![]() ![]() These myths have fed into what is arguably the most fervent cult following in hip-hop’s history. And the most persistent legend about the producer is the most heartrending-that he crafted his final and most well-known album, Donuts, in a hospital bed shortly before his death in February 2006 of complications from lupus and a rare blood disease known as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. ![]() A famous story revolves around stolen credit for what would’ve been his biggest hit: Janet Jackson’s “Got ’Til It’s Gone” bears so many hallmarks of a Yancey production-the Fender Rhodes melody, the bouncing bassline, the Q-Tip cosign-that it must have come from his fingertips and not those of credited producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. His sense of rhythm and timing is among the most interesting musical innovations of the past quarter-century, influencing pop music and jazz at the same time, but his genius in that regard is often boiled down to a single anecdote: that he shunned the mechanical rigidity of his digital sampler and operated it with a natural touch. The life story of James Dewitt Yancey-the influential hip-hop producer from Detroit who rose to prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s first as Jay Dee and later as J Dilla-is inextricably tied to the myths told about him. ![]()
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