“I’m not gonna lie, sitting backstage it got kind of emotional.” says Dwele reflecting on the Suite For Ma Dukes concert held to honour late hip-hop producer J Dilla. The night saw artists such as Common, De La Soul and Bilal perform over classic J Dilla beats that had been especially adapted into classical arrangements.
Spectator Dwele hadn’t expected to be part of the bill. “I actually flew out to LA to just sit in the audience and actually see the concert. I didn’t know that I was going to become part of the concert until I got there. They told me on the day at work on the phone and they said that they wanted me to come up on stage.”
Having to rely on voice fluctuation to measure his willingness to share his viewpoints, coupled with the bother that is the two-second delay that trademark trans-atlantic phone calls, I’d half-expected Dwele to clam up on questions relating to J Dilla. These were his private thoughts and he was sharing them with someone who he’d never meet, but as he was so open, we progressed onwards.
“Knowing where Dilla came from, how he got started, you know in Detroit and actually be in LA and see an orchestra, you know something that is completely on the other side of the music game respecting his music, it got kind of emotional on certain songs.”
Throughout the interview, Dwele continued to speaking fondly of his friendship with “J”, one which blossomed by chance through an introduction by Slum Village’s T3, during Dwele’s stint performing in a jazz band at a place called Café Mahogany.
“J most definitely was my go-to-guy if I had a problem or if I had a question about music, about working with an MPC; he knew everything about it. It was most definitely an honour knowing him and working with him. He was one of the best that ever did it and, you know as far as rhyming, putting a song together, putting a concept together, in sampling, in making a song, most definitely he was the best at that.”
Joining “J” as a producer who Dwele thinks highly of is Kanye West. “Ye is an artist who really knows what he wants in the studio and I feel like I’m kind of the same way, so I think we work good together. We do a kind of push pull thing in the studio and I think it works out.”
Since 2003’s remix of Hold On, Dwele’s worked consistently with West; Common’s The People and West’s Flashing Lights spring to mind. Their most recent collaboration, Power, for West’s new album was the result of a laidback working environment. “This time with Power we really got a chance to kick it, got to know each other. We shot some basketball, you know, have a little fun and we got the chance to sit down and let the song kind of settle and figure out which thought really works.”
West however does not make an appearance on his latest album, W.ants W.orld W.omen. Fans of previous studio albums Sketches Of A Man, Some Kinda…and Subject will have noticed that collaborations have been few and this was something that Dwele wanted to change, choosing to work with David Banner, Raheem DeVaughn and of course Slum Village.
“For the fourth one, I felt that it was time to really bring in other artists to give the album a different feel to it. I think one of my favourite collaborations on this album would probably have to be Raheem DeVaughn, because it gave me a chance to try different things musically. I think you learn a lot by working with different artists and a lot about yourself by working with different producers. I really like to layer harmonies and layer horns. I like real lush sounding songs, so it depends on what I am going for with music, and I think that you can find both in the different sections of the music on this album.”
The album at hand is split into three, with the Wants section being his “alter ego”. “That’s where I get to have fun on the album” and then there’s the “baby-making and feel-good music for the women.” “I feel like it is our job as musicians, as artists, as vocalists to really capture the climate in the way that Marvin did it back in the day and feel like nobody’s really doing it today, at least in the states, so I kind of took advantage of the fact and did it.” he says, relaying the concept behind ‘World’. “It’s like my audio time-capsule of the things that are going on in today’s economy.”
So could we one day hear a political album from him? “With every album, I try to make a soundtrack to people’s lives at the time. With this album I’m really trying to create another avenue for myself so that in the future if I want to break away and do a political album I can, because I’ve kind of set that role up for myself with this album. Hopefully with this album it will open people up to me trying different things.”