Bowls & Coolout - J Dilla Tribute live at the Krispy Kreme (2006)

This, my friends, is one of the greatest gigs I've ever been a part of. It was a fairly mild night on December 16, 2006, and if you were a hip-hop head here in Nashville, you probably knew that Coolout and I were over at the Krispy Kreme on Thompson Lane, playing Dilla beats from 8:00 til midnight. If you weren't a hip-hop head, and you were just in the mood for some doughnuts, well...I guess you can consider the music as an added bonus.

I usually like to give a full chronological breakdown for stuff like this, but today I'll just hit you with whatever my memory can round up.

• Stones Throw sponsored the event and we also got Critics' Pick in the Nashville Scene. I've still got a few copies of that issue tucked away somewhere.


• Everyone who came to the shop for Dilla donated to the Lupus Research Institute. A lot of people who were just standing in line donated as well.


• Coolout was rocking off the CDJs and I brought a crate full of Dilla productions and original samples. Between us we had beats for days.


• This is the only time I ever drank and smoked in a Krispy Kreme parking lot. I think everybody else that night can say the same thing.


• The looks on the peoples' faces in line were pure comedy. I'd be shocked too if I walked in on turntables, loud speakers, and bobbing heads in a doughnut shop.


• I had just burned a copy of that Jay Love Japan advance that leaked, but I accidentally left it at home.


• A couple b-boys got down to some of the more uptempo joints. I have a picture somewhere of this dude doing a headspin on the concrete-tiled floor.


• My man Ted was in town that night, and he joined Coolout, Case, and I at Lay'la for the post-party. I definitely remember us skipping past a long line at the entrance. I know that it was only because Coolout knew the guys at the door, but it's more fun to think that we were getting the VIP treatment for rocking a Dilla tribute at a Krispy Kreme. You know, popping bottles and whatnot.

Big shout out to Mike for the video footage. I found this file buried in my music folder, and now it's up on YouTube over two years later. I know that Dilla tributes got kind of played and predictable over the course of the last three years, but I can honestly say that this ranks as one of the original and MOST original tributes to the man who left us with Donuts.

R.I.P. James Yancey aka Jay Dee aka J Dilla

Until next time,

Bowls

PS: FUNKY GOOD TIME TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY! It's Thursday night at Cabana. We're doing a James Brown tribute. Geezus might have a panic attack trying to pick just a few joints from his JB collection. See you there.

If Heaven was a bathroom in St. Louis...

So I spent last Monday digging for records in the fine city of St. Louis. Growing up, my family made trips to STL often, usually making the 2:45 drive for a Cardinals baseball game. Around 99/2000 I started getting deeper into buying records, so we searched and found gold in the form of Vintage Vinyl on Delmar.

On my numerous adventures in Vintage Vinyl over the last 9 years, I've come up on countless records (not to mention almost losing a full shopping bag of wax when I left it at a streetside table outside a restaurant), met a handful of interesting people, and been led to a few more record shops in the process.

Nowadays, I'm guaranteed to leave STL with at least a couple records that I've really been hunting for, and they're ALWAYS in great condition. The quality and selection of black music in STL eclipses that of Nashville, which is obviously expected when you consider their respective music histories. But, if I was forced to use the record grading scale, nothing gets put in the bins in STL that isn't VG+ or better. Tons of unplayed promo copies turn up as well. I can't really say the same for Nashville, plus, something tells me that some guy named Egon and his friends ran through a ton of the city's wax YEARS ago.

To wrap it up, I love living and digging in the Music City, but there's nothing like seeing the view of the arch and smelling the wax in the air. So last Monday, when I decided to relieve myself at the last record shop before hitting the road, I was hit with this:

Until next time,

Bowls

PS: BOOM BAP this weekend, back at the Blue Bar. I bought a few joints that I'll definitely be playing on Saturday night (4/18). The party kicks off at 9:00. Give me a shout if you're in the building.