John “Illa J” Yancey is his own man. And that’s easier said than done when your older brother is the late J. Dilla, one of the most celebrated producers in hip hop. After his brother’s death in 2006, the Detroit native, 22, relocated to Los Angeles and decided to pick up where Dilla left off—he built a studio and began making music. Paying homage to their fraternal bond, Illa says Yancey Boys (Delicious Vinyl Records)—which dropped November 4 with all unreleased beats by J. Dilla—is his way of continuing his brother’s legacy, while carving out his own at the same time. Yancey Boys features Detroit wordsmith Guilty Simpson and funnyman Affion Crockett and is Illa’s proclamation to the hip hop community that he’s here to stay. VIBE.com spoke with Illa J back in August and he said his music is about two things: Family and fun.
VIBE: What was it like working with Guilty Simpson on “R U Listening?” He worked with your brother in the past, what was the vibe in the studio?
Illa J: He and Affion actually did their verses the same day. That weekend Guilty just happened to be in town and as far as Affion I talked to him earlier that week. From time to time we do joints in the studio. By that time, I had recorded “We Here” and I wanted him to come by the studio and hear this new joint I just made. Guilty, I saw him up at the Knitting Factory and we had hung out and pretty much he wrote his verse the next morning in the studio at the crib right before his flight back to the D. He came in and knocked it out in like 10 minutes. Affion came in later that day, probably like an hour or two later, and I was just playing him the joints and was like, “Check this joint out.” I just had two verses on “Don’t Fight the Feeling,” and I’m just playin’ it for him and when the beat fades I’m talking to my girl like, “Maybe I should just put Affion on this joint. I think his voice would be dope on it.” I asked if he wanted to do a verse on that joint and he was like, "Fasho."
What’s the funniest thing that happened while you and Affion were in the studio?
When Affion did the skit right before “Don’t Fight the Feeling.” He got like a Shakespeare act he do or something and he was trying to talk to a girl or whatever. That’s just the edited version [on the album], but he did like 10 different takes of just random stuff. We were in the studio rollin’ the whole time he was in the booth. That was definitely the funniest part.
When you went in to the making of “We Here”—having all these tracks produced by your brother—what was that like?
Well actually what’s crazy, my brother had made so many tracks for Mike Rock back in the day for Delicious Vinyl. When we started doing the album I picked about 12 to 16 tracks and going into this song I had recorded five songs already. What’s crazy is I didn’t even pick this beat. I was listening to all the tracks and must have missed it on the CD by mistake. My girl ended up making a CD of all the tracks she liked out of Jay’s beats and I listened to her play list and I was like, "Whoa! How did I miss that? Oh shit." She was saying, “Maybe you should use it for another album because everything [on Yancey Boys] is more organic.” I was like, "No I’m bout to use that for this album."
“We Here” ended up being the first single—was there a certain message you were trying to convey?
The next day I’m taking a walk and the first thing I listened to was Ruff Drafts, and that was the first time I truly understood why my brother made it. You can have a hoopty or even if you’re not ballin’ you almost feel like you’re ballin’ when you listen to that album and that’s what I wanted to do with “We Here.” Even if they don’t have the chain and all that, it’s just about making people feel good. I wrote it so anybody who listens to it feels like they ballin’ too. I know you here the Purple Rain reference in there too, I was actually listening to that right after Ruff Drafts and was like I gotta go all out on this one. In a sense that I ain’t got no more time, this is my last day type shit. That’s why I put that in there, it inspired me. I’m inspired by melody a lot. At the end of the day my brother was a producer, but me, I’m a songwriter.
del.icio.us
digg
Furl
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Comments
1.
Lucifer2009 says:
view profile
I think dating online is really nice. My friend recommended me a very interesting and HOT place ***INTERRACIALLOVING.COM*** where many fans are together, also I've meet kinds of black and white singles who are hunger for true love online.
November 30, 2008 at 11:17 pm