Listen To This South African Kwaito Tribute To J Dilla
The South African collective SPAZABASS' EP 'Kwaito Dilla Jazz' consists of kwaito interpretations of J Dilla's beats.
On the last day of J Dilla Month, the South African collective SPAZABASS released a tribute to the late hip-hop and neo soul producer J Dilla. Titled Kwaito Dilla Jazz, the eight-track project consists of interpretations of some of Dilla's most iconic productions.
<p><strong>Slum Village</strong>'s "Fall In Love" and "The Look of Love," A Tribe Called Quest's "Find A Way," Erykah Badu's "Didn't Cha Know," and a few others, all take a kwaito form on <em>Kwaito Dilla Jazz</em>. The band played around with the same samples Dilla used on those beats, chopped them and placed them between those bouncy old school kwaito rhythms, and not without a touch of jazz by way of live instrumentation and the boundless approach to production. Think of <strong>The Roots</strong>' <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ppwnd8Up60" target="_blank">Dilla Joints</a></em> project, just without the kwaito.</p><p><div class="preroll-video"></div><ora-player></ora-player></p><p>The production is reminiscent of the rich soundscape that sways between house and kwaito with touches of jazz. It's a style that defined the kwaito/house duo Brothers of Peace's albums, especially the <em>Zabalaza series</em>: <em>Zabalaza:</em> <em>Project A</em>, <em>B,</em> <em>C </em>and<em> D.</em></p><h3><a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/south-african-hip-hop-kwaito-long-love-hate-relationship/" target="_blank">Read: Hip-Hop & Kwaito's Long Love-Hate Relationship</a></h3><p>SPAZABASS is a collective which consists of renowned DJ and producer<strong> Papercutt</strong> and alternating session musicians <strong>Tshepo Venon Mokoena</strong> (guitar), <strong>Sizwe Maxwell Ndlovu</strong> (bass guitar) and <strong>Brian Minor</strong> (bass guitar). Papercutt, who also executive produced the project, handled the percussion, drums and sampler. The project's session engineer is <strong>Bekhi "B.MA" Magangane</strong>, while the man who mixes and masters most of your favorite SA rapper's projects Zeph worked his magic. </p><p><em>Kwaito Dilla Jazz</em> is two-stroke nostalgia in that during J Dilla's prime, kwaito was also poppin' in South Africa. The two genres may not have seen eye-to-eye in the 90s and early 2000s, but they have since kissed and made up, and given birth to the subgenre new age kwaito. <em>Kwaito Dilla Jazz </em>is different from new age kwaito, however, in that it doesn't attempt to make a contemporary hip-hop and kwaito hybrid, but celebrates both genres in their vintage form. The catch is of course the fact that you haven't really heard a neo soul and kwaito blend. At least not one of this kind. </p><p><div class="dfp_atf-slot" data-not-loaded="true"></div><script type="text/javascript">
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</script></p><p>Listen to<em> Kwaito Dilla Jazz</em> below (or directly <a href="https://soundcloud.com/spazabass/sets/kwaito-dilla-jazz" target="_blank">here</a>) and follow Papercutt on <a href="https://twitter.com/DJPapercutt" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="300" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/718826799&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe></div>
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