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I met ma dukes aka J-Dilla's mom changed my life.

July 09, 2007 | Tags: tanya morgan, Detroit, ma dukes, maureen yancey

So im finally settling in and unpacking from my fourth of july weekend and the 2 shows in Detroit. I'll spare you the awesome details of how much BBQ i ate and how many fireworks i popped off and tell you about Motown.

As i previously blogged we played two shows there Cityfest and the J Dilla Tribute. No slight to Cityfest but I was really excited to play the Dilla tribute because I'm a huge fan. We get to the venue and of course the Detroit hip hop scene is in there heavy. T3, Fat Cat, Dwele and Houseshoes among others. I got to dap up everybody and meet them for the first and second times but the most important person i met that night was Maureen Yancey aka Ma Dukes.

I aint gonna sit here and lie like we hit it off and she gave me the key to the basement to let me roll thru and use Dilla's drum machine or some shit, nah. In actuality it was a very quick simple meeting but still one of the most humbling experiences in my life. I was postulating what i would say to her all day and how i would sequence the sentences and pace the words so that i didnt seem to be talkin her ear off but just you know chattin it up but all that shit flew out the window when i finally walked up to the table and spoke. I shook her hand and mumbled something about how big of an honor it was and her son and his influence and she graciously smiled and said she couldnt wait to see us perform.

Honestly i never get nervous before shows but that shit made me nervous as hell. Yall prolly think im buggin but dude is one of my biggest influences so to know im gonna be rocking for her just kinda was the icing on the cake. Factor in that im sharing the bill with people who know dilla dog personally and it almost felt like i was just showin up to somebody's family reunion askin for a hamburger on that 'im cousin pete' shit. I so just wanted to fall back and watch the show but the promoters, other artists AND ma dukes thought we needed to be on that stage or else we wouldnt have been there right? Besides, it was for dilla so I had to put on my game face.

The venue was set up to be real intimate, no real stage just a performance area and a table placed square in front of the stage. Seated at said table were Dilla's mom and dad and maybe 2 other people im not sure who the other person was. Let me be all the way honest with yall right here man. This was probably the scariest show i have ever done personally, usually im animated, jumpin around talkin to the crowd... i looked and saw ma dukes nad just kinda froze up a lil bit. The nervousness shook by the first song and i finally fell into my groove but looking into the room and seeing his mom smiling at me and nodding her head to our music and enjoying the set was probably the most gratifying thing in the world.

I caught up with her for a second after the set and again told her how appreciative i was to be able to take the stage and she smiled and looked at me and said 'are you kidding? you guys were great! thank you!'

I will never be able to say i worked with or met dilla or even that he liked my music but for some strange reason, knowing how close him and his moms were from reading/watching all the interviews i have i can honestly say i feel validated, almost as if she gave us his seal of approval. And thats fine by me.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

Ayo Detroit, what yall doin on July the 5th?

July 04, 2007 | Tags: J Dilla, tanya morgan, Dwele, Big Tone, Guilty Simpson, Black Milk, Elzhi, Nick Speed, Invincible, Detroit

So where did we leave off? Oh yeah we were here:

playin the brooklyn hip hop festival was fun, lots of fun. apparently there is no real footage of it floating around so that clip will have to suffice for those of you who have never seen Tanya Morgan get busy. And if you are wondering when we will be doing our thing again i got some good news for all my Detroit folk...

the homie finale is hosting this joint so ill finally get to meet him in person which will be pretty cool considering that we just did a dope ass joint for my upcoming project with fresh daily. i cant front tho im kinda weirded out by the fact that its an all female show (aside from us) i guess thats what naming your group after a woman will do for you, put you around the women. But looking at the names its definitely not bad company to be in. this is our first time playing detroit. when we were out on tour we played ann arbor with one be lo and then swung by detroit to catch a few drinks with the homie black milk and hung out with elzhi and nick speed at the studio. this time around i'll probably be hittin up guilty simpson although he may still be overseas. who knows, regardless we will more than likely see big tone. i figure one of those guys can show us around the city or something.

okay yall, as a HUGE dilla fan this shit got me hype. HYPE! we have been supposed to play a dilla tribute since the CMJ and they kept falling thru so this joint is the icing on the cake for me. and ma dukes is gonna be there? sheeeit... thats whats up! nigga im amped. i wonder ill illa j be in the house? it'll be cool to see dwele again and all my other motown people. and we get to perform? man listen.... its truely gonna be an honor.

ill be back later to let yall know how it went. okay lemme go dig into some of this BBQ and pop off some of these fireworks...