Kim Stennabb Caesar yes! Look up the Mo Wax (UK) label from the early 90s. Back then the genre was labeled ‘trip-hop’ although I personally called it ‘abstract hip-hop’ since it was mostly instrumental. Dilla and Nujabes are only ‘worshipped’ because they died (R.I.P.). But the real ‘fathers’ Dj Krush, Dj Shadow, Tricky, Portishead, RJD2 and countless others are still around and should be given their flowers while we can.
@@pastense Thanks man, gonna check it out. I'm a huge fan of FlyLo's stuff, especially the first couple albums. Would be classified as abstract I guess.
Kim Stennabb Caesar most definitely! FlyLo, Anomalie, Glitch Mob, Gaslamp Killer are all holding this torch in the modern age. I wouldn’t label these guys “lo-fi” which is why the term is so limiting. We needa ditch that label sooner than later smh
LeBeautiful 5 years ago we saw each other on NBA top ten plays of the day all the time. 2K videos, music channels. now here we are. we've come to appreciate. bless you
Heard my first J Dilla song while watching Adult Swim. Adult swim played his music practically around the clock shortly after he died. Mash was the song, I remember... Man this brings me back...
I am, for the most of my adult life, primarily a rock listener. But when I first heard J Dilla...man... his music almost brought me to tears. There's something about it that just touched you.
SUPRISE! I am the funniest YTer evah!!!! Just kidding, it was no surprise. Everybody knew already. HAHAHHAHA!!!! That was an amazing joke (it was real talk though). WAWAWAWAWA!!!! Good afternoon, dear hi
The timing for Dilla's death is the most painful part. Dilla had no mainstream recognition throughout his career but I feel his 2 albums in 2006 was going to change that. Dilla started in the mid 90's where almost every producer was a good at the time. Very few have the ideas and the creativity to last until 2006 let alone up until now. But Dilla's style never goes out of fashion. Donuts and The Shining was Dilla telling Hip Hop that he was back and ready for a new start. 2006 was the start of RU-vid and that type of platform allowed people to hear almost all of his old material. He never got to see the fruits of his success....
I mean but it wasn't tho, also like the negativity but no real reason as to why it shouldn't be a thing beside the fact that you apparently didn't like the movie. Somebody could make a movie giving fans some more insight into the come up of one of the best if not the best to ever do it cause i don't imagine Dilla got his success by luck. But you know opinions and stuff like that.
I wouldn’t do it like Straight Outta Compton, as dope and well made that movie was. Instead I’d go the indie route. Lower budget, grimy, raw, uncut, but still well made and a masterpiece...just like Dilla. That said, the documentary made by Stüssy few years ago is pretty dope. If they included all those people in a movie, that would be so ill!
No one ever mentions Amp Fiddler he taught Dilla Everything, Dilla would sit in his basement for hours watching him and learning from him as a kid, anyway excellent video
The idea of Dilla never quantizing is a misrepresentation to a certain extent. He did both. The fact that he didn't quantize much of the time is what made him unique.
I have been listening to Dilla for about four years and I wanted to say it has been a great journey listening to his beats! I have been feeling bad the last few years but his beats helped me to go through this time and his music was the perfect way to forget about the shit in my life. His beats are energy, from the funky tracks that break my neck to the relaxing beats that make me feel high without smoking. Thank you Dilla for the unforgettable music. WE MISS YOU! R.I.P. KING OF BEATS.
I literally became a producer because of j dilla my whole sound revolves around the lo-fi golden era . The best pocket ever in drumming the best bassline and sample flips j dilla was mozart behind the mpc . It took me 7+ years to get decent enough to whefe i am now as far as sampling and understanding drum pockets and 8th sub notes to make the drums groovy and bouncier .. ohman i can go on for days !! Long live dilla man the GOAT
This story kinda reminds me of Freddie Mercury from Queen or Chuck Schuldiner from Death, switching back and forth between hospital and studio while battling cancer.
Dilla mastered so many different styles in his eras of career. What was derived into what we consider 'LoFi' was only just one style of his. His versatility was severely underrated. Pete Rock was probably his greatest influence on this particular style we are discussing. When videos like this are created (in depth analysis of his technique), it seems almost automatic that Nujabes has to be mentioned by fans for a number or reason (similar style, LoFi, birth date, death circumstances, etc) No disrespect to Nujabes, he was a master in his own right, but it almost seems underhanded by people to ALWAYS compare the two while disregarding Dilla's other styles he pioneered, which in the sense, has no comparison to Nujabes. The whataboutism can be a bit annoying. Some Hip-Hop beat purists call LoFi a gentrifified sub-genre of beat culture..I consider it a form of evolution that somehow caught on...whatever. However, when we talk about J Dilla, we must not diminish his complete contribution to the genres overall...Boom Bap, Neo Soul, Electronic, Funk, LoFi.
I’ve been on this “lo-fi” all over the comments section. And they seemed to have changed the title lol. They should just do the whole video over again!
My personal fav Dilla beats are his electronic, techno infused west coast beats. They BANG. But all his other beats, especially his Donuts Era sound beats are amazing.
@@balmain-i3e Word....I thought his electronic phase was sooo underrated in the sense that you heard very few artists use those beats...or at least you didn't hear as many artists on those batches of beats as you did the others. Let's Grow with Royce is an example...and the whole Frank N Dank 48 Hours album too. I remember reading the story with the Frank N Dank album. The original version had Detroit boom bap joints. But for some reason, (lost files/sample clearance?) they scrapped it and redid it using his electronic beat styles for the whole thing. I remember him going into the Donut era. The motown beat batch came out and this was the time the public didn't know he was terminally ill. I thought the Motown chops was a result of him of hanging around and being influenced by Madlib and his minimalist (but effective) chopping styles. Then Donuts dropped and I admittedly remember being underwhelmed (boy I was in for a 'slap in the face with unexpected') ...then that unfortunate news of his death came out. After me doing the knowledge with the reverse engineering of Donuts, I found myself eating my own words and feelings. The story and circumstances of 'Donuts' is probably one of the most amazing things in the history of recorded music.
So happy to see Dilla getting some much deserved recognition. I always tell people he’s the most important and influential beat maker you’ve never heard of. The man was a genius pure and simple, may he Rest In Peace!
I love your work man, currently watching this at 11:30 P.M. on a Monday night, your voice, and craft is so soothing I hope you will soon become a mainstream creator and I can flex that I was a day one:)
Hey man, just wanted to let you know that I loved the honesty and transparency at the end of the video and you convinced me to sign up to curiosity stream, thank you so much for your amazing content!
Slum Village - Fantastic Vol. 2 The Pharcyde - Labcabincalifornia Common - Like Water for Chocolate J Dilla beats I can listen to repeatedly and infinitely...
Volksgeist's voice is so pleasing to listen to, making me continue to watch/listen to more of his videos. I appreciate so many of your videos, so continue the amazing work.
Do any other “producers” out there, or beat makers, listen to Dilla beats and just think “I’d die happily making a single piece of music half this good”? Even his most basic, simple beats, there is always something I catch every time, that is just way out there! Dilla is possibly the last musician I’ve ever listened to who put himself into every piece of music he made. Like, no replication, only something HE could make. If anyone knows of any modern musicians who give them that feeling, reply to me and let me know. Because its that kind of music that inspires me to keep on making my own when I feel there is no point. Dilla is the GOAT to me, forever and always. And I say that because everybody I know who likes DILLA, likes him for their own personal reason. 🍩. RIP.
Junc Doktah have you heard of Hiatus Kaiyote? They’re more of a band from Australia and are obviously influenced by Dilla, but definitely have their own unique approach.
I've always been inspired by dilla with his sound and skill and mastery to just get in the studio and cook. To see such talent and his mark on the world makes me jealous I will never get to be in the bricks with him, his sound and him is what make dilla. He will continue to live thru his work. Dilla was born 3 days before me (different years) an aquarius like me and died on my birthday February 10th. Tha nk you for the dopest projects, I will get there one day too dilla❤️ may my next few projects be just as dope
The only thing the video missed is the lo-fi value.People nowadays instantly think of J Dillah if someone mentions lo-fi but the reality is that J Dillah made it popular on one way (specifically on leading sample melodies) but lo-fi is a thing since earlier on due to the nature of the production machines used. Sp-1200 was a 12-bit machine (naturally anything played in there would be lo-fi) with the progress of technology and especially when machines reached to 16-bit sampling process the lo-fi started to go off.The thing is that when everyone moved to MPC 2000(16-bit sampler) and onward a lot of people sticked to their weapons of choice that for the most part happened to be 12-bit(sp1200, MPC 60 and many rack samplers that people used to process and filter their samples).Probably the pioneer of lo-fi sound should be DJ Premier solely on the fact that he never worked with anything non-lofi and the lo-fi touch in his drums was what made the boom bap sound so popular.Nujabes for example wasn't having lo-fi sound most of the time,actually he usually was filtering them out through a DJ mixer while sampling.A lot if people confuse lo-fi with trip hop genre. The heavy instrumental and sampled melodic beats with hard heating drums is what trip hop is, lo-fi is that distortion and vinyl's sound you usually hear alongside the beat but that is a common thing even in trap beats.
Glad I found your comment from my own long rant on here. This video is SO ignorant, it’s ridiculous! You have the technicalities right, but (separate from Primo) there was an entire genre in the early 90s called ‘trip hop’ which is the REAL father of what’s called “lo-fi” now; mostly dominated by the Mo Wax (UK) label.
@@pastense The video is splendit,yes it miss on some information,but to be fair those information are more netpicking rather trully useful information.Most of the stuff i mention came from "Hip-Hop raised me" of DJ Semtex and individual research I've done myself. All the info i mentioned did helped me understanding and breaking down the workflow of many producers (like how Alchemist found his style through the forced worfklow that ASR-10 kind of forced him into) but I can see not many people carrying for such details,meanwhile everything mentioned in the video are stuff that people can get up to and get inspired. As about Trip-Hop,i am really not sure.From my research Trip-Hop became a thing from french beatmakers,no US beatmaker ever seemed to use the term Trip-Hop directly.After the rise of Ours Samplus and the Architect and Kill Emil they just gave the name on all these heavy-melodic-based beatstyle as Trip-Hop.In short Trip-Hop existed as a beatmaking ideology and aesthetic but really got official after french beatmakers mastered it.There was there but without a name yet. I might be wrong but again most of these stuff is based on perosnal research so most likely to be some misinformation within, unintentionally of course.
Zaxaroplastis I respect the research you’ve done brotha. But apparently it wasn’t enough. I was around in the early 90s. And the French have nothing to do with Trip Hop. Again, look up the Mo Wax label. And look at my other comment brewing. Dilla and Nujabes weren’t fathers of anything and to call their music “lo-fi” is DISRESPECTFUL! I’ll mention it again, just for you...Dj Krush, Dj Shadow (SF, Bay Area, USA!), Tricky, Portishead, and RJD2 and countless others need to get their recognition for their works. Dilla was his own separate entity, and Nujabes was just the tip of the iceberg. Both only got their recognition AFTER they died. The names I mentioned are still around and are the TRUE fathers of the sound you kids call “lo-fi”. Do we need to wait til they die too? Such an annoying trend in this generation. Smfh If you’re the producer of this video, I apologize for my harsh criticism, but as a DJ/Musician/enthusiast of this game for over 30 years, I just can’t let this misinformation slide. Sorry, not sorry.
@@pastense I mean most of the people you mentioned (especially DJ Shadow) have moved on from the lo-fi sound,probably because it wasn't their initial choice to begin with.Yes most of them do hold a huge value to the overall beatmaking history and the overall knowledge but none really seemed to chase the lo-fi sound,actually Shadow moved right away once the gear moved on too. Also i don't know i really can't say if i am right but none of those guys you mentioned ever referenced their style or work as Trip hop.In general til the early 00 I never came across this sub genre by name. I can definitely agree with you that some people should get a lot more recognition and that they would be a lot more popular if dead (especially DJ Shadow),but the reason that Nujabees and Dillah became popular wouldn't be the same with anyone else.Nujabees had his unique style of approaching a sample and a production that none ever had and will,Dillah had his own perception of music,the guy is mentioned in countless papers from musical universities for his extensive use of microrythm and much more. Regardless from my view the video serves more of an inspirational and slighly informative view at lo-fi use throughout hip-hop beatmaking rather than a documentary,yes the information could have been more accurate but at the cost of inspirational value,which it excels at from what it seems.
According to Ferguson's book, "Donuts," based on the testimony of J Rocc, et. al., Dilla didn't record these tracks in the hospital as you claimed. He was only able to edit them in his protools. Factcheck needed.
what makes him so special is that he was more than a hip hop beat maker the man didn’t get a chance 2 show everything or grow yet he raised the bar so high that anything after him is just duplicated
Very good video, simple, to the point, and no BUZZWORDS! Dilla is one of THE BEST producers and engineers of our time. Subbed and can't wait to see more content from you.
J Dilla and Nujabes inspired to me start making beats just to see if I could make a beat that gave me the same reaction theirs do. That goal will stay unmet forever but the goal will keep me going forever
Dilla did use quantisation, but he used it in a unique and creative way, which allowed him to create his unique sound. Yes, sometimes he turned off quantisation, but the key to his sound was that he quantized each element of his drums differently, with different swing, and used the nudging feature of the MPC to get his hits in the perfect off-grid position to create a groove.
DILLA IS NOT THE FATHER OF THIS SOUND!!! I know I’m gonna get a lot of flack for this, but as a DJ/musician/enthusiast, this needs to be known... When I first heard the term “lo-fi” and listened to what it was referring to, it was a sound I’ve heard almost 20 years ago; by the likes of Dj Krush, Dj Shadow, Tricky, Portishead, and RJD2. Look up the Mo Wax label from the early 90s. This is waay before Dilla and Nujabes. Now don’t get me wrong. I am the biggest Dilla fan too and I proclaim him to be the Mozart of hip-hop beats. But like Mozart, there was Bach, the genius that came before him. Dilla, as genius as he was, WAS NOT THE FATHER OF THIS SOUND. And the names I mentioned should be recognized as much as what you’re all calling “lo-fi”. It was called trip-hop (I personally called it ‘abstract hip-hop’) back then and was very underground. Trust me, that I’m glad a younger generation is diggin this sound. But the OG geezer like myself that understands where it all came from, I feel if you don’t understand where the sounds you’re diggin came from, then you really don’t know sh!t! Just kickin knowledge, ya’ll. It’s just this “lo-fi” label makes me cringe. And it’s rather disrespectful to call their music “lo-fi.” FOH
Thank you for this, respect has been due and you’ve given it. Let the kids know. Well done; looking forward to checking out the longer version.👊🏾 One notable connection is also the work of madlib (Quasimoto the character even a major player in steezy’s channel/output) I’d say the pillars of lo fi are dilla, nujabes, and madlib...and responsible genres are course acid jazz + trip hop. I think dilla and Brand New Heavies did work together as well. Anyway there’s a lot to explore, but I appreciate you’ve called out a cat who is largely responsible for the sound that has powered my psyche (and mixtapes) since it was primarily b side instrumental versions of my favorite groups’ hip hop joints.
All these people paying respects to J Dilla is heartwarming , I've been a fan of him for some time now and his beats have really changed the way I view beats and instrumentals I'm sort of spoiled because of it 😂
I always used to think that Dilla had an enormous hand in how Lo-fi became popular. I also think adult swim did a fantastic job of getting young kids to listen to boom-bap instrumentals too. I used to hear dillas music on their bumps all the time but at that time I was too young to understand the concept of a label or the artist behind a bump. To me it was just “adult swim music”
Dilla was the greatest ever imo. Sucks that the absolute best died so soon; imagine all of the music we would have if he was still here. Same goes for a lot of artists but especially Dilla. I just found out last night that another producer I used to listen to died, his name was Kid Atlaas... Let's appreciate the music they left and also the producers who are still here making real hip hop like Dilla and Kid Atlaas 🙏♥️
