You Gotta Respect Frank N' Dank...

Frank-N-Dank Interview (J Dilla) from alex deforce on Vimeo.

In the industry, musicians are often flanked by "Yes Men" and receive "Groupie Love" based on their status and they often deal with the stress of not being appreciated for who they really are. What made Dilla so relatable to me was his average joe attitude that he expressed in his music. The Ruff Draft EP illustrated Jay Dee as a an everyman whether he discussed "Crushin" (a classic in the Mikey McFly Library of getting gully) or talking about the need for cash in "The $", no matter what song I heard from that project, I always had an inkling as to what his character must've been like. After listening and watching the interview I gained a greater respect and understanding for their relationship with the late great James Dewitt Yancey and I would say that anyone who's on the up and coming list needs to have friends or more so a great inner circle of positive people to keep you grounded. I can't front, I used to just write Frank N' Dank off as just "some rap group who knew Dilla" in my early days but as I got into the history of Dilla's music and actually gave the music a chance, the preconcieved notions disappeared into thin air. To quote the 80's hip-hop group Whodini "Friends, how many of us have them".