Illa J: the other Yancey boy

On his third solo album, Home, Illa J definitely steps out of the shadow of his older brother, the late J Dilla, the ground-breaking hip-hop producer from Detroit. “In contrast to James, I have always been a singer, and from now on I am going to let people hear it.”

It has been twelve years since James Dewitt Yancey aka J Dilla died of a rare blood coagulation disease. The leading American rapper and hip-hop producer was only 32, but over the course of his young life, he influenced the ground-breaking work of Madlib, Flying Lotus, and the current new wave of jazz. His brother John will reach exactly the same age this year, and as he tells us on the telephone from his new home in Los Angeles, he thinks about it a lot. John Derek Yancey alias Illa J has come to the realization that he will never match his big brother’s pioneering qualities. “So I started looking for my own voice,” he says, and you can take that quite literally. Since Home was released last summer, the emphasis has been squarely on his soulful falsetto, which is reminiscent of D’Angelo and Al Green, who was an important part of the soundtrack of his youth.

So the title of your new album has both a geographic and a more spiritual dimension?
Illa J: Yes, on the one hand it is about my real hometown, Detroit, where it all started for me. The video for the title track was filmed in my neighbourhood, and the photo on the cover was taken at a bus stop nearby. You can think of it as a tribute to the place that I come from, because I now live in Los Angeles. On the other hand, Home is my way of coming to terms with my capacities as a singer, that I have been developing over the past five years by taking classes with vocal coach Betty Lane, an opera singer. She gave me self-confidence and a boost so that I had the guts to be the artist that I have always been. It is the balance between these two “homecomings” that make Home such an important step in my solo oeuvre. It is as though I finally understand my own voice. In contrast to James, I have always been a singer, and from now on I am going to let people hear it.

Was there a specific moment when you realized that music was going to be your life?
Illa J: When I was thirteen and recorded my first raps, when my brother was just making his breakthrough, I didn’t think I would become a musician. But when I was about nineteen, when I lost my brother, I started to realize that it was also my calling, and the older I got, the clearer it became. There were signs everywhere. Of course I grew up in a house full of music. My father was a jazz bassist and songwriter [he wrote the Motown classic “It’s a Shame” for The Spinners - TP], my mother was an opera singer, and from the age of six, I sang in the church choir. But my other brother Earl is an artist in Detroit as well, and my sister Martha sings and loves poetry.

After James’s death, you kept his memory alive with the album Yancey Boys (2008), your first solo album, and more recently, through the Never Left Tour.
Illa J: I made that first album with unreleased beats by my brother. I didn’t want to put too many rap texts or lyrics of my own on it. His beats deserve to be heard as they were. During the Never Left Tour and after some time in [the hip-hop collective] Slum (Village), I rediscovered the joy of my solo work. My own goals never left me, just like my brother never left me. On the solo album [Illa J, 2015] that I had released not long before, I had started singing again. That’s how I gradually rediscovered myself without losing the connection with my brother.

“Get these fuckin’ bills paid / Sam Cookin’ till the meals made/ I wasn't sleepin’ and I still ain’t / Catch me creepin’ when it’s real late,” you sing in “Sam Cook”. Is this a sketch of your work ethic?
Illa J: Yes, and it was also the first track that I started working on for the album, along with Calvin Valentine, my super dope producer. The chemistry was great from the beginning. We ping-ponged ideas back and forth to build that song beat by beat until we found the right energy. I wrote the hook first, and the words immediately followed. I used the cooking metaphor to make clear that you can’t just find your own voice. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do and work hard to reach the next level. You have to find the right balance between the ingredients…and Sam Cooke is obviously a great singer. [Laughs]

You put your money where your mouth is; don’t you have another new album coming up soon?
Illa J: Yep, it will probably appear in the autumn. Calvin is still my producer, but this isn’t a second Home. Of course I still sing and rap, even more than I used to. I can’t say much more about it, but there will be a certain R&B feeling in this album and its sound is also brighter. But you should come to listen to the live show because I’ll be revealing a foretaste.

> IllA J. 21/4, 19.00, La Manufacture 111