J Dilla’s Brother Believes Kanye West’s Career Skyrocketed Partially Due To Producer’s Death
J Dilla’s brother believes that Kanye West wouldn’t have reached the level of success and popularity he attained as an artist if his late sibling was alive.
Illa J, the younger brother of J Dilla, recently made the claim during an appearance on an episode of AnecDope. The rapper, singer, producer pointed out Kanye’s trend of incorporating contributions from several producers on a single record, as opposed to J Dilla, whose work was largely self-contained.
“I don’t think Kanye is as big as he is if my brother still alive,” Illa said at one point during the conversation. “I’m sorry. Kanye needs seven producers. If you look at the credits, there’s like 20 producers on one track.”
The Detroit native then seemingly alluded to West being the mere equivalent of a beat-maker, whereas musicians such as J Dilla are revered as producers due to their central role in the recording process.
“It’s a thing to make beats and then it’s a thing to produce. Yeah, you’re making some crazy stuff, but we’re talking producer, man,” he continued. “Quincy Jones is still the goat. That’s a real music producer. Most people are beat makers, if we’re being real.”
Illa J’s comments sparked debated on social media, with fans of each boardsman arguing their case for being the superior producer. While some showed reverence for Dilla’s body of work, arguing that it was stronger than Kanye’s, others expressed their opinion that Yeezy would have remained a megastar regardless of Dilla’s presence.
At the time of Dilla’s passing on Feb 10, 2006, Ye had already ammassed considerable commercial and critical success, with his first two albums, College Dropout and Late Registration, both debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, going on to reach multiplatinum certification.
In contrast, while Dilla worked on seminal albums by Pharcyde, A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, Common and others that also garnered mainstream recognition, his own musical projects, many of which are considered classics, failed to yield the same amount of sales as West’s.
See Illa J’s AnecDope episode below.
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