“Celebrating Detroit’s Legacy in Music Engineering”

Once in a while you’ll see someone around campus wearing a shirt that says “J Dilla Changed My Life.” That person is paying tribute to one of the most well-liked and talented music producers in hip-hop history. You’ll see them around here more than other college campuses because J Dilla was born and raised in Detroit. He grew up in and around the underground hip-hop scene, working with a number of different local artists. He gained a significant amount of his notoriety as a member of Detroit’s Slum Village, a group that, despite its top quality production and lyricism, never gained equal fame as other local collections like The Roots. Unfortunately, J Dilla passed away at the early age of 32. He was struggling with illness for the last few years of his life, but managed to continue producing music almost immediately up to the day of his death.

J Dilla was a producer, not a rapper. A producer is a musical artist who creates the beat or instrumental over which rappers or singers perform. Producing is also referred to as “sound engineering,” because often times the noises are technologically altered with all sorts of equipment. There are a wide multitude of programs and software that artists use to cultivate these sounds, and they are growing ever more popular. Moreover, being acknowledged for music producing is a relatively new concept, and today producers of famous hip-hop and pop songs are getting almost as much recognition as the singers or rappers. For instance, everyone knows that Hit-Boy produced the instrumental for Kendrick’s “Backseat Freestyle,” but did you know that it was actually J Dilla who produced Common’s “The Light” so many years ago?

To commemorate the long history of sound engineering in Detroit, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History will host an event next Friday, February 7^th called “Nothing Like This.” The title, the name of a J Dilla track, encapsulates Detroit’s longstanding contributions to the evolution of popular music in America. The event will include Panel Discussions showcasing some of Detroit’s prominent music engineers, workshops for participants to learn about music production, DJ’ing and graffiti, as well as an Open Mic Competition for local artists. The event promises to be a complete blend of educational opportunities, hands-on experiences and a chance to support other Detroit area poets, rappers and DJ’s. All of this will happen from 3pm-7pm at the museum. Check out the flyer here:

Also, check out this incredible mix of J Dilla beats. Some of them are matched with vocals as they were originally, and some have been mixed in with other a cappella tracks. But all of the smooth and rhythmic beats are Jay Dee’s.

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