A Dilla Donut Download A Day: Feb 6th, Song #6

It's the 6th of Dilla February: kiss me quick, you may have diabetes.


Day 6, Song 6:

Slum Village - Fall-N-Love [Jay Dee Remix] (Produced by Jay Dee)


I just got back from my 10 hour night-shift a while ago, and I was almost too exhausted & irritable to do an elaborate exposition on today’s donut. Last night I went into the office an hour & 37 minutes late after over-napping in my own visible dry-white-pillow-fibre-dribble (my gran needs to get boxed in her senile head for coppin' me navy blue bed accessories from les Primark) then rushing out of the yard without socks, under-pants or a vest on (no word of a lie, buss-up Tweed SBs upon nude toes, puffa jacket covering expose'd bear-rug chest, bedtime jogging bottoms concealing one's modesty) carrying a toothbrush & a DVD of Ghostbusters 2. It was one of the lowest points of my life. I quit at the end of the month and hope to start one of 2 internship positions I've been offered at Universal Records or MTV Base- thank motherfuck.

Enough about your humble narrator... thought I'd bring you back down via a spiralling descent into the molten-ravaged abyss of Hell the common man endures in his financial survival (re: Dilla's 'The $' off Ruff Draft, "For awesome amounts of dough- I NEED THE MONEY!"), before projecting you off into a stratosphere of sound again.

You must recognise the title; the original Fall-N-Love being arguably one of the greatest James Yancey masterpieces in the history of hip-hop music. If you don't, leave this blog immediately- BNTL is cyber-space's Royston Vasey and you're clearly not one of the locals. Today’s symphonic cruller however stands alone as one of my favourite Jay Dee remixes in the master's entire catalogue. This flip was originally released as a 12" single in 2000, then again as the B-Side to the single release of Raise It Up though was not made available on Fantastic Vol. 2 or any subsequent re-issues.

The original composition itself... what do you want me to say? Shall i simplify for once? Shit makes me want to lock myself in a dark shed with candles & cry like a bitch. There's something about the way the background vocal-cut is filtered and layered as the melody that makes me feels like I've just been 'Supermanned' by the archangel Gabrielle. There's people who'll agree with me.

Yet, the remix is equally as breathtaking. It's a sonic transformation that completely defies the etiquette of a logical reworking...and seats you at a dinner table with incalculable genius. Somehow Dilla manages to create something as equally choral & haunting that lingers around the listener like a thick smoke-ring of the most euphoric mary-jane imaginable. Maybe it's the hook? Reworked but still as anthemic as it's predecessor, "don't-sell-yourself, short to fall in love my man": we transcend aural amusement into harmonic philosophy that can be applied to our every day lives & struggles. Now THAT'S real.

I've had serious debates over which is better than the other- the original or the remix? It's an irksome one.

What do you think?

Here's the original in case there's a single despicable Dilla-beggit out there who doesn't actually own it to draw the comparative conclusion:


Slum Village - Fall-N-Love [Original Version] (Produced by Jay Dee)



P.S. If you love this shit. I mean really really genuinely love this shit, my people The Lookout are holding a big Dilla tribute party tomorrow night @ Favela Chic just off Old Street. As you know BNTL's own Vinyl Vivian alias DJ Cavalry will be spinnin' you to an eargasm, alongside London's elite DJs Alexander Peanut and Stonesthrow Record's Alex Chase and live acts too. It's a Dilla night with a difference, the first major one of the big 3 this week. All profits go to the Lupus UK charity, so don't be a tight wanker...