Welcome To Dillaville

Following Slum Village’s tribute set to J Dilla, FatLip and SlimKid3 (two of the original members of the essential hip-hop group The Pharcyde), J-Swift and K-Natural performed cuts from Pharcyde’s seminal album, “Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde.” I had already seen Bizarre Ride Live (what the band calls the performance) last year; in fact it was one of the first topics I blogged about when I started writing this blog, but I was still geeked to be seeing “Ya Mama”, “Oh, Shit”, “Otha Fish, “Soulflower”, and my personal favorite, “Passin’ Me By” (clips of some of the tracks are in the video below) performed live again.

Pharcyde’s relationship to Dilla runs deep. At one point, Dilla was even the group’s DJ. Dilla helmed the majority of production duties for The Pharcyde’s sophomore album, “Labcabincalifornia”, producing the hit single “Runnin’,” which peaked at #55 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Though I wished that all of the original members were performing the hip-hop tracks I listened to all throughout high school, there was absolutely no reason to complain. Each of J-Swift and K-Natural admirably performed the verses originally recorded by Imani and Bootie Brown. Fittingly, they concluded their set with a performance of “Runnin'”.

I don’t have a setlist to the songs that were performed that evening, but all you you have to do is listen to the album, and that’s all you need to know.

May 23, 2014May 23, 2014 by dklee13 Categories: ConcertsTags: Bizarre Ride Live, concert, Concert Photo, Concert Photographer, Concert Photography, concert photos, concert pic, concert review, concert video, hip hop, Hip Hop Music, JDilla, Jon Doe, Live Music, Oh Shit, Otha Fish, Passin Me By, pharcyde, rest in peace, Review, Runnin, set list, setlist, video clips, Welcome To Dillaville, ya Mama Leave a comment

There’s a special place in my heart for James Dewitt Yancey, pka J Dilla. I’ve already written about the impact his music has had on my life, so I won’t rehash it here, but let’s just say his music has meant a lot to me. When I heard that Slum Village and Bizarre Ride Live (The Pharcyde’s Fatlip and SlimKid3 backed by Bizarre Ride producers J-Sw!ft and LA Jay) were paying homage to J Dilla with a concert aptly titled “Welcome To Dillaville”, I made some calls to make sure that I could attend the event.

Slum Village is a hip hop group from Conant Gardens, Detroit Michigan that has gone through a lot of changes since it’s inception. Originally consisting of J Dilla, Baatin, and T3, only T3 remains as an original member, with both J Dilla and Baatin passing on way before their time (rest in peace). Currently the group is on record as featuring T3, Young RJ and Illa J (J Dilla’s younger brother), but for this show it seemed that only T3 and Young RJ handled MC duties.

With the ever sublime instrumentals produced by J Dilla, Young RJ and T3 faithfully spit verses from some of my favorite Slum Village tracks: “Fall In Love”, “Get Dis Money”, “Players” and, my personal favorite, “Tainted” (clips of which are all below). They had a couple of surprises appearances from specials guests, including Frank Nitt (a frequent J Dilla collaborator) and one other rapper that I didn’t know (but whose picture is below).

Before Slum dove into their set, Young RJ and T3 gave the audience a little presentation about their beloved, lost member. They gave a slideshow presentation of never seen before letters, track sheets, personal affirmations, and photos, telling stories that only they would know, and it was truly a pleasure to watch them reflect so fondly on their lost comrade.

I couldn’t find a setlist online anywhere, but if anyone has it, please let me know, and I’ll update this post accordingly.