Hip-hop is one of those businesses where it is good (for record companies at least) to die young. Tupac Shakur, one of hip-hop’s biggest stars, was gunned down at the age of 25. Only six months later, The Notorious B.I.G., Shakur’s rival at the time, died in a hail of bullets at 24. Both of these artists sold millions of records after their deaths. Neither of them were around long enough to endure the criticism of doing pop songs with someone like Lil’ Wayne. Neither of them had meltdowns on Twitter when they were releasing albums. They are frozen in time as legends in the game.
Another luminary in the hip-hop community that passed away too young was J Dilla (also known as Jay Dee, real name James Yancey), whose legacy will be celebrated on Sunday at The River.
Dilla, a beatmaker for The Pharcyde, Common, Slum Village and others, had an untimely death a little more than 10 years ago at the age of 32 from complications with lupus. Like Shakur and B.I.G., Dilla’s legacy has only grown posthumously.
Photo courtesy of Useless Brotherhood
Dilla’s talents are shown in the ways he sampled old records in odd ways. One of his defining characteristics is that he would purposely make the drums a bit off kilter, so people would have to listen to his work over and over to get the meaning. Dilla loved making music so much that his mother said he finished his last beat two hours before he passed away.
■ Useless Brotherhood (無用兄弟會) presents J Dilla Night featuring DJ Kool Klone, DoSoul, Fresco, Puzzle Man and COSiMOZ, Sunday from 11:30pm to 4:20am at The River (formerly Pipe), 1 Siyuan St, Taipei City (台北市思源街1號), Admission is NT$300 and comes with two NT$200 in drink tickets.
THE END IS REALLY ONLY THE BEGINNING
For nearly four years, people packed the small confines of Chess to get their late night fix of pure hip-hop. This weekend, Chess will be coming to a close with sets from SMTH tonight and Kaku tomorrow.
Instead of walking away from Taipei’s notoriously fickle nightlife industry, Chess will be moving their club into a bigger venue in ATT4Fun, where all things nightlife-related are now calling home. The reopening is set for some time in late March.
SMTH (real name Darren Smith), resident DJ and music director at Chess, said they had a great run, but had outgrown the space.
“We were stressing every night wondering whether or not we would get packed. We are obviously past that point,” SMTH said.
“Chess was our first project. It was our baby. We feel like now it’s time for the baby to grow up,” he added.
■ Closing Weekend featuring DJ SMTH tonight and Kaku tomorrow from 11:55pm to 5:30am at Chess, 2F, 297, Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 5, Taipei City (台北市忠孝東路五段297號2樓). Admission in NT$300.
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