J Dilla - The Red (Instrumental)
Today is the 6th anniversary of the great Jay Dee’s premature passing due to lupus (at the young age of 32 years + 3 days). And below is an excerpt from a post I wrote a few years ago as part of my 20 favourite Dilla beats series, back when I used to write ample amounts of verbose posts on a variety of list-worthy topics (even if it did take me a year to find the inspiration to reach the finish line).
The original sample for The Red is contained in the beautiful song by Cris Williamson entitled Shine On Straight Arrow (the sample is about 50 seconds in when you hear the powerful exclamation of “Shiiiiiiiiiinnne Oonnnnnnn!”). There’s also a wonderful lyric in the aforementioned track where Cris states: “Let your life shine down into mine.” I think that those words perfectly express the general idea of this album: a collaboration in the true sense of the word where each artist shined/shone their ideas/life into the other and vice versa. And this experiment doesn’t work to any more incredible effect than on The Red (J Dilla providing the soundscape, Madlib/Quasimoto waxing poetic).
Never (well, maybe once) has a single, looped vocal sounded so pronounced and exclamatory and just felt like it truly is shining through the track, coming out of your speakers and materializing right in front of your face so that you can admire its indescribable beauty. I know that’s a lot to say about a sound, but the sample really was well chosen and looped to the hilt with all the power that the original vocal possessed. And when mixed in with Jay Dee’s drums and sprinkled keys, the production becomes heavenly and worthy of being worshiped by hip hop nerds everywhere. Like a religious choir in the church of hip hop, The Red shines its life down into ours. I very much love this track and am quite sad that we will never hear a beat of this caliber and intricate beauty ever again.
In addition, here is a nice demonstration of the original sample and resulting beat. Happy Dilla day/week/month! May the hip hop fans out there continue to celebrate the man and his life’s work (not just in February, but at any time of the year).
We miss you, Dilla. May your legacy shine on forever and forever.
