and had a special way of digging crates, finding obscure samples, flipping them and making hip-hop perfection out of them. J Dilla changed my life when I heard “Climax (Girl Sh*t!) for the first time in the summer of 2000; the way that beat kicked in, the way Slum Village rhymed over that beat, it was like they found this way to make love to me with the music; something I had never felt before and have rarely felt since. we keep him alive every time we pay homage to his musical legacy. I salute James “J Dilla” Yancey, may he rest in beats!”

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Denver-based writer Sam DeLeo is a published poet, has seen two of his plays produced and is currently finishing his second novel.