The Roots' "Dynamite!" - J Dilla, Samples and Feel

The world of drumming has been ablaze with something mostly referred to as ‘The Dilla Feel’ for many years now, and there are a lot of great articles and videos out there on the subject. However I thought I’d contribute to the pool with a tune from hip-hop band, The Roots.

One of my favorite tunes the album Things Fall Apart is titled “Dynamite!” (with the exclamation). Now, this song doesn’t have the ‘Dilla Feel’ that so many drummers are worked up about, but it highlights a different aspect of how J Dilla’s production could create other types of unique feels that take rhythmic sophistication to emulate. Until I started to understand the value of J Dilla’s production methods, I didn’t realize that the slight off-time rub between the sampled guitar and the drums was the secret magic in the track. When you listen to ?uestlove’s beat against the guitar, there’s this lateness (in the guitar) that is spaced almost like a swung 32nd note, which is what I’m terming the ‘rub’. It almost comes across as a sloppy or off-time thing at a glancing listen, but it’s a very intentional part of the groove.

Looking up the song on whosampled.com revealed that the jazz guitar lick I’d originally thought was a session tracked instrument for the album was actually the guitar from the song “Indiana” by Zoot Sims (Time reference 1:48):

The trick for a drummer in playing this is that we’re actually sitting ahead of one of the melodic instruments while ourselves still being laid back and not ‘on top’ of the beat. A pocket like this takes a lot of spacial awareness in the groove not to try to lay back with the guitar.

Some other fun intrigues here, see The Roots performing Dynamite! live. Jeremy Ellis is on the MPC, ?uestlove of course on drums (time stamp 2:28):

Also, check out Nate Smith + Kinfolk’s jazz interpretation of the song here, in which Smith is subtly referencing a feel inspired by J Dilla: