Dad Is This Dilla?

Since my son was born four years ago, I’ve played him music. When we first brought him home from the hospital, I sat him in his carrier and played Curtis Mayfield and Donnie Hathaway for him. As he’s grown, he has been listening to everything I do. From the everyday FleaMarketFunk content to Blue Note jazz, psych rock and beyond. When we drive in the car, I try to mix it up for him all the time. He tells me exactly what he likes and what he doesn’t like. When I first started playing Dilla instrumentals for him last year, he kept asking who it was. I would say Dilla or Jay Dee. Then I started playing the House Shoes King James Version mix as well that contained all original samples. He said he liked it. A friend passed me a mix almost ten years ago labeled Proper Dilla Shit that was in with a bunch of CDs and after we moved to Jersey City, I put it in the car. My son fell in love with it. He loved all the samples, the scratching, and especially got excited when it would say “Dilla Dilla!” or his signature Mantronix horn sample would ring out. From then on, he was always asking: Dad, is this Dilla?” when it played. Now it’s all he wants to listen to in the car.

He loved all the samples, the scratching, and especially got excited when it would say “Dilla Dilla!” or his signature Mantronix horn sample would ring out.

Dilla. Five letters that represent one of the greatest producers of our lifetime. I’m not a Dilla expert, merely a fan of his work. So since my son is obsessed with some of his music, I decided to do an all live, improptu, off the cuff mix of original Dilla tracks, Dilla produced tracks, artist tribute tracks, posthumous songs, and original samples the talented producer chopped and flipped. This is in no way a retrospective or an all encompassing mix, just an idea I had inspired by my four year old’s reaction to the music. On a side note, we don’t listen to the rap songs (with curses), mostly the instrumentals, as he really gets excited at what he hears. I tried to include as many of them as I could. The others are some I really dig and also spin out at gigs. Dilla has touched so many people, I thought that the way he got through to my youngest was really special. He was coming in and out of the studio while I was recording it and gave the double thumbs up, so that’s cool. I hope you dig it, and if you do, feel free to pass it on.

Dad Is This Dilla? Track List:

J Dilla – Love Jones
Flying Lotus – Fall In Love (Dilla Tribute)
J Dilla – 1 For The Treble 2 For The Bass
J Dilla – Take Notice
Dionne Warwick – You’re Gonna Need Me
J Dilla – Stop
Madlib – The Mystery (Dilla’s Still Here)
Stereolab – Come and Play In The Milky Night
Busta Rhymes – Show Me What You Got
J Dilla- Body Movin’
J Dilla – Coming Home
Illa J & Cue D – See That Boy Fly
Dilla – Airworks
Common & D’Angelo – So Far To Go
DOOM – Firewood Drum Stix
Mobb Deep & Havoc – 24K Rap
Daryl Reeves – Donut Man
Dilla – Time; The Donut of The Heart
Dilla – Brazillian Groove
Phife feat. No Name – Four Horseman
The Impressions – We Must Be In Love
Pharoah Monch – Love
Brother Jack McDuff – Oblighetto (Jay Dee Remix)
Jaylib – The Jam
Mos Def feat. Talib Kweli – History (Instrumental)