Posts tagged Dilla
The day after he recorded “Think Twice,” for Welcome to Detroit, I look at the drum set, and I was like, “Wait, you recorded that on this?” And it was the most dingiest, dirtiest, not even second-hand. [It] looked like the Fat Albert junkyard gang drum set. Screws were missing; some of the heads were broken. Matter of fact, he didn’t even use real drumsticks on “Think Twice.” He used a vibraphone mallet, and he had a broken drumstick that he got some toilet paper from the bathroom, and some rubber bands. I was like, “You would rather go through this MacGuyver shit than buy new drumsticks?” He’s like, “I didn’t know where to get ’em this late at night; I had to make due.” I was like, “Well, why did you hit the drums with the mallet?” He was like, “I didn’t want the dynamic to be too aggressive. I wanted to sound muted, so I decided to play the drums with the soft cotton mallet.” It looked like putting a marshmallow at the end of a toothpick [Laughs]. Next thing I know, I’m now flying to Philadelphia—I think the next week, [to work on] The Roots’ Phrenology record [and] I tracked both “Quills” and “Pussy Galore” the same way. I went and got some orchestra mallets, and then I too started, just ’cause I seen how he got that sound.
?uestlove, on J. Dilla, February 2012.
One more gin: This is personally my favorite Dilla story!
When did you first meet J Dilla?
1995. He was just quiet and I only knew him through the Pharcyde. They played me a demo for “Drop” but I couldn’t hear it because the headphones were messed up and we were at a show. But, Once I was walking towards the tour bus, I heard these kicks. The rhythm was offbeat like the record was skipping. I just didn’t know that you could program drums real messed up and your client not get mad at you. So, I ran back to the club, and I was listening to the song like “what the f*ck.” The next night, I was asking them who did the song and they said it was Jay Dee from Detroit. Me and him met for the first time in Virginia. I have a documented footage of me and him. Out of boredom, I decided to challenge him. So, we played the “Blind Olympics.” Proof (of D-12) chose three records for me, Frank from Frank’n’ Dank chose three records for Dilla. He killed me.
What did y’all do with the records? Sample them?
Oh, we had five minutes to make a beat blind, without knowing the records. At first, I cried foul because both Frank and Proof were Dilla’s friends. So, I chose the records for him. I made sure I chose records with no drums, no loops, nothing. I gave him Rick James’ “Street Songs.” He was like “you sure about this,” and he did something that I would never forget. He took the intro to “Give it To Me Baby,” slowed it down to an impossible rate, rearranged the bassline. I wanted to cry that day. The next day, Common heard it and liked it, and it wound up being “Doin’ It” on Common’s album.
Excerpt from a 2006 interview, as told to Henry Adaso, About.com.
