Happy New Year!! It has been a great year for me (new dope job + new fantastic apartment) and I am looking forward to making 2011 even better! Thanks to my new position as Event Director at Brooklyn Bowl I get to spend the night with some of the people I love the most at a sold out concert by The Roots. They garnered 6 Grammy nominations this year, including Best Rap Album. It's gonna be a great night...
I spoke to Ma Dukes yesterday and found out that Pa Dukes, Beverly Dewitt Yancey, Dilla's father and perhaps his greatest musical influence, is in the hospital in critical condition. Ma Dukes thinks if we can just help raise his spirits he could find the strength to recover. So I reached out to my friend Vlad from Global Grooves Collective and Laid Back Radio and he made Dewitt's track from his Doo Wop group The Ivies his record of the week. We are hoping people will check out the post and leave a comment as I will be forwarding the comments to Ma Dukes so she can read them to Dewitt in the hospital. For the full story behind the track check out my May 8, 2010 post. You can check out the song below and leave a comment here for me to forward to Ma Dukes
Or check out Vlad's post and some of the comments that people have already left from as far as Brazil, Italy and Serbia. If you love Dilla then take a second to let his family know how much they mean to us all. I had the pleasure of spending Mother's Day with the Yancey's, eating Pa Dukes ribs, listening to him tell me story after story and just hanging out watching TV with the family. All I can say is he is one of the best people I have ever had a chance to meet.