Thanks so much to everyone who enjoyed this. If you want to help sustain the channel there's a way you can! You can join the over 500 people who are patreon patrons who, together, provide most of the budget for the channel. Support starts at just $1 per month. For just $2 a month you'll also get ocassional patreon-only bonus videos For $5 I'll also do my best to respond to any composing or video related questions you have For the $10 "Fanfarron teir" you get both the above, AND access to many of my scores and recordings, including many that I don't have permission to release publicly. And for $50 I'll also give you written feedback on a piece you send in each month (limited availability) www.patreon.com/davidbruce I know $1 or $2 per month doesn't seem like a lot, but it's literally hundreds of times more than we make from advertising per person! Thank you so much to all of our patrons who support what we do and make all of this free for everyone! David
Go and read a book on geometry, I think this will help you push this idea forward 🖤 btw this was one of the best uploads I have watch that made me want to make music after seeing it.
I wanted to ask you about first two riffs in this song, what do you think of the shifting ritm? As a drummer I find it especially difficult tu understand ruclips.net/video/Xuc39-5-_Tc/видео.html&start_radio=1
hey! So I’m a drummer that specializes in Yoruba drumming which is ANCIENT. So much of modern black music has its roots in it, and you’ll actually SEE Dilla’s rhythm scheme at play in these century year old rhythm. The genre is called Bata and it’s played with three bata drums. And one of the drums entire jobs is to be as straight as possible to make that grid and the biggest drum is improvising and guiding the song through its sections….very complex and nuanced but the FEEL? It’s crazy
Thanks for speaking up! I'm not a musicologist, but I feel like Bruce's historical analysis of J Dilla's contribution to rhythm was extremely Western European-centric. Beside Yoruba drumming, I can think of several other ancient musical traditions that use multiple simultaneous underlaying subdivisions: Classical Indian music, Turkish music, and many Eastern European folk music traditions (in particular, music from the Balkans). I think there's a misconception about additive rhythm-that it can broken down into even subdivisions, but that's not always true. There are many additive rhythms, which multiple pulses that have no mathematical relationship. Western composers and musicologists often notate such music as 5/8, 7/8, etc. But, the three groupings and two groupings don't subdivide evenly. The 8th notes in the "three groups" are usually played faster than the 8th notes in the "two groupings". There's actually no easy way to realize this type of music within modern DAWs and drum machines. Even within mainstream "western" music, drummers in the 60s and 70s often played intentionally behind the beat (Bonham), or placed the snare drum intentionally behind the beat (Charlie Watts). Dilla took these ideas to a whole nothing level, but he certainly didn't invent this stuff and was standing on the shoulders of giants.
I used Dilla grooves and elements in my Hip Hop Symphony (Symphony #2 in Amin) during the 3rd movement. I wrote it in 2013. It premiered in 2023 at a 50th year celebration of Hip Hop in Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park.
"One of the most creative things you can do is take something and put it in a context it was never designed for." LOVE this. Great video - thank you for it!
Love this! If you haven't already, you should check out "Timeless: Suite for Ma Dukes" by Miguel Atwood Ferguson - orchestral arrangements of some of Dilla's finest works, featuring a ton of guests 🔥
The beat that Domi and JD are playing at 18:50 is a Dilla produced track for Slum Village ‘Raise It Up’. (Samples a mental Thomas Bangalter dance track).
Romanian here, huge lover of traditional & folk music. To hear of Dona Dumitru Siminică's "lazy and haunting" music explained via J Dilla's genius rhythmic approach was mindblowing. Thank you for the great video!
@@wincentjanczy8882 That's heartwarming to read. Luckily, their legacy continues with the likes of Marian Mexicanu, Ionică Minune, Marius Mihalache, and more recently, Bogdan Simion.
I was not expecting J Dilla to make an appearance on this channel. I love your openness to explore any kind of music you can get your hands on. That's a quality that not many people have. Thanks for the great, interesting and unique video.
I have a special kind of respect and love for people who are already great at their craft yet are able to constantly be amazed and dive deep into topics that they could easily ignore, or worse yet, look down on. Hiphop is so often looked at as a simple subculture that just "rips off" older music; it is so nice to see someone actually studying it and giving one of its best producers his flowers. Thank you David!
Absolute banger of a video! J Dilla, classical music, rhythm theory, visualization, audio examples, drum machine history… I had to pause and made a wonky beat off of the first grid that was shown, and only after that you get into the whole “ADJ SHFL” business, mind absolutely blown🤯
Holy crap, what a great video. As a drummer, this is something we all (nowadays) end up learning about, but the way you break it down is something i wish i could have watched when i was still in high school. For me, i first encountered this as a tool to subtly direct other players in the band by putting the snare before or after the beat. It eventually grew into a stylistic option, like breaking the subdivision of a standard beat into quints and hitting 1 and 4 of those quintuplets on the hi hat, which is so tasty on r&b and hip hop
David I cannot express enough my gratitude for this video. Being black and a saxophonist, I’m very used to not having much of a space in orchestra and this video means so much to me when making classical mysic through appreciation of Dilla. Thank you
Your efforts to apply Dilla's influence to classical music are fascinating, I really think you're onto something! I was oblivious to his style until D'Angelo's Voodoo came on the radio one day - I had to pullover in the car to concentrate, counting it off in my head. It was like a lightning bolt that changed everything! As you say, you hear something like Chicken Grease and it's impossible not to move at least some part of your body to it!!
21:24 polish language alarm. Fantastic video btw. You are the only "classical music youtuber" that inspires me. You see music differently then me but becouse of that when i watch your videos i always learn something new and i feel like i understand music a little bit more. Thank you for making videos and for making me appreciate music even more.
Best essay on Dilla beats in two decades so far. Thank You. It was always fascinating to hear some great wonkiness in Viennese Waltz. Some of the best classical pieces renditions sounds best because it is played systemically off the rhythm grid.
This is brilliant, what a start to Dilla month. I remember contacting you years ago asking you to check out Dilla after seeing a video you made which delved into rhythm, I forget which
Love everything here, but to clarify, I think what that drummer was talking about in that clip (14:05) regarding feel is more that the way you learn these sounds is by doing a lot of listening and playing along to recordings and playing with people who have good feel. It’s possible technically to work out the exact subdivisions, but it’s not incredibly practical to do so(as shown in that cello example from earlier in the video), or at least not the most efficient way to learn it. At least from my perspective that was the intent behind what he was saying more than any sentiment of “you just gotta have it”.
Wow, so glad I found this channel. It's absolutely a breath of fresh air to see someone with classical chops take on something usually relegated to contemporary production and beat making. Also your compositions are fantastic! Insta sub.
Didn’t expect this to be the best Dilla vid but here we are. Going into the actual theory behind the machines is something no one ever does, so thanks.
I often visualise rhythms as a rolling wheel, sometimes with lumps on and sometimes looking like his swing ratio pictures here. I think it helps to have multiple ways to look at the same thing
lifelong Dilla fanatic here. Incrtedible work. Thank you for being so respectful to the music here. As much as you do classical opera etc, you treat this as vital. Thank you. Made me wanna hear more classical. Your work is something us dilla heads would love sampling/
Amazing, this is so wonderfull to see. Dilla also used to play those beats unquantized directly into the mpc and not just a few bars but the whole beat. I read an interview once with a mixing engineer who worked with dilla and they had to fix a beat which got messed up in Pro tools. Dillas timing reference to the engineer was to move audio files a few babyfeet :)
Bruce, my friend. The amount of knowloedge you put into these videos is only a match to the amount of inspiration I get from them. I just love watching how these complex concepts end up in your own compositions
I'm leaving a comment for engagement and also to say that I really loved the video and think it deserves way more views than it has. These kinds of videos are very helpful to me because when I was young I wasn't exposed to much modern music like hip-hop and mainly knew classical music because that's what was playing in the house. Since then I've done a kind of 180 in my teens but I still feel like some stuff, even though I can recognize it, never clicked into place for me. I love wonky beats and I also really enjoy playing them but since I only got into them relatively recently I can sense that I'm missing the "feel" of it still. As an "ex-classical" guy I'm really grateful that I get to see your perspective on these things because they've always made my music listening/playing experience better.
12:49 is actually a good example of one model of how jazz swing works in an ensemble. I can’t remember if David mentioned it elsewhere. The swing ratio and placement of the downbeats may differ from instrument to instrument (bass will often push, soloist will lag and straighten out) but congruence is often found between the drummers cymbal upbeat and the ensemble upbeats. I actually really like this as a model for ensemble swing feel - there’s some empirical evidence for it (more research would be nice).
Thanks for noticing! Yes this tied in with some research I mentioned at the end of my swing ratio video. The interesting question is whether it can be achieved consciously or just happens through aiming at a specific feel.
@JazzGuitarScrapbook Thanks for pointing this out! That's the only thing I disagree with in the otherwise great video: Dilla was not the first one to make music with different micro timings per instrument, but the first one to do this on drum machines and MPCs, thus bringing it to modern hihhop and RnB music.
@@DBruce as a listener and musician you always tend to first approach music sensationally and sentimentally, analysis comes later. And no matter how much analysis has gone down, to reproduce it properly, you still have to rely on a synthetical, panoramical view in the end. So to feel is first and last, you have to cultivate the whole aesthetics of each genre to get it right, not just the technical part.
Exactly. Check out the classic 1961 Oliver Nelson recording of Stolen Moments. The bass kicks off a tight swing, maybe 75%ish, while the melody is exquisitely rendered by the ensemble at a lazy 56%ish swing. The wonky tension created makes it sound inexplicably relaxed and chill. I think the tight swing in the accompaniment/ rhythm section makes the looser swing in the melody stand out as more lazy than it would otherwise sound. I'm sure the vast majority of listeners are unaware of the juxtaposition. But everyone appreciates the cool vibe immediately. They just don't realize why it is so seductively cool. It's a more subtle, natural and organic use of the technique. I dare say a more mature and advanced use of it, as it does not draw attention to itself at all. Its subliminal, quietly serving the music and creating an unmistakable atmosphere without any need to announce itself.
Very thought provoking! The Grateful Dead also did a bunch of wonky/ out of ordinary rhythms and beats. One thing they do in some songs that I really like is they will will play a swing for half a measure and the next half isn't swung, often with a simple 4/4.
I spent my teens listening to pharcyde, busta rhymes, tribe called quest and had no idea who Dilla was. Back then he went by JD and I just assumed it was JD from Atlanta who worked with Kriss Kross and Da Brat. But he was all over everything I liked. In 1999 I fell in love with J-88 which would later be known as slum village, and that was the moment the world became better acquainted with J Dilla. Who would have thought my favorite little beatmaker would change the world. RIP to the genius.
I accidentally clicked to watch the video again, which I just went with. Because I like the way your brain works, and I could easily binge watch several of your videos back to back, and I honestly could have missed something interesting or important on the first watch. Thanks for making these videos!
Impressive how you have broken all this down technically and entertainingly. It seems like "feel" has been a non-verbal element of all music forever, but when I first heard this sort of exaggerated deep feel in 90s neo-soul music and hip hop it was clear there was a new rhythmic consciousness emerging. Can't wait to hear what musicians will do with more deliberate use of these techniques in the future.
Your note at the end is very important. People who make beats are immersed in it all the time for years. That’s how the groove gets in them. I don’t have it but I’ve seen it. That’s why it would be a privilege to be in the chamber music group, to immerse oneself in it and let it become part of you.
I LOVE what you did at 5:55+ where you speak on the beat you're presenting. It's not yet rap, yet it has qualities of it, it's smooth, feels right, and made me want to experiment in conversation to see how people respond. Thanks for the video ♥
I very much admire your attitude towards music in general because you do not consider the social status of the source, only the content, this is what we need a lot more of in the world, not just in music and the arts but also in the sciences. Most of the great composers in all eras and cultures don't care who the source is, or what their station is in life, only the content matters. Your classical music seems vastly more fun and interesting, much more emotionally engaging and I would think specifically because of your open mind. The nice thing about the rhythm machine is it can precisely perform what would seem impossible to master, but once the ear hears a rhythm the body can follow. There is an "ah ha!" moment when the body understands what the mind has been doing and also an "ah ha! moment when the mind figures out what it is that the body has been doing, the back and fourth interaction between mind and body, body and mind leads to innovations that would not come to exist without such a discourse. Many classically trained composers failed to see the genius in funk music such as what James Brown was doing only without use of any automated drum machine, which latter became subsumed into hip hop and associated with use of the drum machine. the draw back of the drum or rhythm machine is that it is a machine, it can not accommodate spontaneous improvised real time inspiration as can human performers. Much of the most ingenious passages in human performed music are originally MISTAKES, when the machines can not respond to these kinds of real time random mutation in the improvisational evolution of music, instead performers are slavishly bound to the predestined automated rhythm track which takes most of the spontaneity and hence the fun out of music. Classical music in the past contained a much larger improvised component, it was not all tied to conforming to a predetermined score. The problem with such freedom is that the most ingenious improvised content is often a mystery to its own performers who are not able to repeat what they have done because they don't know what it is that they have done. This is where recording is useful, one may treat improvisation as real time composition where the recording device is the notation, most good musicians can reproduce what they can hear performed again by the playback device. Each band, ensemble or orchestra including symphony orchestras tends to develop their own specific micro timing which becomes that groups signature "sound" Often times the difference between great performances and the not so great performances in nearly any style is down to tiny almost imperceptible timing inflections such as you have described, one can not pinpoint what it is but it boils down to to this: A performer who is bored sounds that way. To match these micro timing inflections takes a high level of physical and mental engagement that a bored performer can not keep up with, this is why many artists seem to burn out over time with their later performances tending to fall flat, while the artists that remain relevant tend to keep reinventing the micro timings to keep compositions fresh no matter how many times they have to play the same piece show to show. ruclips.net/video/TNm8egNjEuw/видео.html This is a "Harmony Array" touch screen app that provides a field of buttons where each button initiates a characteristic tempo starting the moment the button is is contacted. The tempos in this case are tuned as for 12 equal (C-3 and C-2, G-3 and G-2 and so on) so only the octave related buttons shown on the screen produce tempos related by whole number ratios, which ratios provide all the basic note values of standard music notatioin. Playing several buttons at once produces several tempos at once so equally tempered "chords" (polytempos) may be played where the exact timing by which each button is contacted is crucial to the feel of the resulting rhythm, the same button combination can provide an endless assortment of radically different rhythms depending on WHEN the buttons are contacted. This device can also play tones such that as with any instrument that produces tones WHICH buttons we play tends to matter more than WHEN we play them. This is in contrast to tempo where WHEN we play the buttons tends to matter more than WHICH buttons we play, so for TONE it is FREQUENCY that matters the most while for TEMPO it is PHASE which matters the most. The processes that you have described are all about PHASE DIFFERENCES so you have hit upon the real nature of what is most important to rhythm, the NOTE VALUES matter less while the NOTE PHASES matter more, much of the common literature and technology has missed this crucial distinction.
14:04 This is funny, I was thinking that when we started to make beats like Dilla we were just focus on our head nod. And right at this moment you talk about the feeling
Robert Glasper is imo a pretty slept on Musician with a band that plays Dilla type music live, super talented group of people with great music. One of their best performances I've heard is the "Valleys" instrumental for Lupe Fiasco if anyone wants to get an ear for what to expect edit: also Afro Blue w/ Erykah Badu
I love the way you consistently push me as (a classical musician) to think about the power of rhythm by engaging non-classical approaches. Thanks for the video!
tying in romanian folk music with dilla beats is... inspired. i've listened to dilla over and over, but not from a classically trained perspective; thinking about swing across different time signatures blew my mind. thanks for an all-time great beats vid!!!!
While this is a great analysis on this particular aspect of JD's music, I think there's still a LOT of room for analysis on what makes Jay Dee's music so special. In my opinion what makes his beats so compelling, emphatic and complete is a wholeness of musical coherence between the timbral qualities, harmonies, intricate bass lines and most strongly: the structural cohesion of it all. Every single element of the beat has a structural function and is actively doing something to develop the music, and it is not uncommon that in just 30 or 60 seconds complete musical developments occur. For me this also represents a bit of a complex problem in music theory in general which is rhythm = onsets (and sometimes tail ends, but not much more), which is where most of the analysis of J Dilla's music has been, when do some sound start, however there's a lot more to what makes rhythm than note beginning and ends, and that includes harmonic proportions, both timbral and tonal. Sure, J Dilla's music has very interesting patterns regarding most of the rhythmic aspects popularly analyzed but it is also MUCH MORE than that, there's a lot of attention being put on what the patterns of the drums are but very little regarding their relationship with the rest of the elements in terms of something beyond onsets. I loved the original pieces you showcased by the way! They show some great compromises and solutions regarding how academic notation and idiomatics deal with those kinds of rhythms.
RUclips dropped this video for me in my suggested videos, and I'm really glad it did. What an entertaining and well put together video! You've lined up a few rabbit holes for me to fall into, Thanks for taking the time to create, edit, and share
Wasn't expecting the Hiatus Kaiyote mention! They're one of my favourite bands, cool to see them getting recognition outside of Melbourne 😁 (Super keen to see them later in Feb at Hamer Hall with the Dreamboat Orchestra!)
Human sensibility and ability is always the primary innovative factor. This has always been done given the imperfection of human beings... even the most well trained. Interestingly I think our modern experience of it is largely through the highlighting of "common man" musical forms such as folk, blues, hip-hop, etc. where the production and experience of music is not primarily technical or academically analyzed but the emphasis is placed on in--the-moment, subjective experience. Middle Eastern and African tribal rhythms, played by multiple musicians often incorporated polyrhythms. It's a circle or pendulum swing where art first appears as primal and is eventually developed into something almost separate from human relevance and then travels back again to rediscover it's soul in the primal and imperfect.
this is so well done and a gift to music education. I doubt dila was conscious of the theory and thus focused on feel, but none the less an academic deconstruction can help new creators to think differently about their own appoach
Hmmm. So "Micro rhythms" is several things but they all create off-beat syncopation: Swing notes in different ratios, polyrhythms, accented grace notes, accented arpeggiated notes, or slightly meteorically shifted notes. Michael Jackson did this on his 2001 album Invincible. Pretty sure it's in song Butterflies and other tracks from that album.
Thank you so much for making this video. It was well-researched, the explanations and visual aids were on point, and I learned a lot about both the technical and historical/cultural elements of the music. My one piece of feedback is that I think the types of micro-rhythmic innovations that Dilla pioneered in modern hip-hop have been present in West African drumming for at least 1000 years. It would have felt more complete if this were mentioned. If you’re looking for scholarly documentation, start with the work of Ranier Polak on djembe microtiming.
It’s kinda goofy of u to even question if his rhythms could be played on drum sets bc u must not know that dilla played live drums on lots of his beats lol
The first time I heard the swing ratio hack was actually in Elvis’ Jailhouse Rock. The jumpy feel in the verses is created by swinging drums and a straight guitar. So cool and so ahead of its time.
First time here. You made my day. I cried the day he passed. Dillas beats taught me so much: design thinking, embracing imperfections, KISS (difficulty in keeeping things simple)…. So much to learn from his work…
Very nice - thanks for sharing. I have to note: Not everyone followed the same grid. There has always been music that was “in between the cracks”. In addition, the rock 'n' roll of the 50's, for example, was primarily characterized by the fact that in the same song some band members swung and others played binary. (as one example of many, Chuck Berry's Johnny B Goode)
Highly academic and sophisticated delivery of a fantastic topic yet fully understandable by any music lover of any level. You are a gem of RUclips. I have followed Dilla for decades and have waited for a good study on him. Excellent work!
Big fan of both Dilla and your channel ahead of this video, and I was amazed of both the fact that you did a video on Dilla and the quality of the video! Well done! I remember playing in a RnB/neo-soul band long ago and we were also wondering wether this "slug groove", as we called it, actually could be quantified. We used Sibelius to write music, and the closest we got was a 32nd note ahead/after with "heavy swing". But we concluded it was best just to agree who was to play ahead or behind, and just "feel it", With your explanation I now see how I can apply this in a daw, playing on my own. Very informative and inspiring!!
This is simply a brilliant video; more importantly, its content is lovingly curated in recognition and mad respect for the brilliance of a basement Mozart. Cheers, David, for looking beyond the bling!
I think Dilla said in some interview that he'd put together drum loops by playing sampled hits (snare, hihat etc.) on the MPC pads by hand and thus the wonky feel, since he's not a trained drummer. He might have used drum machines like Linndrum sometimes but I don't think he messed around with manually shifting the swing ratio and stuff like that.
wow that graph w the rythms was maybe the best music visual aid ive seen running thru all the different rythms and showing while letting u hear them was cool to show exactly the where the feel comes from
Really inspirational to see a classical musician understand, appreciate, and even explain how Dilla's rhythms 'work' I really want to say thank you, for this amazing video.
Nice breakdown. This ties together things I've been listening to and gives visibility to an influential musician I might have otherwise never heard of. I had to chuckle about the notation. It seem that some of the things we play or sing are so much more easily felt than read.
The "different feels overlaid on top of each other" thing came about naturally in lots of hip-hop: they were sampling different records with different feels and layering them on top of each other.
I really like how you approach different music genres! May I suggest to talk with a dancer about JDilla? Dancers have a completely different approach to music
The Beatles' Lady Madonna always struck me as achieving something similar. Peppy, swinging drums and piano start up in the left channel, then a laid back straight rock drum and bass groove starts up in the right channel, and they co-exist!
amazing!! I think this is the first time I watched a longer yt video beginning to end. Really loved your song in the end 'the wonky david bruce song' lol!!!
Thanks so much to everyone who enjoyed this. If you want to help sustain the channel there's a way you can! You can join the over 500 people who are patreon patrons who, together, provide most of the budget for the channel.
Support starts at just $1 per month.
For just $2 a month you'll also get ocassional patreon-only bonus videos
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For the $10 "Fanfarron teir" you get both the above, AND access to many of my scores and recordings, including many that I don't have permission to release publicly.
And for $50 I'll also give you written feedback on a piece you send in each month (limited availability)
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David
Damn son! For that wealth of knowledge, what a BARGAIN! Infinite gratitude! 🙏🤜🤛🏾🥳🤩
Go and read a book on geometry, I think this will help you push this idea forward 🖤 btw this was one of the best uploads I have watch that made me want to make music after seeing it.
Awesome video. The clock segments explaining the swing percent are priceless
Awesome video, Champ. Very clear.
Well done.
I wanted to ask you about first two riffs in this song, what do you think of the shifting ritm? As a drummer I find it especially difficult tu understand ruclips.net/video/Xuc39-5-_Tc/видео.html&start_radio=1
hey! So I’m a drummer that specializes in Yoruba drumming which is ANCIENT. So much of modern black music has its roots in it, and you’ll actually SEE Dilla’s rhythm scheme at play in these century year old rhythm. The genre is called Bata and it’s played with three bata drums. And one of the drums entire jobs is to be as straight as possible to make that grid and the biggest drum is improvising and guiding the song through its sections….very complex and nuanced but the FEEL? It’s crazy
That stuff sounds incredible man and I love how you described it.
Thank you for the input. It’s important that we find the connections to ancient music/rhythms. It makes us connect on deeper levels
Where would I find this genre to listen to it? A Google search isn't turning up much.
Thanks for speaking up! I'm not a musicologist, but I feel like Bruce's historical analysis of J Dilla's contribution to rhythm was extremely Western European-centric. Beside Yoruba drumming, I can think of several other ancient musical traditions that use multiple simultaneous underlaying subdivisions: Classical Indian music, Turkish music, and many Eastern European folk music traditions (in particular, music from the Balkans).
I think there's a misconception about additive rhythm-that it can broken down into even subdivisions, but that's not always true. There are many additive rhythms, which multiple pulses that have no mathematical relationship. Western composers and musicologists often notate such music as 5/8, 7/8, etc. But, the three groupings and two groupings don't subdivide evenly. The 8th notes in the "three groups" are usually played faster than the 8th notes in the "two groupings". There's actually no easy way to realize this type of music within modern DAWs and drum machines.
Even within mainstream "western" music, drummers in the 60s and 70s often played intentionally behind the beat (Bonham), or placed the snare drum intentionally behind the beat (Charlie Watts).
Dilla took these ideas to a whole nothing level, but he certainly didn't invent this stuff and was standing on the shoulders of giants.
@@derekc1701 This is a fairly comprehensive summary of bata Cubano, including the Oro Seco ruclips.net/video/MrJQhgJyMS8/видео.htmlsi=dDmYOQfNuLm797cb
I used Dilla grooves and elements in my Hip Hop Symphony (Symphony #2 in Amin) during the 3rd movement. I wrote it in 2013. It premiered in 2023 at a 50th year celebration of Hip Hop in Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park.
That’s dope
thats sick!! no lie I also created a hip hop symphony back in 2010 (jake steele's hip hop symphony spectacular) 🤘🤘🤘
@@TobaccoRatthat’s dope! How did you feel about scoring hip hop styles? Do you still do it?
that’s awesome
Let's musicate! :)
"One of the most creative things you can do is take something and put it in a context it was never designed for." LOVE this. Great video - thank you for it!
Thank you for giving Dilla his flowers to an audience that likely may not have heard of him. Bravo!
It's good to see that musicians in EVERY camp, acknowledge J Dilla's genius.
Well done, David.
Man the editing and graphical representation is outstanding
in the marching percussion world, inverted flams are called malfs
What about inverted flims?
🤠👉🏻👉🏻
@@b__c7538 Hey!
I See What You Did There!
I'll Invert your Flim!
@@b__c7538don’t do this
I just call them...inverted flams lmao
Love this! If you haven't already, you should check out "Timeless: Suite for Ma Dukes" by Miguel Atwood Ferguson - orchestral arrangements of some of Dilla's finest works, featuring a ton of guests 🔥
No way it’s Nas’s bassist
It's nice of you to be cool about this guy recycling your material.
@@timothypnolan digging the greats did not invent j dilla analysis lmfao
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I knew you would be here
And I didnt know Ferguson did that! Will check it out for sure. Thanks a million for the vids and this recommendation!!!
This goes so deep, I learned a lot! I especially like how you showed the back and forth between feeling and thinking through these rhythms!
here here!
It's definitely a back-and-forth effort when trying to learn to play them, from thinking in detail, to 'zooming out' to how it feels
cool shirt eh david?
The beat that Domi and JD are playing at 18:50 is a Dilla produced track for Slum Village ‘Raise It Up’. (Samples a mental Thomas Bangalter dance track).
Romanian here, huge lover of traditional & folk music. To hear of Dona Dumitru Siminică's "lazy and haunting" music explained via J Dilla's genius rhythmic approach was mindblowing.
Thank you for the great video!
I searched up Dona Dumitru Siminica because of ur comment, thank you for dropping that name. Great music!!!
@@user-on6db4rf4s Great to hear that, enjoy!
Romanian music is incredible, Toni Iordache, Ion Dragoi, Faramita Lambru and others are always in my heart. Greetings from Belarus.
@@wincentjanczy8882 That's heartwarming to read.
Luckily, their legacy continues with the likes of Marian Mexicanu, Ionică Minune, Marius Mihalache, and more recently, Bogdan Simion.
@@adrianmaneanever heard musicians you named (we also play a lot of our local tunes and klezmer), but I will do!
Thanks a lot and God bless you!
I was not expecting J Dilla to make an appearance on this channel. I love your openness to explore any kind of music you can get your hands on. That's a quality that not many people have. Thanks for the great, interesting and unique video.
Wake up Adam Neely, David Bruce is doing Dilla Beats in classical music
I hope adam sees this
Watch Adam Neely's most recent video. He's done posting video's regularly on youtube and wants to focus more on his own band Sungazer.
yeah, don't hold your breath, adam is kind of done.
Wake up world!!! Yea do one Adam and tag your music friends. It’s Dilla month.
Ha ha ha !
I have a special kind of respect and love for people who are already great at their craft yet are able to constantly be amazed and dive deep into topics that they could easily ignore, or worse yet, look down on.
Hiphop is so often looked at as a simple subculture that just "rips off" older music; it is so nice to see someone actually studying it and giving one of its best producers his flowers.
Thank you David!
Absolute banger of a video! J Dilla, classical music, rhythm theory, visualization, audio examples, drum machine history…
I had to pause and made a wonky beat off of the first grid that was shown, and only after that you get into the whole “ADJ SHFL” business, mind absolutely blown🤯
Holy crap, what a great video. As a drummer, this is something we all (nowadays) end up learning about, but the way you break it down is something i wish i could have watched when i was still in high school.
For me, i first encountered this as a tool to subtly direct other players in the band by putting the snare before or after the beat. It eventually grew into a stylistic option, like breaking the subdivision of a standard beat into quints and hitting 1 and 4 of those quintuplets on the hi hat, which is so tasty on r&b and hip hop
David I cannot express enough my gratitude for this video. Being black and a saxophonist, I’m very used to not having much of a space in orchestra and this video means so much to me when making classical mysic through appreciation of Dilla. Thank you
6:00 "the Dilla tape vol 4" is just some fan-made compilation for a youtube video, that track is the instrumental to Slum Village's CB4
Had this thought too Patty, also surely it’s K. Riggins playing those drums on that beat no??
This compliments Digging the Greats' video "Dilla Time" wonderfully!
Digging the Greats left a comment about this video.
Your efforts to apply Dilla's influence to classical music are fascinating, I really think you're onto something! I was oblivious to his style until D'Angelo's Voodoo came on the radio one day - I had to pullover in the car to concentrate, counting it off in my head. It was like a lightning bolt that changed everything! As you say, you hear something like Chicken Grease and it's impossible not to move at least some part of your body to it!!
Dilla was a cellist??? insane! one of my new tag lines when I go out and perform my electronic
lo-fi cello sets!
21:24 polish language alarm. Fantastic video btw. You are the only "classical music youtuber" that inspires me. You see music differently then me but becouse of that when i watch your videos i always learn something new and i feel like i understand music a little bit more. Thank you for making videos and for making me appreciate music even more.
yes, but Julian Tumin xd
Best essay on Dilla beats in two decades so far. Thank You. It was always fascinating to hear some great wonkiness in Viennese Waltz. Some of the best classical pieces renditions sounds best because it is played systemically off the rhythm grid.
Your understanding of this is amazing. Great content.
Cannot imagine time and effort you've put into your education.
This is brilliant, what a start to Dilla month. I remember contacting you years ago asking you to check out Dilla after seeing a video you made which delved into rhythm, I forget which
Patty come thru w the good request
Love everything here, but to clarify, I think what that drummer was talking about in that clip (14:05) regarding feel is more that the way you learn these sounds is by doing a lot of listening and playing along to recordings and playing with people who have good feel. It’s possible technically to work out the exact subdivisions, but it’s not incredibly practical to do so(as shown in that cello example from earlier in the video), or at least not the most efficient way to learn it. At least from my perspective that was the intent behind what he was saying more than any sentiment of “you just gotta have it”.
Absolutely agree
Dude I got so happy when you brought up Dilla Time! I'm working through it now and the first few chapters are absolutely brilliant.
Wow, so glad I found this channel. It's absolutely a breath of fresh air to see someone with classical chops take on something usually relegated to contemporary production and beat making.
Also your compositions are fantastic! Insta sub.
Didn’t expect this to be the best Dilla vid but here we are. Going into the actual theory behind the machines is something no one ever does, so thanks.
I always liked Jacob Colliers idea of dillaesque, wonky beats "rolling like an egg" giving it the famous groove
🥱🥱🥱
I often visualise rhythms as a rolling wheel, sometimes with lumps on and sometimes looking like his swing ratio pictures here. I think it helps to have multiple ways to look at the same thing
I like this approach better. Subdivisions of 5, 7 etc makes more sense to me. As does 66, 60, etc.
shame his own music sucks
@@astroboirap thats your opinion
lifelong Dilla fanatic here. Incrtedible work. Thank you for being so respectful to the music here. As much as you do classical opera etc, you treat this as vital. Thank you. Made me wanna hear more classical. Your work is something us dilla heads would love sampling/
Amazing, this is so wonderfull to see. Dilla also used to play those beats unquantized directly into the mpc and not just a few bars but the whole beat. I read an interview once with a mixing engineer who worked with dilla and they had to fix a beat which got messed up in Pro tools. Dillas timing reference to the engineer was to move audio files a few babyfeet :)
babyfeet is the next pixar movie we all need. it could be about penguins and dilla.
Bruce, my friend. The amount of knowloedge you put into these videos is only a match to the amount of inspiration I get from them. I just love watching how these complex concepts end up in your own compositions
I'm leaving a comment for engagement and also to say that I really loved the video and think it deserves way more views than it has. These kinds of videos are very helpful to me because when I was young I wasn't exposed to much modern music like hip-hop and mainly knew classical music because that's what was playing in the house. Since then I've done a kind of 180 in my teens but I still feel like some stuff, even though I can recognize it, never clicked into place for me. I love wonky beats and I also really enjoy playing them but since I only got into them relatively recently I can sense that I'm missing the "feel" of it still.
As an "ex-classical" guy I'm really grateful that I get to see your perspective on these things because they've always made my music listening/playing experience better.
I think this might be my favourite music essay of all time.
Thank you.
Amazing vid! Been listening to Dilla my whole life but this is such a satisfying demonstration on how beautifully nuanced feel can be
You managed to make something here that kept me captivated for the entire length of the video. Well done!
Almost died here with the "ADJ SHFL" 😂 Great vídeo btw!
So good to see you reaching out and highlighting such an important innnovator that isn't from an orchestral background
12:49 is actually a good example of one model of how jazz swing works in an ensemble. I can’t remember if David mentioned it elsewhere. The swing ratio and placement of the downbeats may differ from instrument to instrument (bass will often push, soloist will lag and straighten out) but congruence is often found between the drummers cymbal upbeat and the ensemble upbeats. I actually really like this as a model for ensemble swing feel - there’s some empirical evidence for it (more research would be nice).
Thanks for noticing! Yes this tied in with some research I mentioned at the end of my swing ratio video. The interesting question is whether it can be achieved consciously or just happens through aiming at a specific feel.
@@DBruceah cool. I thought you had as you’ve done quite a few deep dives on microrhythm and swing. Anyway thanks for the replies and the cool video!
@JazzGuitarScrapbook Thanks for pointing this out! That's the only thing I disagree with in the otherwise great video: Dilla was not the first one to make music with different micro timings per instrument, but the first one to do this on drum machines and MPCs, thus bringing it to modern hihhop and RnB music.
@@DBruce as a listener and musician you always tend to first approach music sensationally and sentimentally, analysis comes later.
And no matter how much analysis has gone down, to reproduce it properly, you still have to rely on a synthetical, panoramical view in the end.
So to feel is first and last, you have to cultivate the whole aesthetics of each genre to get it right, not just the technical part.
Exactly. Check out the classic 1961 Oliver Nelson recording of Stolen Moments. The bass kicks off a tight swing, maybe 75%ish, while the melody is exquisitely rendered by the ensemble at a lazy 56%ish swing. The wonky tension created makes it sound inexplicably relaxed and chill. I think the tight swing in the accompaniment/ rhythm section makes the looser swing in the melody stand out as more lazy than it would otherwise sound. I'm sure the vast majority of listeners are unaware of the juxtaposition. But everyone appreciates the cool vibe immediately. They just don't realize why it is so seductively cool. It's a more subtle, natural and organic use of the technique. I dare say a more mature and advanced use of it, as it does not draw attention to itself at all. Its subliminal, quietly serving the music and creating an unmistakable atmosphere without any need to announce itself.
A small note on inverted flams: Some drummers call them malfs.
I really enjoyed your video! Thanks for sharing Dilla's styles and your knowledge!
Very thought provoking! The Grateful Dead also did a bunch of wonky/ out of ordinary rhythms and beats. One thing they do in some songs that I really like is they will will play a swing for half a measure and the next half isn't swung, often with a simple 4/4.
I think I remember this being on some versions of Franklin's Tower.
I have such a weird music taste with classical music, jazz and old school hiphop and your video is just like made for this.
I spent my teens listening to pharcyde, busta rhymes, tribe called quest and had no idea who Dilla was. Back then he went by JD and I just assumed it was JD from Atlanta who worked with Kriss Kross and Da Brat. But he was all over everything I liked.
In 1999 I fell in love with J-88 which would later be known as slum village, and that was the moment the world became better acquainted with J Dilla. Who would have thought my favorite little beatmaker would change the world. RIP to the genius.
I accidentally clicked to watch the video again, which I just went with. Because I like the way your brain works, and I could easily binge watch several of your videos back to back, and I honestly could have missed something interesting or important on the first watch. Thanks for making these videos!
incredibly informative and digestable... thanks david!
Impressive how you have broken all this down technically and entertainingly. It seems like "feel" has been a non-verbal element of all music forever, but when I first heard this sort of exaggerated deep feel in 90s neo-soul music and hip hop it was clear there was a new rhythmic consciousness emerging. Can't wait to hear what musicians will do with more deliberate use of these techniques in the future.
Your note at the end is very important. People who make beats are immersed in it all the time for years. That’s how the groove gets in them. I don’t have it but I’ve seen it. That’s why it would be a privilege to be in the chamber music group, to immerse oneself in it and let it become part of you.
I LOVE what you did at 5:55+ where you speak on the beat you're presenting. It's not yet rap, yet it has qualities of it, it's smooth, feels right, and made me want to experiment in conversation to see how people respond. Thanks for the video ♥
I very much admire your attitude towards music in general because you do not consider the social status of the source, only the content, this is what we need a lot more of in the world, not just in music and the arts but also in the sciences.
Most of the great composers in all eras and cultures don't care who the source is, or what their station is in life, only the content matters. Your classical music seems vastly more fun and interesting, much more emotionally engaging and I would think specifically because of your open mind.
The nice thing about the rhythm machine is it can precisely perform what would seem impossible to master, but once the ear hears a rhythm the body can follow. There is an "ah ha!" moment when the body understands what the mind has been doing and also an "ah ha! moment when the mind figures out what it is that the body has been doing, the back and fourth interaction between mind and body, body and mind leads to innovations that would not come to exist without such a discourse.
Many classically trained composers failed to see the genius in funk music such as what James Brown was doing only without use of any automated drum machine, which latter became subsumed into hip hop and associated with use of the drum machine.
the draw back of the drum or rhythm machine is that it is a machine, it can not accommodate spontaneous improvised real time inspiration as can human performers.
Much of the most ingenious passages in human performed music are originally MISTAKES, when the machines can not respond to these kinds of real time random mutation in the improvisational evolution of music, instead performers are slavishly bound to the predestined automated rhythm track which takes most of the spontaneity and hence the fun out of music. Classical music in the past contained a much larger improvised component, it was not all tied to conforming to a predetermined score.
The problem with such freedom is that the most ingenious improvised content is often a mystery to its own performers who are not able to repeat what they have done because they don't know what it is that they have done. This is where recording is useful, one may treat improvisation as real time composition where the recording device is the notation, most good musicians can reproduce what they can hear performed again by the playback device. Each band, ensemble or orchestra including symphony orchestras tends to develop their own specific micro timing which becomes that groups signature "sound" Often times the difference between great performances and the not so great performances in nearly any style is down to tiny almost imperceptible timing inflections such as you have described, one can not pinpoint what it is but it boils down to to this:
A performer who is bored sounds that way. To match these micro timing inflections takes a high level of physical and mental engagement that a bored performer can not keep up with, this is why many artists seem to burn out over time with their later performances tending to fall flat, while the artists that remain relevant tend to keep reinventing the micro timings to keep compositions fresh no matter how many times they have to play the same piece show to show.
ruclips.net/video/TNm8egNjEuw/видео.html
This is a "Harmony Array" touch screen app that provides a field of buttons where each button initiates a characteristic tempo starting the moment the button is is contacted.
The tempos in this case are tuned as for 12 equal (C-3 and C-2, G-3 and G-2 and so on) so only the octave related buttons shown on the screen produce tempos related by whole number ratios, which ratios provide all the basic note values of standard music notatioin.
Playing several buttons at once produces several tempos at once so equally tempered "chords" (polytempos) may be played where the exact timing by which each button is contacted is crucial to the feel of the resulting rhythm, the same button combination can provide an endless assortment of radically different rhythms depending on WHEN the buttons are contacted.
This device can also play tones such that as with any instrument that produces tones WHICH buttons we play tends to matter more than WHEN we play them.
This is in contrast to tempo where WHEN we play the buttons tends to matter more than WHICH buttons we play, so for TONE it is FREQUENCY that matters the most while for TEMPO it is PHASE which matters the most.
The processes that you have described are all about PHASE DIFFERENCES so you have hit upon the real nature of what is most important to rhythm, the NOTE VALUES matter less while the NOTE PHASES matter more, much of the common literature and technology has missed this crucial distinction.
TL;DR ☹️
The thing that people wont understand is his music come from feeling. He doesn't think about it he simply feels the rhythms come through him
14:04
This is funny, I was thinking that when we started to make beats like Dilla we were just focus on our head nod. And right at this moment you talk about the feeling
The creativity and craft you bring to explaining deep concepts is wonderful! Thanks for this effort!
I thought he just shut off quantization and was very gifted playing the fingerdrums with his great feeling for rhythm?
THAT'S TELLING THE TRUE GENIUS IF A PRODUCER, TAKING TINY BITS AND PIECES, AND CREATE. SALUTE, J DILLA!!!!!!!!!
Never thought I’d hear Dona Dumitru Siminica mentioned in a David Bruce video ❤ Wonderful!
big fan!
@@DBruce Same here!
What is name of that song? Shazam couldn't pick it up. Thanks!
Maybe @@DBruce can help with the song name.
@@djozlioni Afara e intuneric
Robert Glasper is imo a pretty slept on Musician with a band that plays Dilla type music live, super talented group of people with great music. One of their best performances I've heard is the "Valleys" instrumental for Lupe Fiasco if anyone wants to get an ear for what to expect
edit: also Afro Blue w/ Erykah Badu
I love the way you consistently push me as (a classical musician) to think about the power of rhythm by engaging non-classical approaches. Thanks for the video!
tying in romanian folk music with dilla beats is... inspired. i've listened to dilla over and over, but not from a classically trained perspective; thinking about swing across different time signatures blew my mind. thanks for an all-time great beats vid!!!!
This is the best explanation of Dilla's approach I have seen. Great job
While this is a great analysis on this particular aspect of JD's music, I think there's still a LOT of room for analysis on what makes Jay Dee's music so special.
In my opinion what makes his beats so compelling, emphatic and complete is a wholeness of musical coherence between the timbral qualities, harmonies, intricate bass lines and most strongly: the structural cohesion of it all. Every single element of the beat has a structural function and is actively doing something to develop the music, and it is not uncommon that in just 30 or 60 seconds complete musical developments occur.
For me this also represents a bit of a complex problem in music theory in general which is rhythm = onsets (and sometimes tail ends, but not much more), which is where most of the analysis of J Dilla's music has been, when do some sound start, however there's a lot more to what makes rhythm than note beginning and ends, and that includes harmonic proportions, both timbral and tonal.
Sure, J Dilla's music has very interesting patterns regarding most of the rhythmic aspects popularly analyzed but it is also MUCH MORE than that, there's a lot of attention being put on what the patterns of the drums are but very little regarding their relationship with the rest of the elements in terms of something beyond onsets.
I loved the original pieces you showcased by the way! They show some great compromises and solutions regarding how academic notation and idiomatics deal with those kinds of rhythms.
RUclips dropped this video for me in my suggested videos, and I'm really glad it did.
What an entertaining and well put together video!
You've lined up a few rabbit holes for me to fall into,
Thanks for taking the time to create, edit, and share
Me too!!!!
Wasn't expecting the Hiatus Kaiyote mention! They're one of my favourite bands, cool to see them getting recognition outside of Melbourne 😁
(Super keen to see them later in Feb at Hamer Hall with the Dreamboat Orchestra!)
Human sensibility and ability is always the primary innovative factor. This has always been done given the imperfection of human beings... even the most well trained. Interestingly I think our modern experience of it is largely through the highlighting of "common man" musical forms such as folk, blues, hip-hop, etc. where the production and experience of music is not primarily technical or academically analyzed but the emphasis is placed on in--the-moment, subjective experience. Middle Eastern and African tribal rhythms, played by multiple musicians often incorporated polyrhythms.
It's a circle or pendulum swing where art first appears as primal and is eventually developed into something almost separate from human relevance and then travels back again to rediscover it's soul in the primal and imperfect.
Great video, just a quick heads-up I noticed a typo in one of your pieces at 21:25. The surname of the author of the words should be Tuwim, not Tumim
this is so well done and a gift to music education. I doubt dila was conscious of the theory and thus focused on feel, but none the less an academic deconstruction can help new creators to think differently about their own appoach
Hmmm. So "Micro rhythms" is several things but they all create off-beat syncopation: Swing notes in different ratios, polyrhythms, accented grace notes, accented arpeggiated notes, or slightly meteorically shifted notes.
Michael Jackson did this on his 2001 album Invincible. Pretty sure it's in song Butterflies and other tracks from that album.
Thank you so much for making this video. It was well-researched, the explanations and visual aids were on point, and I learned a lot about both the technical and historical/cultural elements of the music.
My one piece of feedback is that I think the types of micro-rhythmic innovations that Dilla pioneered in modern hip-hop have been present in West African drumming for at least 1000 years. It would have felt more complete if this were mentioned. If you’re looking for scholarly documentation, start with the work of Ranier Polak on djembe microtiming.
I'm a cellist and I will never laugh at being allowed to come in late.
You have just changed my life. Thank you for our eloquent and succinct demonstrations and explanations.🤩
It’s kinda goofy of u to even question if his rhythms could be played on drum sets bc u must not know that dilla played live drums on lots of his beats lol
Did he really? What did he play on?
@@lorcanoconnor7359 drums
The first time I heard the swing ratio hack was actually in Elvis’ Jailhouse Rock. The jumpy feel in the verses is created by swinging drums and a straight guitar. So cool and so ahead of its time.
If you clicked on this video and made it 6and half minutes in without knowing what a beat is, that's on you.
First time here. You made my day. I cried the day he passed. Dillas beats taught me so much: design thinking, embracing imperfections, KISS (difficulty in keeeping things simple)…. So much to learn from his work…
Its entirely possible that Dilla stumbled upon this by not trimming the start of his samples perfectly.
interesting. it could’ve very well been “thats good enough” lol
Very nice - thanks for sharing. I have to note: Not everyone followed the same grid. There has always been music that was “in between the cracks”. In addition, the rock 'n' roll of the 50's, for example, was primarily characterized by the fact that in the same song some band members swung and others played binary. (as one example of many, Chuck Berry's Johnny B Goode)
Maybe music only got straight when we started to try and notate it 🤷♀
Hell yes, I love seeing Jay Dee right next to classical composers. It's the respect he deserves
The Shaggs were not tied to the grid
Highly academic and sophisticated delivery of a fantastic topic yet fully understandable by any music lover of any level. You are a gem of RUclips. I have followed Dilla for decades and have waited for a good study on him. Excellent work!
The true creator of Lofi
Nah j dilla hi fi
Big fan of both Dilla and your channel ahead of this video, and I was amazed of both the fact that you did a video on Dilla and the quality of the video! Well done!
I remember playing in a RnB/neo-soul band long ago and we were also wondering wether this "slug groove", as we called it, actually could be quantified. We used Sibelius to write music, and the closest we got was a 32nd note ahead/after with "heavy swing". But we concluded it was best just to agree who was to play ahead or behind, and just "feel it",
With your explanation I now see how I can apply this in a daw, playing on my own. Very informative and inspiring!!
This is simply a brilliant video; more importantly, its content is lovingly curated in recognition and mad respect for the brilliance of a basement Mozart. Cheers, David, for looking beyond the bling!
I think Dilla said in some interview that he'd put together drum loops by playing sampled hits (snare, hihat etc.) on the MPC pads by hand and thus the wonky feel, since he's not a trained drummer. He might have used drum machines like Linndrum sometimes but I don't think he messed around with manually shifting the swing ratio and stuff like that.
Check out the book Dilla Time. It states it was deliberate
wow that graph w the rythms was maybe the best music visual aid ive seen running thru all the different rythms and showing while letting u hear them was cool to show exactly the where the feel comes from
Dude, what an amazing video !
Very informative, very technical, very clear, thanks !!
Really inspirational to see a classical musician understand, appreciate, and even explain how Dilla's rhythms 'work'
I really want to say thank you, for this amazing video.
Nice breakdown. This ties together things I've been listening to and gives visibility to an influential musician I might have otherwise never heard of. I had to chuckle about the notation. It seem that some of the things we play or sing are so much more easily felt than read.
The "different feels overlaid on top of each other" thing came about naturally in lots of hip-hop: they were sampling different records with different feels and layering them on top of each other.
Hip-Hop is one of the highest forms of artistic/philosophical expression. Thank you, J Dilla.
I really like how you approach different music genres!
May I suggest to talk with a dancer about JDilla?
Dancers have a completely different approach to music
Beautiful work. So much hard work all which ways
The Beatles' Lady Madonna always struck me as achieving something similar. Peppy, swinging drums and piano start up in the left channel, then a laid back straight rock drum and bass groove starts up in the right channel, and they co-exist!
So happy to discover you David!!!!
amazing!! I think this is the first time I watched a longer yt video beginning to end. Really loved your song in the end 'the wonky david bruce song' lol!!!
Session keys here since 18, 51 now, and I'd say you've explained everything perfectly here! Well done! 👍
That passage from your opera was beautiful. The rhythm was very convincing and created a real otherworldly, ungrounded emotion.
Thank you for the effort and time put into this, many Dilla heads will appriciate.
This is just excellent… I love that you are capturing the heart and the mind of Dilla! 👍✌️