WEBVTT - For Dilla 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:05.240 You're listening to Waiting on reparations production of my heart 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:13.160 radio check it. Yo, every time I think of Dila, 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:15.440 make me think of my pops. So I'm sitting here 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:17.960 with the slicker. Take a sip of the scotch. Yeah, 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.640 it always kind of things. Never see since of stops. 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:22.959 So I'm clutching both of the legacies. Don't think I 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:26.400 forgot now. These politicians want to kill your welfare check. 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.479 The cops come, you get killed on the welfare check? 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.720 Kind of tied? Do I really need some healthcare? Yes? 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:35.920 Fucking whack. I'm sitting right in healthy is stress. What's 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:38.000 the trend? I got my own ship dog. I've always 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.519 been the Loana dealers and the my Condolas with a 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:43.600 pendless and the donuts with a bird. And I'm cracking jokes, 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:47.080 punch lines, packing dope. I trined Jack and Coke, becausing 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:49.520 like a mac and Roth. Even though I'm stone, still 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.480 controlling the flow, best rapping that you know that nobody knows. 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:57.640 Don't play with me unsavory, especially when I don't get 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:11.600 my reparations for that one slavery dope, dope, dope, dope, Hey, 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:16.120 what's up? What's up this is dope, knife franca and 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:22.360 we are waiting on recretion. So how you doing? Could ask? 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:27.720 I'm good, tired, you know, long commission meeting. Life, Life 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:31.080 is just long snow running. What was the commission meeting 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.080 about tonight? Oh? You know, just a horrible housing stuff? 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:39.080 Um um, there's something like big that you're working on 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:41.080 right now, isn't there. Yeah, I mean I've been working 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.800 on the negotiations with these developers to try to get 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.760 some horrible housing in this gigantic complex that they have 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:50.440 proposed for my district, and so trying to use the 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:54.200 opportunity's leverage to get stuff for working folks. And it passed. 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.360 It passed this evening, So it's gonna be sixty six 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:01.880 apartments were just like working class people at minimum potentially 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.640 dred twenty if the local government decides to like shell 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:08.760 in a little bit, which, like, you know, do you 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:11.240 think they will? Yeah? I think so. I mean it's 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.720 pending like a community approval. Do we have these advisory 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:18.440 boards that are signed off on use of these special funds? 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:20.920 And so I think people will be like hell, yeah, 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:26.480 I mean more places for like working class people to live. Sure, 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:29.839 you know, let's do it. So it should be. I mean, 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:32.240 like it's just funny because like working within the system 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.880 just sucks so bad that like when you even when 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:40.840 you win, it just feels growth. Like I would prefer 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:43.600 it would so much prefer to just like seize all 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.760 the people as homes and put people in them like 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:52.040 like a dictator, you know, and just like, uh, we 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.520 gotta just work within the capitalism, so and think what 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.440 I gotta do, But yeah, what you gotta going. I'm 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:03.040 in the or racking process of putting out music independently, 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.600 so I feel like I'm about to have a panic attack. 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:11.880 Yeah again, shameless promotion. I'm dropping a new song tomorrow 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:14.440 because you guys listened to this on Thursday, right, Yeah, 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.560 so I'm dropping a new song tomorrow. It's tedious, you know, 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:22.760 write my own press releases and sending out dozens and 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.520 dozens of emails and ship and you know, it's it's 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:28.200 one of those things you got you gotta go through, 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:30.720 but it's all worth it in the end, after you 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:34.040 put the music out. I did stumble across this article 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:35.880 that I did want to run past you, even though 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.480 it's not about what we're talking about today, Because today 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:45.280 we are talking about legendary hip hop producer J Dilla. Yeah, 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:49.200 J Dilla's anniversary or it was a fifteen the anniversary 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:56.240 of Donuts on Sunday? Um, and was it? Yeah? No, 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:58.960 I'm confused. Okay, it was a few days ago, a 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:03.880 couple of days ago. Yeah, everybody was posting their diala stuff. 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.640 You know, I get confused. I get I'm confused because 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:12.760 Sunday was the fifteenth anniversary of Donuts. Sunday was also 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:16.560 my mom's birthday. It's not going to maxed up because 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:20.840 Dila's birthday, No, that it is correct. Yeah, so my 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:24.440 mom and Jay Dilla have the same birthday. Yeah, they 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.000 have the same birthday. And they also you know, suffered 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.680 from the same chronic illness lupus, and so like, you know, 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.440 this was like, Paul, I'm seeing a lot of people's 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.440 reflections on Ja Della this week. I was like, und 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:39.880 touch because they have a similar struggle, similar birthday, the 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.279 exact same birthday, and so I was excited to talk 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.640 about him as we both his musical legacy and like 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:52.680 some of his struggles. For the listeners who don't know, um, Donuts, 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:57.239 when we say that Donuts is like the seminal last 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:02.360 album of Jay Dilla, So we're gonna be delving into that, 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:04.920 some of j Delah's life, some of his music, and 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:11.440 also you know, talking about how his struggles with America's 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:16.480 health care system relate to what's going on today, right, yeah, 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:20.560 still are still impacting his family, despite you know, that's 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.520 fifteen years ago. So well, before we get into that, 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:26.120 I wanted to tell you about this article that I 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.680 just just read, right, So it's um, it's about that 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.000 movie Judas and the Black Messiah. Have you heard of it, 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:36.560 the one the Fred Hampton one. I heard, you know, 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:39.920 they stripped Fred Hampton's politics out of the film. That's 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:42.640 what I was just about to mention. I didn't see it, though, 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:47.520 so I read an article about how No Name didn't 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:51.159 want to be on the soundtrack because of that that 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:53.680 very issue. I wanted to know what your thoughts were 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:57.760 about that, because that's great, I mean, at the same time, 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:00.920 it's sort of like fucked up that folks. Bred Hampton 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:05.320 would have definitely hated or on the soundtrack instead, like 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.920 it would have been lit if like you know, he's 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.160 like all right, you know, like let's say they brought 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:12.640 him back from the dead. They're like, all right, we're 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.400 gonna make a movie about you. He's like okay, and 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:18.720 but but we're not gonna put your politics in it. Well, 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.400 we're gonna have like a modern day black revolutionary and 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:25.960 like communist beyond the soundtrack, it might be like, oh okay, 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.280 you know, like cut of down, but that it's like, 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:31.960 we're gonna take your politics out of the film, and 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.200 we're gonna have a bunch of like black capitalist neo 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:39.560 liberals like on the soundtrack, Like that's just a couple 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:43.640 of sorts in the back. Oh No, I think it's 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.560 a bit overblown. I mean, there's there's nothing that I've 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:53.760 seen in any of the previews or any clips or 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:55.839 even just like the title of the movie, there's nothing 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.440 I've seen that suggests that this was supposed to be 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.520 about Fred Hampton. I mean, it seems like it's about 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.440 the informant guy. It seems like it's about a whole 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:08.320 other dude. I mean, the movie is called Judas and 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:12.440 the Black Messiah, not the life and philosophy of Fred Hampton. 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:14.440 I don't know. It seems like he's a character in it, 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:18.560 but not the main character. So I don't know to 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:22.600 frame it like they stripped him of his politics in 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:26.080 the movie when that's not even necessarily the point of 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:27.960 the movie. Althought. You know, I haven't seen it, so 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.040 I gotta wait till I see it first. Yeah, I 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.440 don't think that's what it's about. And perhaps we'll talk 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:37.960 about it talk next week or something. Right, do you 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:40.640 remember that movie with Brad Pitt, the assassination of Jesse 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:44.960 James by the coward Robert Ford. I mean, yeah, vaal, yeah, 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:47.480 it's like, if you're with you hear the title of 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:49.560 the movie, it's got like another dude's name of the 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.720 title in the movies about him. So somebody went and 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.440 saw it and they're like, man, this is fucked up. 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:58.600 How this movie wasn't about Jesse James. Like, yo, it's 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:01.560 not about Jesse James. I don't know, Like this is 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:06.800 like in the film, like it looks like and somehow 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:09.680 it doesn't only get into at all, like the shitty 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:14.160 is about It's not unprecedented. There was a movie with 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:19.080 Don Cheetle playing Miles Davis that it wasn't a biopic 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:23.960 at all. It's like a private investigator detective thriller with 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:26.160 Miles Davis in it. I mean, it all depends on 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:28.760 the way the movies made. If they're trying to make 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:33.840 Malcolm X style of movie but they stripped fred Hampton 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:37.640 involves politics, then yeah that's fishy. But it seems like 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.360 they're trying to make Deep Cover but set in the 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:43.600 backdrop of what fred Hampton was doing. So I don't 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.960 I don't know, I don't know. Yeah, so many questions. 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:50.400 I guess I gotta see the film. Yeah, yeah, does 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.600 look it does look cool though, like and she did 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:56.920 give it props. I'm saying that the cinematography is also 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.760 acting is dope. So you know what I'm saying. Yeah, 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:01.480 Well took that out next week and weren talk to 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:03.560 something about it. All right, We're gonna get into this 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:18.400 J dillas stuff after the job. Sunday mark the fifteenth 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:24.520 anniversary of Jay Diller's second studio album, an inaugural masterpiece, Donuts. 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:28.040 It was released on his thirty second birthday, three days 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:30.840 before his death after years long struggle with blood disease 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:33.920 and lupus. So this week we're going to look back 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:36.680 on the iconic album and its impact on hip hop 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.840 culture and discuss J dilla's medical struggles leading up to 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.280 his premature death. What they tell us about the health 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:44.640 care system in the United States, And that's the thing 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.559 I mentioned a little bit um like at the top. 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.600 You know, Sunday is also my mom's birthday. She is 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:53.400 recovering from having COVID, which was a terrifying or deal 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.079 for our family because she also suffers like from lupa's 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:59.680 like Jay Diller did, and complications to los it from 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:03.280 u comprelations of lupus have caused have severe long problem. 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.000 She's like on a breathing machine most of the time. 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:09.760 So we we're fucking like that. We're all like, oh, shoot, 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.600 mom is dead. I mean she's she's like better, but 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:18.680 like the remains to be seen the the long the 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:21.240 long lasting impacts of her having had COVID until well 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:23.720 see what happens with it. But I'm glad she's doing okay. 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.480 But the coincidence of their shared birthday and their struggle 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.199 and what health care access means for people like her 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.400 and you know, people in the United States and people 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.680 within the hip hop culture make this episode a special 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:38.920 one for me personally. It's so very excited to talk 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:43.920 about it. Yeah, J Dilla's death kind of hits close 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.280 to home too. When he around when he died is 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:51.120 around when my father started getting sick. So my dad 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.120 passed away two years after Dillah did. And I just 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:58.520 have this real vivid memory of me and a bunch 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:01.559 of my you know, hip hop rapped friends, and we 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:04.440 were watching something. It was like a live show. I 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.520 want to say. I want to say it was like 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.080 rock the Bells or something like that, but I don't 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.480 want to say the wrong thing, so I'll strike that. 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:14.800 But we were watching some tape of like a live 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:18.840 performance and Dila came out at the end. It might 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:20.800 have been like Slum Village playing or something like that, 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:22.600 but Dila came out at the end to do like 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:26.199 a you know, surprise versus. The crowd went crazy and everything. 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:29.800 And it was around when I first started getting into Dila, 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:32.680 So I didn't even really know what Dila looked like 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:34.679 like that. I just knew him for like, you know, 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.920 as credits on a on an album liner in the beats. 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.319 So I saw him and I'm like, oh, it's dope. 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.440 And all of my friends were like shocked because they're like, man, 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:48.120 he looks really skinny, you know, And I just I'll 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:50.680 never forget, like how like all shocked they were to 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:53.600 see him looking different than they, you know, had seen 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:55.840 him before. And then it was like shortly after that 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.280 I had went home after not being there for a while, 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:01.200 when my dad's already getting sick, and when I saw 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:03.520 my dad again, he was in the same sort of 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:06.240 skinny state because he he was like a really big, 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:08.960 you know, big guy, and I saw him and he 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.280 was he was small, and and just that that connection 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.640 of like jay Dilla passing and how sad that made everybody, 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:21.640 and then me discovering his music a bit later and 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.480 not really getting the chance to really like dig into 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.240 it while it was happening in the correlation with like 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:30.800 my dad when he started getting sick. That's just that's 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:32.319 just oh way, It's hard for me to even hear 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.680 Dillah without thinking about my father instantly. So this episode 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:41.079 definitely hits close to home too. Oh man, are we am? 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:47.800 I gonna cry? Are you gonna cry? We're gonna be okay, 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.520 But let's go ahead and get into the album right 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:56.680 um so. On Metacritic, Donuts received universal acclaim from critics, 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.040 based on an aggregate score of eighty four out of 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:03.840 our hundred from game reviews. Pitchfork put the album at 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.480 number thirty eight on their list of top fifty albums 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.280 with two six and number sixty six on their list 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:15.400 of top two hundred albums. From the two thousand's Rolling 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:19.720 Stone write the album six out of their greatest albums 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.600 of all time now. Structurally Donuts is a thirty one 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:26.840 track instrumental hip hop album. The only lyrics are the 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:29.960 short phrases and samples that are snagged from other records. 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.880 Most of the songs are quite short um as far 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:35.360 as like. The length goes about a minute minute and 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:37.920 a half for each one, and they vary in style 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:41.440 and tone. The album's original press release compared its sound 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:46.880 to scanning radio stations for in an unfamiliar city. The 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:50.000 track order is also kind of unusual, so the album 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:52.720 begins with an outro and then ends with the intro, 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.040 and then the ending of the final track flows right 0:13:56.120 --> 0:14:00.880 into the beginning of the first one, forming Some might say, uh, 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:05.760 the circular shape of a doughnuts infinite loop if you 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:11.120 would yo when that ship came out. I mean I 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:15.360 have wrapped over those beats so many times because we 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:18.120 just used to have that on like an infinite loop. 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:20.520 And just like you know, just get a little quick 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:23.640 little sessions in all the time, Like whenever before we 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:26.320 would go out, heads would spin it, you know, caps 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:28.880 would be smoking and freestyle and over that ship. And 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:32.680 then eventually once like the hip hop Nights and stuff 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:35.960 all over the country started getting that into their rotation. 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.360 When dudes would go cipher, you know, they would always 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:41.640 be spinning Doughnuts stuff. So I feel like I've wrapped 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.360 like four albums over those beats at this point. I 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:47.320 will always think like Doughnuts is well always when we 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:51.480 think of like sneaking and watching like Adult Swim as 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.360 like a child, Like I was pretty young in like 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:57.760 two thousand six or whatever. Yeah, I guess it wasn't 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:04.479 like a child per se, but like were you in six, um, 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:10.240 I was fifty fifteen and two done? Yeah, But like 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:13.480 so like watching like Adult Swim late at night and 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:16.480 like just like them, like the kind of hip hop 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:20.080 like they would play. It's like the bumper music during 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:23.680 like the Adult Swim programming block. Like I didn't learn 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:28.160 until later that they had a partnership with Stone Star Records, UM, 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:32.680 and like actually like collaborated on having a lot of 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:36.240 Stone Stow artists like make the music for like that 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:40.200 time of night on Cartoon Network, but like like waking 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:42.560 up like bleary eyed in the night and what is 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:44.840 like you know this sounds cool, but then like kind 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:48.920 of just having this ambiance in the background of of 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.680 ship of like ship like Jay Della, and it wasn't 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.720 until like an adult and it's this is true of 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:56.440 me with a lot of well, I feel like I'm 0:15:56.480 --> 0:16:00.800 a latecomer to a lot of like of hip hop 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:02.640 up his era, just because like I was like a 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:05.960 weird age to like access it when it came out, 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:13.760 um like as an adult like sort of purposefully, like 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:15.880 in the way that like you go to like a 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:20.440 dojo and like learn all of the fucking moves from 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.720 the sense like going back through the discographies of artists 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:27.040 like Della to like learn about you are, like our 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:32.240 history as a people, to gain like a like a 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:37.920 conscious sense of what like this music means and is, 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:43.480 um And so I'm just like deeply appreciative now. Whereas 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:47.000 as a younger person, um he like I kind of 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.960 remember like having it on in the background or like 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:52.200 hearing snippets here and there and were like let's nope, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.840 I don't have to come back to that. I'm gonna 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.680 have to cycle back to that one. And just to 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:01.360 give some of our listeners who aren't familiar with J 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.199 Dilla a little bit more context, Just to give you 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:06.960 a sense of some of the artists that J. Dillah 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:09.680 has worked on. I'll try to say something that are 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.919 pretty popular. We've got a tribe called Quests Far Side. 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:17.919 He's made Beats for Day Last, soul Buster Rhymes, Keith Murray, 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:24.000 Um Mad Skills. He's known for working heavily with Slum Village, 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.040 which has els I in it and els Eyes. One 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:31.960 of the greatest um he's worked at. Janet Jackson, Ericapat 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:36.320 do Q, Tipped the Roots. The list goes on. Dealer 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:38.760 realized there was something not quite right with his health 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:42.240 back in early two thousand two, fresh home from Europe 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.159 but sick to the stomach. When feverish, he thought he 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:47.479 might have a bad flu, but his mother took him 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:50.520 to an emergency room in suburban Gross Point, Michigan, and 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:52.480 his blood plate lit AC count should have been above 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.199 one fifty, but it was below ten. Doctors told his 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.080 mother they were surprised he was still walking around, and 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:04.640 so J d was diagnosed with drombotic romocytopenic purpora tt 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:08.159 P and incurable disease of the blood that results in 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.800 low plately count, low red blood cell count, and often kidney, 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:14.600 heart and brain. This function this is what it was 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.600 also battling lupus, but she had been diagnosed with the 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:21.840 previous year. J Dill's illness and medication caused dramatic weight 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:25.760 loss in two thousand three onwards, forcing him to publicly 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.080 confirm speculation about his health. In two thousand four, two 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:34.320 five Data underwent treatment at Cedars Sinai Medical Centator for 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.520 complications brought on by a c TTP and lupus. Put 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.520 tracks from donuts recorded in the hospital during this time 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.879 using a Boss SP three or three sampler and a 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:47.639 small forty five record player that his friends by him. 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:51.960 That's fucking amazing, Yeah, because like I can't even like 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.840 it's so easy for me to get taken out of 0:18:54.920 --> 0:19:00.480 my artistic zone, you know, I know, like, oh my 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:06.600 could be mood not today, Like I could be like 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:10.240 typing some ship, you know, and like type like four 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:12.720 lines and then forget to save it and those lines 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:14.399 go away. It's like, oh yeah, I wasn't supposed to 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:15.960 write today, I'm just gonna drop this, you know what 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:17.680 I mean. I can get in a bad mood and 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:22.040 not feel like being creative, So that's I mean, I'm 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.120 not even sure if that's dedication. That sounds like it's 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:26.840 just like a natural extension of his body, you know 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:29.160 what I mean. It's like, Yo, I'm in the hospital, son, 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:32.159 break my MPC. I mean, I wonder if like a 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.640 sense of his own mortality pushed him to like bring 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:38.440 the most you know, artistry he could out of what 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:40.520 must have known We're going to be some of his 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:45.480 last days. Yeah, I wonder. Yeah. So. Jay Diller's mother, 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:49.679 Maureen Yancy, herself a former opera singer, spoke of watching 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:52.840 her son's daily routine during the creation of Donuts and Two. 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:55.240 In a two thousand and six issue of Fader. She 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.840 recounts him being in the hospital trying to go over 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:00.399 each beat and make sure that it was something different, 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:02.800 make sure that there was nothing he wanted to change. 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:05.880 She said, I got a glimpse of the music during 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:08.040 one of the one of the hospital stays around his 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.600 thirty first birthday, when friend and producer House Shoes came 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:14.600 out from Detroit to visit him. She told The Fader, 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:16.960 I would sneak in and listen to the work in 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:20.040 progress while he was in dialysis. He got furious when 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:22.280 he found out I was listening to his music. He 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:24.400 didn't want me to listen to anything until it wasn't 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:30.040 finished product. I know that feeling. Throughout the Throughout the year, 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.159 his medical condition worsened. His legs started to swell up, 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:35.440 making it difficult for him to walk, so at times 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:37.000 he'd wake up his mother in the middle of the 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:38.840 night and ask her to move him from his bed 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.639 to his instruments. At times, his hands swelled up so 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:45.200 much he could barely move them. As well, his mother 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:48.040 would massage them smooth the pain so he can continue 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:51.479 working on his album. According to Kelly el Carter at 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:54.240 Detroit of the Detroit Free Press, J Dilla told his 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:56.800 doctor he was proud of the work and that all 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:59.119 he wanted to do was finish that album. And he 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:03.920 did finish it um three days before he died of 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:08.240 cardiac ars and his death dealt a heavy blow to 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:13.560 the hip hop community, especially Detroit's hip hop community. But sadly, 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:18.399 you know, though, I remember I think his mother was 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:20.960 quoted as saying she was so glad that he wasn't 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:25.320 suffering any more the troubles in there for Della's family, unfortunately. 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.480 In an interview with The l A Weekly, Arthur Urk, 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:32.760 the executor at Dilla's estate, described how difficult it was 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:36.280 for the estate to protect his legacy due to bootlegs 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:40.440 and unofficial mix tapes. Dilah's just kind of gave out 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.280 CDs of his works to rappers to wrap over them 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:45.680 and stuff like that. And that's actually like like a 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:50.720 known story, like Dillo would make these Dila beat tapes, 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:54.119 and I mean, if you if you watch certain interviews 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:58.000 with certain rappers, like everybody had a fucking dilabeat tape. 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:00.040 And I think they were like all different too, but 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:02.159 just everybody had these beats and they were just like 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:04.600 I'm not even necessarily sure if they would pass him around, 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:06.720 because I'm pretty sure they would respect like the craft. 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:09.159 But there was just a lot of them around there 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:11.840 because Dillah was so prolific and he worked with so 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.000 many heads that there were so many of these beat 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:16.800 tapes around. Yeah, so his beats were just kind of everywhere, 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:18.400 and it was hard to get money out of people 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:21.360 for their use or expressed the importance for the estate 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:24.400 to gather all possible income related to Dala's name. Since 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:27.520 between the taxes, video, the i R s, and being 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:30.639 uninsured in the hospital, dealer racked up six figures in 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:33.119 depths toward the end of his life. And I mean, 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:35.560 this isn't surprising really, given that the United States has 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:39.480 the highest overall healthcare costs in the developed world. As 0:22:39.480 --> 0:22:42.200 an example, one year is of one year of Dela's 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:46.879 dialysis probably costs between fifty three or seventy thousand dollars, 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:48.560 and that was just from one part of this treatment. 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:50.440 Imagine how much it must have cost for him to 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:53.720 be in the hospital for months and months at a time. 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:57.240 About a hundred and thirty seven million Americans struggle with 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:00.280 medical debt. In two thousand nineteen, to study down that 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:03.719 sixty six point five percent of all personal bankruptcies are 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:06.200 tied to medical issues. About a third of the money 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:10.760