RIP James "Dilla" Yancey

Dilla,

My baby told me that you were the greatest hip-hop producer that ever lived. I took his word for it cuz he's smart like that. He played me alot of your beats and made me a believer. I knew i'd already liked your stuff from Like Water for Chocolate but didn't truly appreciate it until J played me the instrumentals and i REALLY heard what you was doing on them tracks. Wow.

I wish i'd knew more about you sooner. I hate even feeling like i'm on some bandwagon now cuz its not like that. There was even this one time (my proudest moment) when J played a song out of the blue and right away i was like "that's Dilla!" and he smiled so big cuz he knew i was learning about you and understanding the immense talent that you possessed.

I remember hearing about how sick you were some time ago. It made me sad and i knew deep down that this day would come sooner than anyone thought. Everybody says that you're in a better place now...i wish you could come back or at least send an email and tell us all if that's true or not.

But in the meantime, i'm going to continue to enjoy your music and learn from the incredible legacy that you've left us.

Thank you.

Damali

Earthseed: The Books of the Living

All that you touch
You Change.

All that you Change
Changes you.

The only lasting truth
is Change.

God
is Change.
********************

that right there is probably the greatest thing i'd ever read, courtesy of Ms. Octavia E. Butler. She wrote it as part of a work of fiction (Parable of the Sower) but there is such essential truth in it. Within those 4 little lines is something that has terrified most people since the beginning of time: Change.

Almost everything that we fear represents change...our own death, the death of loved ones, loss of money, jobs, moving, breakups. on and on and on. Its all change. And how we adapt to it often speaks to our character and strength.

It is my goal to record within this blog all of the Earthseed verses that Octavia created (well more specifically, the ones that meant the most to me)...more for my own reference than anything else. I don't think any writing has had such a huge impact on my thinking in a very long time...