BrightestYoungThings: PHOTOS: Dilla Tribute @ LIV

all words and photos: Will Mullady

When I arrived at Liv around ten o'clock the venue was packed wall to wall spilling over into the stair well, not bad for a Wednesday night even if it was a free show. The reason so many party goers were in attendance this particular evening: to pay Tribute to James Yancey aka Jay Dilla aka Jay Dee one of the most profilic hip hop producers/rappers of our generation. Hosted by DC's own Grap Luva the event began with a format similar to VH1's Hip Hop Honors with local emcees such as E Major, AwthentiK (The Fif), Phil Ade and more doing their best renditions of Dilla classics. These one track sing alongs got the crowd hyped up and were truly touching tributes not one of the performers used their brief stage time to self promote but instead honored the legend that had brought us all together. A live band with a full horn section and exceptional female vocalist Alison carney accompanied all the performers before breaking into what Grap refferred to as Dilla's basement a mix of instrumentals and origial samples from Dilla's catalog.

Although the venue was neck to neck with no signs of A/C the crowd hung in tight and everyone threw their Js up when Dilla's mother "Ma Dukes" shared stories of her sons life and spoke about the Lupus foundation that all the night's proceeds would benefit. After a touching moment with the woman who brought a hip hop legend into this world a living legend hit the stage, Phife Dog of the one and only A Tribe Called Quest hit the stage and went through hit after hit quickly and commanding. Phife had great stage prescence and performed wonderously against the background of the band. Last but not least we saw a performance from Dillas little brother Illa Jay that closed out the evening properly.

The Jay Dilla Tribute party is an annual event and shouldn't be anything less than amazing next year.