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- Jay-Dee 1974-2006
by Nehez Meniooh - The legendary hip-hop producer Jay Dee also known as J Dilla passed away on the morning of February 10th in his Los Angeles home. Just three days after his thirty-second birthday and the release of his album, Donuts, his kidneys failed due to complications resulting from a rare blood disease he suffered from as well as an illness called Lupus.
Jay Dee was a founding member of the hip-hop group Slum Village and an innovative producer/emcee who worked with a long list of hip-hop and R&B artists. Coming out of Detroit, Michigan, he etched a spot at the top of the list of hip-hop producers in a music industry that was at the time dominated by East and West Coast artists. J Dilla created a distinct sound for Detroit hip-hop. He innovated many of the youth in Detroit and the mid-west those who strive to achieve the fame and status of the hip-hop music industry. His death comes as a shock to the hip hop and entertainment industry considering his young age. Sadly like so many unneccessary losses Jay DeeÕs life could have been saved with an awareness and commitment to the values and traditions of the culture of his ancestors.
Like the sports and movie industries, hip-hop and the music industry is seen as the ticket to success for the majority of youth of color in America. With the commercialization and the global rise in popularity for hip-hop music the numbers of youth around the world interested in becoming hip-hop stars grows. Sadly, the youth see the music industry as their Òway out,Ó an alternative to the oppressive slave labor work force. Many, hypnotized by the bright lights and materialism promoted by the artists, are unaware of the politics of the music industry and itÕs similarities with the larger work force. Many percieve black music in America as their culture, an extension of the rich music culture of indigenous populations around the world originating on the continent currently known as Africa.
This has been a trend that has been going on for generations now. Ever since the blues music that came out of the oppressive times of slavery and the reconstruction era, blacks especially have clutched music as their life preserver and their connection to home. Music has been one of the industries that have been allocated to the communities of color by the oppressive society. In the colonial situation there are a number of industries that the oppressor allocates the oppressed societies. Within these industries the oppressed is given more mobility and recognition in order to lighten the oppressive nature of his situation and in turn pacify his tendency to resist. Mostly these industries are limited to entertainment industries, so while the oppressor is spending their energy on how to run the world the oppressed is happy with the fame achieved in making people laugh, dance, or cry.
What most people are not aware of is that the colonial system mutilated the art of music as they did with the other intellectual and artistic ventures of humanity. The musical scale was purposefully altered. Each note was changed to a lower pitch by the colonial forces. This mutilation was implemented as was many others on pre-existing traditions because the colonial forces were "renewing" the world. In order to do so they had to devalue the existing cultures, values and traditions, so that the world populations would turn away from them towards the new colonial ideas that were being presented. Indigenous cultures around the world were severed from their culture and traditions, the "African" population in America was torn away from their continent, language, and traditions and with them their music.
Today, the descendents of Merita (Africa) seek out safety and solace in everyoneÕs tradition but their own. We are proud to claim the cultures that we were forced to piece together out of the scraps given to us by the colonial system. We would rather find pride in our achievements in this, than to reclaim the cultures and traditions that our own ancestors left us, the cultures and traditions that were the blueprints to all of the "traditions" of the modern world. Taking nothing away from Jay Dee, he did outstanding work within the culture of hip-hop. However, it is time that humanity seeks in order to return to the traditions and wisdom that existed before the politics and destructive values that have accompanied the system that has conquered the world. This knowledge is still alive today in the traditional initiation systems within the Kemetic "African" bush and the US. The traditional system of medicine has survived the attacks of the modern medical monster and is still preserving human life. Lupus is one of many illnesses that are commonly cured by traditional healers inside the bush of Merita. Sadly the greater population in America are not aware how powerful the culture of their ancestors is. Nor are they aware that for the first time in the last two thousand years the traditional system of education and medicine is available to them. The Earth Centers in Chicago, Illinois and Harlem, New York are preserving and promoting pre-colonial culture. It is time that humanity awakens from the blow that colonialism has dealt to it. It is time that we choose life and the culture of that belongs to us. Sorry we couldnÕt get to you first ÉÉRIP Jay Dilla!
