The late, great J. Dilla has posthumously received the honor of having street renaming in his hometown of Detroit.
On Thursday (February 6), a ceremony was held at the corner of East Nevada and Charest was officially renamed “J Dilla Street.”
Ja’Mya Yancey, Dilla’s daughter, spoke about how the recognition was a long time coming.
“This is long overdue for my father,” Yancey told FOX 2 Detroit. “He left it up to us his family to continue to make sure that his genius was not left behind or forgotten about. And that’s exactly what we are doing, have been doing, and will continue to do.”
“We were out here on foot getting signatures from people and it was so good to see,” she continued. “People were like, ‘Oh yeah, I know exactly who you’re talking about, I sure will support it.”
Dan Charnas, the author of the Dilla Time, expressed his excitement about the event on Instagram.
“A great morning in Detroit. A lot of people worked very hard to get to this moment, the first real official recognition of the work and legacy of James Dewitt Yancey from the City of Detroit,” his post read.
“Much respect and admiration to his daughters [Ja’Mya Yancey] and [Ty-Monae Whitelow]. To [Joylette Hunter] who did the heavy lifting, and to [Detroit councilwoman Mary Sheffield] who shepherded this process,” he continued. “To the folks at the James Dewitt Yancey Estate, and to [Questlove], [Common], [Pete Rock], [Karriem Riggins] and [Jessica Care Moore]. If you nurtured or worked with Dilla, you helped to get this done, too.”
Regarded as one of the most influential producers of all time, Dilla came to prominence in the mid-1990s as a member of the group Slum Village. He went on to produce songs for the likes of Janet Jackson, The Pharcyde, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest, and Q-Tip.
Dilla also was a member of the Soulquarians which consisted of Questlove, D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Common, Q-Tip, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Bilal, and Raphael Saadiq.
On February 10, Dilla died at the age of 32 from complications of lupus and TTP.
Leave a Reply