James D. Yancey, popularly known as J Dilla or Jay Dee, was an American rapper and record producer. He was born on February 7th, 1974, and passed away on February 10th, 2006. 

James emerged on the underground hip hop scene back in the 1990s in Michigan when he was a member of Slum Village, an underground group. He was also a member of Soulquarians, active in the late 90s and earlier 2000s. 

JDilla died at the young age of 32 from a combination of lupus and TTP. Though his career was short-lived, he is arguably one of the most influential hip-hop producers of all time.

According to The Guardians, his ability to craft melodic yet lengthy loops from unique samples while adding sultry vocal samples and one of a kind breakbeats gave hip hop more creative complexity.

J Dilla’s Early Life & Career

James Yancey was from Detroit, and he lived with his family in a house on the northeast corner of McDougall and Nevada and the eastern end of Detroit. 

Both his parents came from music backgrounds. His mother was a former opera singer, and his father was a jazz bassist. He performed Globetrotters halftime shows for many years. From the early days, JDilla developed a love for different music genres, especially hip-hop music. 

He had friendships with Baatin and T3 in his school days due to their mutual love for rap battles. He spent most of the time in the basement alone while working on different beats during his teenage years. 

JDilla met Amp Fiddler in 1992 and introduced JDilla to Akai’s music workstation. From there, he met Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Questand further developed his skills with MC Phat Kat to form 1st Down, the first Detroit hip hop group to sing on any major label, Payday Records. 

In 1995, JDilla also recorded with 5 Elementz, a group with Mudd, Thyme, and Proof. But Slum Village was the first major success that he received. He worked on a range of different remix projects for Janet Jackson, De La Soul, The Pharcyde, Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest, and Various other projects. 

Performing Career

With Fantastic, Vol. 2, Slum Village became more popular as a hip hop group, and there was a new following for J Dilla and his music creation. He formed another group, The Soulquarians, and gained more recognition. He also developed a critically acclaimed album, Like Water For Chocolate. 

James worked on these solo tracks in 2001 titles Fuck the Police and Welcome 2 Detroit. It was during this time that he started using the moniker “J Dilla ” to differentiate him from Jermaine Dupri, who also went by the name Jay Dee. 

During this time, J Dilla also helped produce for his friend Bilal from the Soulquarians. Bilal credited J Dilla for drum programming. 

J Dilla was then signed for a solo album with MCA Records back in 2002. For that album, he chose to rap instead of producing music. He also recorded Ruff Draft with a German label called Groove Attack. 

The albums were not as successful, but his work was released through independent labels. And it was a new direction for his career a pattern which many younger artists follow today. 

Later Life and Death 

A Los Angeles-based producer, Madlib, formed a group with J Dilla. They released an album called Champion Sound in 2003 and appeared on tour as Jaylib in 2004. During this time, his illness caused him to lose weight. 

Because of his struggles with health, his credits and major releases slowed significantly during 2004 and 2005. His cult following remained strong among his core audience, which was evident with the unauthorized distribution of his beat tapes through internet file sharing. 

At that time, many articles in XXL and URB confirmed that the rumors of his ill health were true. He was in the hospital during this period, but Jay never officially confirmed the reports. In 2005, when he toured Europe, the severity of his health came out in public. There, he performed in a wheelchair. 

It was later revealed that he is suffering from a rare blood disease and lupus. After that, he was mostly hospital-bound. He was in debt when his insurance dropped due to late payment. 

At his death, he had multiple projects planned for future release. T3 mentioned in an interview that J Dilla has more than 150 unreleased beats. And some of them were released in 2015 in the Slum Village album entitled “Yes!”

His album “The Shining” was only 75 percent completed when J Dilla died. Karriem Riggins completed and released it in 2006. His various unreleased beats were made part of various albums and were posthumously released.

Here at the Manly Man, we care about men of culture and we pay tribute to the life of J-Dilla – A one of a kind producer and artist. RIP.