Check any underground hip hop show, and you're bound to find at least one attendant wearing a shirt that makes the bold statement: "J. DILLA CHANGED MY LIFE".
Quite a message to put out there, sure, but after this past Sunday's Dilla tribute at BBQ Bar, one gets the sense that it's not a total over exaggeration. In commemoration of Dilla's birthday, his death, and the release of his seminal
Donuts record (all of these milestones oddly enough fall within a week's time of one another), Orlando congregated to
TURN IT UP, pay tribute to the best rapping producer, and raise money to put towards Lupus research (James Yancey succumbed to the disease at the age of 32).
The night almost fell through before it even started, though; host and Orlando's favorite record head
DJ Y-Not? suffered a broken foot earlier that day, and word from the hospital was that he might not be able to attend the festivities. The doctor strongly urged him against performing that night. It was very likely that spinning at BBQ Bar might in fact cost him his life. But the man showed up, rocking the crutches, and for the
LOVE OF DILLA came to do the damn thing!
Fuck a doctor, I've got to spin these Dilla classics...Maaaan, he can't tell me NUTHIN'! Y-Not? chillin with DJ Stranger
The DJ himself may not have been hopping all over the place (in fact, he sat on a stool for most of the night), but the energy of the music he played had the crowd going nuts* cut after cut...
The crowd, NOT PICTURED: going nuts (*When the crowd WAS going nuts, it was unsafe for me to actually try to use my camera. They would have smashed it for sure)
UJEmpire delegate and Godfather of all-things Orlando-hip hop Conshus dodges paparazzi...
....BUT I STILL GOT YOU SUCKA! BWA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
While all of this madness was going down, Secret Weapon manned the donut table. Free donuts made available for all, donations towards the Lupus foundation accepted. Mmmmmm, donuts....
Soon afterwards, Secret Weapon and Kutzu hopped on the decks for a special, hour-long recreation of the
Donuts album, spinning the original samples and records that Dilla used to create this instrumental masterpiece from his hospital bed in LA...
Kutzu and Secret Weapon cut it up
The duo manipulated the samples live, cranking out the classic 'donuts' that heads have come to know and love. It was a dope and unique experience to get sort of a 'behind-the-scenes' look at Dilla's last completed piece of work.
"Psst, what u tryna do today?" "Hey, I'm tryna get paaaiiid. Payday- get dis money"
All in all, the event was a success. As you can see, donuts were definitely consumed (both musically and baked goods-ally), and some money was raised (though it would have been nice to have seen a little bit more- STOP BEING GREEDY, ORLANDO). Let's hope next year we can turn this into an even bigger, more successful event.
