(takes deep breath)
I have ALWAYS been a “backpacker/hip hop head” since I can remember. I was introduced to hip hop through GangStarr’s “Manifest” because I was an adamant jazz student up until high school. When I heard the bass line from “A Night In Tunisia” sampled with those PRIMO drums, it was over for me. But then I went through the “I have to fit in” phase like every other kid and I got away from my pure “backpacker” roots. Now, that wasn’t a bad thing because it helped to diversify my taste, but, needless to say, there were some BAD songs I had NO business listening to as a kid (most of 2 Live Crew’s album comes to mind). But as I entered college I found a new love. My friend Roderick Prince bought an album called “LabCabinCalifornia” that we vibed out to one day at his house as freshmen at the University of Alabama. I fell in LOVE. It was EVERYTHING I had EVER wanted to hear in music. Granted, I had been introduced to A Tribe Called Quest’s “The Low End Theory” and “Midnight Marauders,” but this LABCABINCALIFORNIA had THAT sound. It was warm. It had chords. The drums were pleasantly off-kilter. I couldn’t explain it, but whatever IT was, IT drove me CRAZY. That album formed the foundations of my initial beat making efforts. Little did I know that I was supposed to SAMPLE all of the sounds. I’m from Alabama. There were NO sampling producers (other than Kenny Thomas) there at the time so I had NO idea how to sample, let alone CHOP a sample. So I tried to play EVERYTHING. Rod and I took that Korg X2 and that Boss DR660 (on loan from Loyd Watson’s dad) and we worked it like a Hebrew slave. But we couldn’t match THAT sound. Fast forward to right at the turn of the century. I’d got my first REAL job ( real enough to buy a house) and I started collecting my own music. My friend Chris England put me on to the BBE Beat series and this cat named Jay Dee (he was JAY DEE FIRST, not that OTHER guy). He had an album named “Welcome To Detroit.” Seeing as my brother has spent most of his adult life in Detroit and had adopted the city as his home, I had to see what all of the fuss was about. On the FIRST listen, I got that feeling again. There were those chords. There were those drums. Now that I had been in the music business a little longer, I had a better understanding of what was going on. I did my homework. Come to find out that MOST, if not ALL of the music that I’d bought in the last ten years up to that point (around 2000) was produced by Jay Dee. I didn’t know he was a part of the UMMAH. I didn’t know he was the driving force behind “Like Water For Chocolate.” I dug deeper. I found out this guy was a MASTER of the MPC and learned from Amp Fiddler, who had played keys for Prince. Everything started making since. All of the Busta Rhymes that I LOVED, J DILLA. All of the Tribe that STOOD OUT to me, J DILLA. All of the Common, Pharcyde, even the new chick Erykah Badu, DILLA, DILLA, DILLA. I was in love. But right when I fell in love, right after I discovered SLUM VILLAGE, he died. I still remember the day and get misty-eyed thinking about it. I was preparing to do a beat battle in Atlanta. I won that night, but I was crushed. I cried like I’d lost a family member because, in truth, I had. All of the hip hop that ANTHONY liked was gone. Over the years, I’ve adapted, like most of us have been FORCED to, but I STILL don’t get THAT feeling from ANYTHING that I hear. So that led me to do what I just did.
Now, this is where we come to today. I embarked on trying to do a tribute project to DILLA in 2007. The first rendition was DAMNED good (ask Thed Weller, ask John Paul, ask S. Fly, ask Rovella Williams). But, I was about to go through one of the roughest periods of my life, which would be the lost of my daughter and my impending divorce. Needless to say, that project never saw the light of day. The second attempt came in 2013. I decided to try and lean on some other artists, but the Universe just didn’t allow it to be. So I gave up on it. There would be no Dilla project, at least until the last week of January 2015 (yes, I said THE LAST WEEK OF JANUARY 2015!). My brother, Craz Dr. Grabow, and my OTHER (might as well be) brother BoneBreaker Jones had done a song on the SECOND incarnation of the Dilla project that they’d shot a video for. It took my brother about A YEAR to finish the video (dang it Craz! LOL!), but all of a sudden, SOMETHING (probably the UNIVERSE) prompted him to finish the video and send it to me one night. I was flabbergasted. I got THAT feeling again, and it was MY music. So BoneBreaker, Oscar, and I talked about what we had just saw. Under the pressing of Oscar and BoneBreaker, we decided to put out a Dilla Day project, A WEEK BEFORE HIS ACTUAL BIRTHDAY. What am I saying? This GREAT (and yes, I AM tooting my own horn) body of work came together IN ONE WEEK. I’ve heard stories of Prince recording whole albums in one night and wondered, “how in the H-E-double hockey sticks is that possible?!” Well, I figured it out. When you get THAT feeling, that feeling when you KNOW, beyond the SHADOW OF A DOUBT, that you have connected with the Universe (read: God, hence “thou ART God) it takes LITTLE to NO effort to put it out in the atmosphere. I HAD NOT had that feeling for YEARS until the night I got that video in my email. Now, most of the songs ALREADY existed, but it was NOTHING to add them to this body of work. They fit perfectly. “Body Rock” was from the FIRST incarnation of the Dilla project, but it fit like a GLOVE. “Quantum Leap” was from a project that I gave up on once I signed to Krazy Swag, but it fit like a GLOVE. “Mic Check” was for the PHASNICK reunion project (that’s another story), but it fit like a GLOVE. The beat interludes were from the catalog of my tracks that NOBODY wanted. I even had one person ON MY TEAM tell me those beats were “boring,” but they fit LIKE A GLOVE. You see, when GOD puts it together, its perfect. TO ME, (and I’m sure there will be those who disagree, and you’re entitled to that) THIS IS MY PERFECT PROJECT. Much like the FIRST incarnation of this project was, this one flows perfectly, but the line up of artists, the people who contributed to it, they all work in perfect harmony.
So there you have it. This is how it all came to be, for the most part. Nine years in the making took TWO WEEKS. God is amazing.
1. Peezilla (A. Avery) – produced by Sam Peezy.
2. The World Is Yours (A. Avery, K. Jones, M. Avery, Sr.) – featuring Craz Dr. Grabow, I.M. and BoneBreaker Jones. Produced by Sam Peezy
3. The Bump (Brazilian Love Affair) – Produced by Sam Peezy.
4. Body Rock (A. Avery, A. Peterson, K. Jones) – featuring Sam Peezy, Mr. Al Pete, and BoneBreaker Jones. Produced by Sam Peezy.
5. The Bump (Nevermind) – Produced by Sam Peezy.
6. Get Right (J. Averette, K. Jones) – featuring Jaelle and BoneBreaker Jones. Produced by Sam Peezy.
7. The Bump (Ascension Vibe) – Produced by Sam Peezy.
8. Good For My Music (K. Jones, C. Avery) – featuring Selah Avery, BoneBreaker Jones, and Loyd Watson, Jr. Saxophone by Loyd Watson, Jr. Produced by Sam Peezy.
9. The Bump (Silky Johnson) – Produced by Sam Peezy.
10. Mic Check (M. Sanders, A. Thomas, K. Jones) – featuring Phasnick (Kenny Smiles, Bynk Da Lyrical, and BoneBreaker Jones). Produced by Sam Peezy.
11. Quantum Leap (B. Greene, A. Avery) – featuring BookOfDiesel. Produced by Sam Peezy. Co-produced by BookOfDiesel.
“The World Is Yours,” “Body Rock,” and “Quantum Leap” were recorded at THE LEGENDARY Woodshed Studios, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “Get Right,” “Good For My Music,” and “Mic Check” were recorded at BoneBreaker Studios, Douglasville, Georgia. All songs except “Mic Check” were mixed by Sam Peezy. “Mic Check” was mixed by BoneBreaker Jones. All songs were mastered by Sam Peezy at V.A. Studios, Carrollton, Georgia.
copyright 2015. All Rights Reserved.
Happy Dilla Day: a Presentation from Producer @Sam_Peezy
No comments:
Post a Comment