A Dilla Donut Download A Day: Feb 3rd, Song #3

It's the 3rd of Dilla February: open wide & swallow till the arteries clog and your heart shits itself. Oh joy.


Day 3, Song 3:

Faith Evans - You Used To Love Me [Ummah Remix] (Produced by The Ummah)


I had to dispense atleast one Ummah produced diamond during this marathon of mighty melodies. For those ig'nant scalp-scratchers I'll drop science before the dandruff submerges your face: The Ummah was a legendary production team comprised of Jay-Dee alongside A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad- a holy trinity that formed (like Voltron) around '95. The trio were responsible for the majority of Tribe's 4th and 5th classic LPs Beats, Rhymes & Life (1996) and The Love Movement (1998), aswell as Tip's solo opus Amplified (2000) though without Ali Shaheed (post-Tribe disbanding).

Additional members to the team during other works have included that mildly tortured (loose-brere) virtuoso D'Angelo and his slightly more sober coequal Raphael Saadiq, though this evolved at the turn of the century into a wider musical collective regarded as The Soulaquarians that most notably encompassed Common, ?uestlove + The Roots, D'Angelo, Erykah Badu and James Poyser. To quite explain the significance these CRAFTSMAN had on my adolescent years, I would unremittingly smack the physical compact disk cases of The Roots' Things Fall Apart, D'Angelo's Voodoo, Common's Like Water For Chocolate and Erykah's Mama's Gun up side your head for 4 years (no lunch, nap or piss breaks) until you agreed on their magnificence.





Earlier, I received a request in my MySpace inbox from a goodly gentleman, Retch...The Chef, and despite my ignorance towards the calibre of his culinary skills, I had to comply with his Like Water For Chocolate demands as it set the score for my sombre Sunday evening Supermalt sipping session. Feel me? Feel this.


Common - Nag Champa (Afrodisiac For The World) (Produced by Jay-Dee)


A toast to the Sabbath.




This evenings deep-fried baked good at the top of this post however, is an unreleased remix of a Faith Evan's single from '95. Jay-Dee's influence is crystal with the dreamy organ keys merging with Tip's penchant for dense boom-bap drums; the reverb (echo) on which adds an atmosphere that completely supersedes the original song. It's shame that not many people have heard this, it's mid-90s R&B at it's most dynamic and scrotal (if you dig that vibe I recommend you peep Groove Theory's '95 self-titled LP, renowned for their hit single 'Tell Me').

And here's a video of the original release that incidentally charted to Gold in the US (ya know, back when people used to buy music...psshhhh- whenever the fuck THAT was.) I implore you to watch the clip, it features the late Biggie Smalls as (yes you guessed it) a fat guy clad like an elephant hunter that gets more honeys than you ever will.
Cream bowler hat = gash bow down to the crown.




Till tomorrow then- anticipate a hardcore Monday. Shan Phearon makes sure everything remains raw...