mighty hungry.

this is officially the worst day of my musical life.

i can not begin to express the deep sorrow that's consuming me right now, and i couldn't care less if i'm revering this man too much...

Jay Dee/J. Dilla/James Yancey died today at the young age of 32. just a few days removed from the release of Donuts. just one day after a young lady in my office asked me who's i had plastered on my desktop as wallpaper.

jay dee is unquestionably my pick for the greatest beatmaker of our time. undoubtedly. his discography is unbelieveable. his skill was immeasurable. he eclipsed the collective stretches of imagination of his listeners and fans on a regular basis. he was one of the few sampling producers that took it beyond looping up samples and laying drums under them. he was an artists' artist, in that the simple a+b = c format of beatmaking wasn't enough for him.

he was infinitely creative with it.

nobody i can think of comes close to what he did with music. he commanded respect from producers who had much more mainstream success than he, he was to the MPC what Jimi Hendrix was to the guitar. you could listen to some of his beats and get chills from the the sheer amazingness of what you were hearing. he ran the gambit as far as style goes, going from laid back grooves with pretty chords, to nasty bangers with sinister basslines, to club ready tracks, to loose drummed simple-sounding cuts that could make any mc tolerable, to avant garde synth driven four on the floors and the ridiculously mutilated soul samples that had been spliced and sliced beyond recognition-

it was obvious that jay dee did what he did because he loved to do it.

i looked up to the man. i can't even lie. jay dee was the single most important figure in my musical life. by far. i'm so sad that i can't wait on him for a new beat. the fact that he'll never make another beat is unfathomably depressing to me.

i hope i'm half as good as he was.

god bless his life.

RIP JAY DEE
1974-2006