ONE LP PORTRAITS: ARTISTS OF BLUE NOTE RECORDS: Robert Glasper: Musician

"The reason this album is special to me is because the producer of the album - J Dilla is my favourite hip hop producer and I got the privilige to actually work with him before he passed away in 2006.  

To work with him - watch him make music - watch him in ‘the lab’ and see how he works. 

J Dilla is probably the only producer I know that changed the way musicians actually play their instruments.  

Normally a producer will just take from the musicians and do their thing - but J Dilla actually changed the way musicians play music. 

So this particular album Fantastic Volume 2 - when it came out, was to me the first time a record that made people start playing in that hip hop way behind the beat - kind of sloppy hip hop way - all that stuff started with Dilla - you know what I mean. 

This record has all of my favourite people on it - D'Angelo’s on there - Common - a lot of people on this record.  

It also means alot because of the time period it came out, and how it influenced the way I play doing my Trio and my Experiment band - just the way we feel the beat, his drum patterns, drum sounds, the way he samples piano and where he decides to put it - it's placement is what makes it just very very special.  

So I've kind of patterned alot of the stuff - especially when we play J Dilla beats we pattern alot of our stuff around his idea of where the beat is - so I think he was definitely ahead of his time and a genius of his time.  

So that's why I chose this record.” 

Robert Glasper: Hilton Garden Inn, Glasgow 28th June 2012 

Slum Village Fantastic, Vol. 2 - released 2000 

Robert Glasper