Batman.
Titanic.
WWII.
Is that even possible?
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Dilla Time
Reading this phenomenal book about J Dilla. It’s so powerful.
I remember listening to some of his Slum Village tracks back in the early 2000s, thinking “this one was dope but this one is a joke, right?”. I was frustrated by the hype and either great delivery about the hype or very underwhelming content. The book explains why this was like that.
I’ve been listening to Robert Glasper plays J Dilla (with Chris Dave on drums) a lot since last year. A phenomenal live performance (Boiler room in NYC, gone from YouTube but I have my mp3s). Shout out to T3.
I’ve been making beat-heavy music for 20+ years. Playing bass every day for 25+. Always had a drummer playing in my head since I was a kid and heard my first snares, hi hats and kicks live.
Dilla is from Detroit, a city with a French name and tons of French culture artifacts because it was founded by French missionaries.
Detroit is Motor City (the car life in L.A.), Motown (one of the biggest achievement ever in Black America), P-Funk (ever bigger than Motown to me), and Techno (so absolutely massive in 90s Europe, where I was at that time).
He was fascinated by Brazilian music, its polyrhythms, textures and harmonics. Me too (that’s why there’s timbales in my latest below).
He moved to L.A. in Hancock Park. I live a short bicycle ride away from there. He also was in Silver Lake with Stones Throw Records, who’s head is Peanut Butter Wolf who I recognized in the restroom of the Cinerama Dome during the premiere of Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest. Dilla also connected with Madlib and Little Brother, both acts that I adored in the 2000s.
I barely listen to any hip-hop.
The Pharcyde’s Bullshit track is probably the first hip-hop track that I truly loved to death. Labcabincalifornia is one of the best ever (shout out to Booty Brown and Diamond D).
In 2014 I was living next to Delicious Pizza, created by the Delicious Records guys, who produced Labcabincalifornia. I got to chat with the Ross brothers. They had a couple block parties and I got to hear Slimkid3 and Fatlip spitting live from my roof while bopping heads with friends.
I could never stand Jay-Z, Puff and Kanye’s stuff. I was annoyed that they were so huge. I wanted Dilla’s Elastic SoulFunk to dominate.
I wanted Dilla to do more soul. Ain’t nothing wrong with keeping doing something great. All the hard, tech, dirty beats didn’t stand the test of time, all his soulful ones did and are even stronger now.
The insanity of the music business in the early 2000s. The label consolidation really ruined so many careers. Had Dilla been in the Bandcamp era, he would have been eating vegan donuts making beats from his Detroit basement, fully independent, money going straight to his account, the way he wanted it.
The sad because so common tale of a man not caring about much while women take care of EVERYTHING around his ass. smdh.
I waited. I avoided music labels, baby mamas and homies telling you how you should line up your life.
But the connection is deeper than I want to recognize. My head is heavy with creative, musical, undone things that I want to lay down in notes and rhythms.
Many in Dilla Time.
It’s just funny how things float around, sometimes.
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Holistic approach, always
My answer to mass shootings will always be this post I wrote last year.
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Y’all got kids, right?
Question: how do you not freak out about technology right now?
AI passing exams? Coding? Making music? It’s right now, not soon.
Soon, it’ll be so good that it will be enough for us.
The question screaming in my head is:
HOW DO WE SUSTAIN A SOCIETY SO RICH THAT ITS SALARY-BASED SYSTEM IS STRAIGHT UP INVALID? HOW? HOW DO WE COMPETE WITH SOMETHING DOING BETTER THAN US 24/7 AT QUITE EVERYTHING?
After the start of the pandemic, printing money, inflation and AI exploding this conversation should be in every mouth out there, seriously.
It’s so crucial and urgent. And the answer is simple:
Print money (UBI), give it to people, house us in very sustainable and healthy housing (so that we relieve earth from our growth’s impact and sustain ourselves into peaceful communities), and let us work collaboratively with AI (we keep doing what we’re doing with printed money as a constant supplement). No need for competition. No need for cyberpunk fantasy.
Simple. Not easy.
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Tyre Nichols
Rest in Power, brother.
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Other times
Somewhere in the past. I don’t exactly remember the context or why I’m standing like a NPC or select-your-character in a fighting game, but I think I’m about to roll out with grandma’s car that I just bought for 1500 euros, about 15,000 dollars today probably.
I’ve had so much fun with this car, which is the best in the world hands down. It has to be experienced.
Sheeee. That’s how it started. My second trip ever in the US. I barely speak any English. I’m in love. The man behind me is about to take us in the sky on the 4th of July (my first one!) right when the fireworks start. Unforgettable. He sadly passed away not so long ago doing what he loved, flying a plane.
The other day, tradition was back! Before lunch we drink a Pastis or two. Or three. ANYWAY. It’s strong and has a unique taste. I had forgotten about the taste, smell and packaging. Memory lane indeed.
I haven’t changed much, in the end. Just add glasses, and pants that cover my ankles.
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Hey man, smell my finger
Smells. How do they work? I don’t know but we underrate the sense of smell wildly.
It’s unique to each of us, even more than hearing and digitally quite impossible to synthesize for now. Yet, it’s so powerful.
I have a perfume, I think it’s Star from Thierry Mugler which automatically reminds me of a friend and a bunch of situation, a particular laugh etc. From 25 years ago. In a second. My trip last week was an olfactive, Nose-apalooza festival.
It feels like smells capture time and space, with a pleasant or non-pleasant odor. It’s Whole. There’s no discrimination. The smell is this, then [insert super vivid 3D Dolby Atmos 16K HD memory].
I don’t know. I never lost my sense of smell in the past 3 years, it might even have gotten better.
Now I have a suitcase that I don’t really want to open because well, smells. They’ll die if I start using those clothes and tools! Please understand and respect my privacy in this difficult moment.
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Cloud 9
I’m still on it from my trip! It was amazing.
I don’t recommend holding on to do something for close to ten years, but when it happens it’s… It keeps on giving.
I’m so glad I went to visit. It gave me some perspective to who I became too.
It also kind of deletes the long wait, as if now that the moment happened, that I made it back, the wait hadn’t existed.
Still going over everything in my head.
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Octa-japan
I’m super impressed about Japanese people’s ability to rethink the strongest elements of our lives. No one in the West would try to build a house like this one. Check out the floor plan and imagine living like this everyday.
I’m sure it’s pretty great! First cooling and heating (aka feeling good in your home) are probably excellent with this shape. Second, while providing privacy and views, this shape is also nice to the neighbors; you can see on the first picture how it lets sunlight flow into the house next door when a square, traditional house wouldn’t have allowed this.
The ability to question, re-invent and adapt is core to design. Japan excels at that.
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Jockey
I have a book with the complete works of Zaha Hadid. She designed that bad boy:
It looks like a frozen Eva. This is a real building in Hong-Kong.
It is spectacular, but I can’t stop thinking about layouts and how it feels inside. Does it feel great? How are heating and cooling? Are you constantly lost between floors? How expensive is it to maintain a state-of-the-art building like this? Say a custom panel needs to be replaced, how does it work?
Inspiring for sure.