I got ban off youtube for a minute! I’m off youtube parole… I guess, but I got 1 more strike and it’s over they gonna cancel my account said my shit is to raunchy, dig that.. so Imma play it cool for now like the snow…. Bill Yen

HERE IT IS!!!! LEAVE ALL COMMENTS AND RLP QUOTES!!! T-N-T PAGE

Plans are currently in motion to ensure the legendary Detroit producer James “J Dilla” Yancey will be celebrated in style this upcoming February on what will be the sixth anniversary of his passing. On February 10, “Dilla Day” is scheduled to take place at the Fillmore Detroit says Jonathon Taylor who heads the Yancey Media Group and works closely with Maureen Yancey, J-Dilla’s mother. A quick call to Joylette Hunter, president of the J Dilla Foundation also helped confirm the event.

The line-up for the evening is still being sorted out, but thus far it’s already stacked with talent. Confirmed guests include Busta Rhymes, Jay Electronica, Phat Kat, Danny Brown, Phife Dawg (of A Tribe Called Quest), J-Rocc, Esham and Fat Ray. Chuck Inglish of the Cool Kids may also perform that night. They’ve even got actress Taraji P. Henson scheduled to be the evening’s host. In keeping up with the digital age, the event is scheduled to be simulcast as well for those who can’t be there.

Before Dilla passed away in 2006 due to complications from Lupus, he was a core member of Detroit group Slum Village and did production for some of the greatest contemporary urban music artists of all time such as Erykah Badu, Common, Talib Kweli, the Roots, Janet Jackson, Bilal, Guru, A Tribe Called Quest and a host of others.

At a glance, it seems like the J Dilla Foundation is stepping their game up considerably and fighting to make sure that Dilla’s music and legacy are honored properly in a large concert venue. Previous tributes around the city have all been well received and well meaning, although they’re often smaller in comparison to tributes that Dilla receives in cities such as Los Angeles, Paris, London and New York.

Considering that Dilla’s music has touched all corners of the globe, hopefully, the organizers of this tribute concert won’t have a problem selling out the 2,100 seats their on the hook for at the Fillmore Detroit. Tickets are $20 and a portion of the proceeds will go to the J Dilla Foundation.

“We’re leaving the price at $20 because we want as many people as possible to come out to the event, Taylor said on the phone earlier today. “You know we could charge more with this line-up having Busta Rhymes, Phife Dawg, and Taraji Henson hosting everything. But we want to get as many people from Detroit and whoever else in the building that night.”

A portion of the events surrounding Dilla Day will go to build hype for the Rebirth of Detroit which is an upcoming album slated for release Memorial Day Weekend with a throng of Detroit artist performing over previously unreleased Dilla material.

For more information on that project, check out an interview that Taylor just did last week in which he speaks candidly on the Rebirth of Detroit album and his favorite Dilla memories.

Esham is, in conversation, an amicable dude. Not what you’d expect from the pioneer of “acid rap” — a hip-hop subgenre that’s been criticized for its dark, satanic images — and an admitted influence on multi-platinum superstars like Eminem and Insane Clown Posse.

But the Detroit musician, whose 13th studio album, Sacrificial Lambz, hit stores in late August, has made some changes to his successful formula. And those changes aren’t limited to music: He also plans to run for Detroit mayor soon. No kidding.

“I’ve been able to entertain people for 20 years,” he says. “I just try to uplift people now. The latest things I do, I’m trying to get a message out to people, while I’m entertaining them at the same time. The jump to running for mayor is a pretty drastic change, but I just want to take a stance. If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

Esham — real name Rashaam Smith — grew up splitting time between Detroit and New York, living on the Motor City’s east side with his mother and spending time with his grandmother in New York City every summer. As a firsthand witness to the East Coast’s hip-hop boom and the advent of artists like Sugar Hill Gang and Run-DMC in the mid- to late-’80s, Esham fell in love with hip hop early on. He started to write lyrics himself soon thereafter, and his older brother encouraged him to take it more seriously.

“He felt like I had a dope flow, and he thought I could bring something new to the game, just coming from the city of Detroit,” Esham says. “Back then, it wasn’t really a [rap] music scene in Detroit. Everybody was just imitating what everybody else was doing.”

Along with his love for hip hop, Esham always enjoyed the dark imagery of death metal and hardcore rock. Detroit, of course, has a staunch reputation for “Devil’s Night,” the night before Halloween when kids would sometimes set fires to houses and buildings in the area. Esham says that he “just exploited that, being the capitalist that I am,” and he recorded his debut LP, Boomin’ Words from Hell, about it in 1990. Esham, who was only 13 years old at that time, wrote the raps, produced the beats and even released the album all by himself — an approach that a lot of artists, especially in rap, try to emulate in an era when the Internet is vital and self-promotion is a necessity rather than a luxury.

“It was the crack era, when I made Boomin’, and that’s where all that really came from,” the rapper says. “It was all an expression about ['70s-'80s drug cartel] Young Boys Incorporated, Mayor Coleman Young, the city we lived in and just the turmoil that our city was going through at the time. We referred to the streets of Detroit as ‘Hell’ on that record. So that’s where my ideas came from. What I was doing hadn’t been seen before — young guys getting in the game that early and being entrepreneurs before they even reach adolescence. A lot of people do it now because of the formula that we put out there, so to speak.”

Esham would continue to pad his catalog and sharpen his skills, releasing album after album every one or two years. Establishing a fan base was difficult for him, though. Many hip-hop fans were writing off the dark imagery and satanic lyrics of his music as just shock value; the heavy metal facets of his records weren’t connecting with the hip-hop community either. But Esham insists that though his controversial lyrics were describing how people really felt at the time, and his lyrical lack of political correctness worked against him.

“People were literally scared of my records,” he says. “There have been so many rumors about me and my records. People got the first album, and they would just make up stories. They’d get into an accident and be like, ‘I got into an accident because I was playing that tape.’ It wasn’t like we helped ourselves when we described what was in people’s heads. It wasn’t to shock people, though, but to get people involved in what we were doing. We had to get peoples’ attention. … We said a lot of things that people wanted to say but didn’t say. We talked about a lot of political and social [issues] that people didn’t want to talk about.”

Eventually, however, people began to take notice. Esham’s morbid rap would develop a cult following, and his influence would begin to show in other artists’ music. Insane Clown Posse, the multiplatinum-selling Detroit rap duo known for its “evil clowns” personas have cited Esham as an influence. Eminem once alluded to himself on record as “a mixture between [Marilyn] Manson, Esham and Ozzy [Osbourne].” The phenomenon of rap-rock hybrids, capitalized on by the likes of Limp Bizkit, Korn, Kid Rock and others, can also be somewhat traced back to Esham’s music as well.

“A lot of people go into my extensive back catalog and redo my ideas, and think they’re coming up with something new,” he says. “I’m flattered by a lot of it. I used to get upset, but the older I get, I realize that we were on a higher plane than a lot of people. In simple terms, they don’t have enough game to put it out there the same way we put it out there.

“I’ve put more into this game than I’ve taken away from it. As opposed to just coming to the table with a knife and a fork, I brought the pig for people to eat up. I know that even though people might make more dollars or create more revenues based on things I’ve done in the past, I still feel like I’m spiritually richer than all of these people, just on my connection of a higher plane.”

While Esham describes his newer music on Sacrificial Lambz as “wicked,” he also insists that there’s more positivity and substance. “Don’t Give Up” is an uplifting number dedicated to people who are struggling. “Substance Abuse” finds Esham — whose “acid rap” describes music similar to LSD hallucinations — encouraging listeners to stay away from drugs. Tracks like “Root of All Evil” and “Garbitch” traverse more neutral territory, by handling such concepts as the power of money and the low quality of mainstream rap.

“I made [my first] record when I was 13,” he repeats. “I was an adolescent. Wild. Didn’t care about anything except getting money. From then till now, I was a kid. Well, I’m a grown man now. So my views have changed on certain things and the way I used to go about doing things. I’m doing them a little differently now.”

Doing things differently also extends to his political activity. Esham told Metro Times that he’s in the process of getting a petition signed so he can run for mayor of Detroit in the upcoming special election. While he admits it’s a drastic step from rapper to mayor — which he insists would not be an issue — he believes it’s the most convincing way that he can make a difference. If everything goes the way he wants, the rapper will go from talking about issues on records to actually solving them in office.

“I’m like a muse for people,” he concludes. “I’ll do something, and then everybody else will do it. I figure that if I jump in, maybe more young people will step up and try to get involved and change some of these things in their communities as well. Make it for the better.”

There’s a show Feb. 18th at Club Polo in Allen Park, MI.

THIS IS GOING TO BE HELLAVA LADIES NIGHT PART 2 WITH ESHAM, POE WHOSAINE, KING GORDY, (SPECIAL GUEST FROM FLORIDA RABIDD AND HAHA). CITY BOY PROS, OSIRUS, TRAVIE P, YA HINES, AND MANY MORE STILL TO COME

DOORS AT 9PM
$20 AT THE DOOR
$15 PRESALE

FREE POOL ALL NIGHT
$1 DRAFTS TILL 11PM
$4 LONG ISLANDS AND SEX ON THE BEACH ALL NIGHT

LADIES GET 2 DRINK TICKETS COMPLIMENTARY OF TOP NOTCH TALENT AND CITY BOY PROS
LADIES WILL ALSO GET $2 WELLS TILL MIDNIGHT

RANDOM DRINK AND SHOT SPECIALS ALL NIGHT LONG

ANY ARTIST INTERESTED IN OPENING OR FOR TABLE, BOOTH RESERVATIONS UP PLEASE CONTACT US ASAP
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SPONSORED BY GARY BLUMBERG ATTORNEY AT LAW FOR ANY TYPE
REPRESENTATION (2483128094) TELL HIM WE SENT YOU AND GET THE HOOK UP

Detroit hip hop has birthed a number of star talents over the years, the producers plus the emcees, and since the early 1990s, DJ Butter has been on the scene to document the movement. From magazines to mixtapes, DVDs to the beats, he has been an artist that has crossed camps throughout the city, dedicated to the goal of expanding the international impact of Motor City hip hop.

While he has successfully branded himself as an influential DJ here in the city, DJ Butter’s new mission is to help Yancey Music Group launch The Rebirth Of Detroit, the upcoming album from the great J Dilla. He also continues to perform throughout the city, with an upcoming appearance at The Old Miami on January 20 to celebrate the release of The Maria EP from Valid, an emcee who was mentored in the game by Butter.

CBM: Thank you for the interview. Please tell us about the career of DJ Butter.

DJ Butter: I grew in Highland Park, Puritan area, I had a rap group back in the days when I was kid called Sudden Strength. My main rapper, Patrick Hendrix, got killed when we were young, 16 years old. After that I started making mixtapes for people in my school, cause I was kind of lost, I had to start all over again.

Mark Hicks, he was Proof’s earlier manager, we shared the same friend, he helped Shady Records develop D12 and Eminem, Paul Rosenberg is a part of that circle. I met Proof and we used to meet up at Stanley’s Rhythm Kitchen and Mahogany, I used to see the whole community at these functions.

I started doing mixtapes a lot, I had a magazine called Funky Fresh In The Flesh magazine. I did it for ten issues and got kind of tired of it, but I got a chance to learn the community a lot through the publication and just the industry alone.

I interviewed rappers like Spice 1, Boss, Compton’s Most Wanted, all at my house on the East Side, I stayed in Conant Gardens. Kid Rock used to call, I interviewed Eminem, a lot of people. Funkdoobiest, Method Man.

Right before his record in like ’96 or ’97, I interviewed Em on the phone for like 30 minutes, I was telling him how proud I was of him, he at that point was so humble. Em was like “we’ll see, I hope it do what it do, you know Butter,” he was kind of non-chalant with it and I kind of knew the magnatude of what it was going to do because it was so different.

D12, they were jumping on my previous mixtapes. Early 90′s, I had my tapes in the Hip Hop Shop, they had W.E.G.O. mixtapes and Slum Village tapes were in there, it was before anybody really understood what we were doing. I eventually started taking folks to the studio and I did my first album, it was called Kill The DJ. It was an original album, I had distribution. I did another album Shit Happens, that was the next one. One of the main joints ended up on D12′s album Devil’s Night. My third project was called Welcome To Shitsville. It’s all Detroit hip hop. We put Obie Trice on there, Almighty Dreadnaughtz.

I was one of the first to put Guilty Simpson on the earlier mixtapes, Royce, Wall Street, D-Elite, when D12 and D-Elite had their thing going on, I was going back and forth and promoting both. At that time we were trying to learn how to unify things like that, they were kind of bickering back then. I was one of the first earlier DJs to premier their music.

Then on my fourth album was Detroit Demo, I did the joint with Essman, Esspionage, then I dropped two artists, Wesley Valentine and Young Black Professionals, all on my label Crazy Noise Productions. I’ve done a lot of work with the community, and now I’m here with this J Dilla project just trying to keep the unity together. I’m having a ball because after all the deaths, I’m back refreshed again.

CBM: It seems like that after all your work you’ve put into the community, from the magazine to the mixtapes, a lot of your work has been leading up to this project.

DJ Butter: It goes hand in hand, relationships are everything. If you’ve got relationships that’ve got talent, it goes hand to hand. I can DJ and scratch, I just didn’t want to play the background, I always wanted to brand my own. I was inspired by Dez and the DJ Clues and the Ron G’s, watching them and going to New York and all my cousins bringing tapes back from New York, it made me want to brand myself earlier in life doing my own thing.

That’s why I’m able to organically help Jay Dee (J Dilla) because I was able to have my own life without any controversy, not like me taking this other man’s legacy and running with it like some other DJs do. I never put out a bootleg tape of a Dilla beat, never was fascinated by exclusively revealing his samples, whatever they do out there. That wasn’t my thing.

CBM: The best part of The Rebirth Of Detroit seems to be the opportunity to use the legacy of Dilla to help bring a lot of light to the rest of the Detroit hip hop scene.

DJ Butter: It’s amazing, like pretty much the whole city wanted to work with Dilla, you had like the gangster rappers knew of him and wanted to get in his lane, and really try to find out how to get overseas. I had a talk with Street Lord Juan and they were so fascinated by the hip hop community.

Esham the same way, and that’s what’s making this project so special, its like Esham and Dilla had history, but it was like a stop and go. Dilla was always on the run, but for Dilla friends to hear that Esham is on the album, that has a lot of people excited. That’s the goal, to kind of change the norm and kind of bring it back home more than anything.

Dilla’s priest actually came and prayed for us over the project, it’s really genuine. If anything is negative, it’s really like it’s negative for the whole city because everybody is hearing about it, it’s a lot of different crews and circles on here but there’s a lot of his people on there.

CBM: This is all just amazing energy to bring people together, unified and ready to advance the art and the business.

DJ Butter: It seems like Dilla’s spirit is zapping people into each others lives, it’s really deep. People are really calling in happy that Mrs. Yancey is getting control of her son’s work.

I can die at peace now, just to see all my friends come together. I’ve been to everybody’s funeral except Dilla’s, but just to see us come together again without a funeral, I’m peaceful now.

I share the same pain as everybody. But just watching Mrs. Yancey, it makes me go harder, the love she has for her kid. That’s what it’s all about, it’s bigger than money, it’s bigger than war, it’s just to get some type of respect for what we’re born to do. And it’s sad to see Proof’s estate the way it is, and Baatin’s, and MC Breed’s estate is up and down.

We’ve got to respect our history. When I see DJ Head or Motsi Ski or Eminem, I treat them all the same way. They all mean so much to my make up. I make sure I greet them with no ego, I make sure there’s a balance in my life. That’s why it’s important for people to come to each other, reach out to each other.

Detroit is going through something, more than just the entertainment things, it’s going through a change with everybody.

CBM: I saw one of your photos recently from the Hip Hop Shop, with Thyme, Mudd and Proof of 5 ELA standing outside of the store together. You’ve probably got stacks of archives like that.

DJ Butter: Oh man, yeah, Bugz and Eminem together, Slum Village and Proof hanging in my neighborhood, a lot of photos. My goal is to put together some kind of portrayal for everybody’s life. I really want to see a VH1 Behind the Music for Proof. I want to see Dilla that way. The stories Mrs. Yancey tells, the world needs to hear that in that light. That’s what I’m here for, it’s not a selfish mission that I’m on.

CBM: It’s not a selfish mission but it’s also a great opportunity for you too though, to let the history flow through you.

DJ Butter: I like to interview people and soak up game, that’s what I’ve been doing for so many years, and you hear where they go to hang out. That’s what my goal is to go to their spots and say ‘I’m DJ Butter, I’m from Detroit’. I walked up to Jay-Z one time in Miami and said I’m from Detroit, he stopped to talk to me. He had so many people with him but I was able to give him mixtapes, that’s like a rush to me. To really get them out their whole tough guy zone and say ‘here’.

CBM: Cause it’s the music first. I look at every Detroit hip hop artist as within the Motown legacy, and the world is coming to respect that.

DJ Butter: Yeah, Motown babies.

CBM: I’m sure you grew up with all the records in your house.

DJ Butter: Of course. My father when I was growing up used to say that Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson would all be in the neighborhood riding around, you’d go to a bar and see such-and-such. Even Mrs. Yancey was saying the other day that she would go to a spot and Al Green was working there washing dishes. Everybody would come here and come to check out Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, this was like the upstart place. That’s our city.

A lot of people don’t even visit Hitsville ourselves here, we don’t really cherish our history because we live in it. The world knows about it, we so non-chalantly go about day by day without realizing it. When I walked through Hitsville I really looked to examine what I was looking at. And that’s how I look at The Rebirth. That’s the mission.

CBM: You’ve got to look at the whole history of the city to understand where the music is coming from.

DJ Butter: That’s how we’ve got to look at all this like that. That’s the goal of this project, to really dig deep in the community and bring the people that Dilla knew, and the offsprings as well.

CBM: So what’s in store with Whutupdoe TV DVD series?

DJ Butter: I’m working on my 5th volume now, I interviewed some of the No Limit camp, DJ Dez. I’m really just interviewing more people, I want to make it like a U-Stream show one day and make it a full brand, kind of make it deeper than just me interviewing a bunch of rappers. It’s about a Detroit culture and the people that embrace Detroit.

CBM: There’s a lot of history in the city.

DJ Butter: It’s crazy, when I go and visit Proof in the cemetery, you’ve got Rosa Parks three seconds away from him. I didn’t know Proof would be that great, just to look at the magnitude of who he was, he connected with everyone from Nat Morris to 50 Cent. That’s how I feel about Detroit hip hop, it touched so many people.

Mic Levels Up: DJ Butter
http://common-breath.com/?p=2395

Boomin’ Words from Hell is the debut album of Esham. It was first released in 1989, when Smith was 13 years old, and was reissued the following year.

In 2012 that all changes ………..

Esham is back with a New Years 2012 Bomb Ass Podcast to set the tone for your holiday festivities. Enjoy!!!

State of the union
Fuck 2011
Esham saying he is going harder then 2011
2 great songs
talks about death of an indie label – awareness to mental illness
2011 will be the best year for rlp EVER
the dubrap song just kills it
BOOMING WORDS FROM HELL 2012
http://traffic.libsyn.com/gothomrecords/BOMBASSPODCASTNEWYEARS2012.mp3

http://www.mediafire.com/?cwcobp9eygxua9o

http://www.toxsic-forum.athena-server.com/

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