By Kevin Fairbanks
Mrs. Maureen Yancey more widely known as “Ma Dukes” is not
one to mess with. Since Jay Dee’s passing in 2006 she has been the voice of the
legendary brand of J Dilla, but more importantly the link to her son’s future
in our ears. Having a voice that not only speaks the mind of a woman battling
the same disease that took her son’s life but also even of Dilla himself makes
her word
the word in all things James
“J Dilla (Jay Dee)” Yancey.
Although Charles Hamilton maintains he sought to contribute money from his album sales to help Ma Dukes, the fires
stay heated around the recent controversy. Mrs. Yancey took time out to speak with
AllHipHop.com to get both her wanted and needed opinion out on all things
surrounding Charles Hamilton and her son.
AllHipHop.com: What
would you say your position is regarding any artist using your son’s name and
attaching it to themselves musically?
Ma Dukes: You know what, I have been very liberal. As far as
I’m concerned about it there are those who have always done music for him. And
you know I realize that we’re gonna have those that take music and rape the
spirit of the music and do things that they shouldn’t do. I mean nobody’s above
that, they do it to even the biggest people. But to do it and make it look like
you have permission to do this and that and you’re in it with the family and
that it’s all good. I was like, “What in the hell is going on?” I mean I’m
pretty liberal and Dilla was always relaxed about the way he did his business.
You know there were those who couldn’t afford to pay Dilla and those who needed
a helping hand and couldn’t afford the top scale for tracks and he adjusted
himself to help any and everybody but he did care about what a person was like
– their character. He did feel he had to respect you as an individual and if he
had no respect for you then that was just out of the question. I don’t think
that’s being unfair, I know there are people out there that want to make it by
any means, but when you do, don’t step out wrong. You first step out right, and
then you try to make your resources build upon themselves. You don’t step out
wrong.
AllHipHop.com: Had
you ever heard Charles Hamilton’s name as a
rising artist?
Ma Dukes: Not ever in my life! The only Hamilton I’ve ever
heard of was on the bill (laughs). When I first heard about this I was really jogging
my brain because I know I meet a lot of people but usually I lock in a name
pretty good and whenever somebody meets me and they do any type of work for his
[Dilla’s] production or different types of merchandising I always lock them in.
I’m very free to give my number because I’ll talk to anybody and I always
answer and if I can’t get you – you know if I’m having a bad medical week or
something I’ll always get back to you or text to let you know that as soon as
things get right ill get back. And I do this because that’s what I’m here for.
It doesn’t bother me, I freely give my information out and talk to anybody in
any realm that they’re involved in.
So that person [Charles Hamilton] would’ve
been able to call me straight forward if they knew me, without a doubt. So that
was the first thing I’m like, “Wow! How come he didn’t call Ma Dukes?” because
then he said he knew Illa J and it was not an hour later that Illa J called me
to ask me who he was. I was like, “I don’t know who he is (laughs)” and he was
like, “Well I’ve never met him,” and things like that. I was getting calls all
over the place, Pete Rock called me like early yesterday and asked me, “Ma
whats going on this guy is putting your business in the streets, who is he?” I
was like, “Well I haven’t a clue!” I don’t know why he would do it, there’s a
lot of things that have been done but he’s the first, I’ve got to give him
kudos (laughs) he’s the first to step up and do that out the box so you know I
still don’t know what to think.
AllHipHop.com: Charles
made the statement, “quite honestly my relationship with the Yanceys and the
Holten family and their relationship with the Moore family and the Hamilton
family really is nobody’s business number one.” Do the Holten or Moore family
ring a bell?
Ma Dukes: Don’t know. Wait, you know what I know Dilla knew
a Charles Moore when he went to high school, but that was it (laughs). He was a
nice person, no pun intended, (laughs) and he’s a vocalist not a producer and
matter of fact he did a track on Daddy’s
Little Girl, he did the Sam Cooke song.
But he’s not really doing anything as far as I know and I’m not sure if
he’s still in Michigan or New York or somewhere. But don’t know any Holten’s,
don’t know them. So yeah, I’m at a loss. You know I couldn’t forget a whole
family, maybe one individual but not a whole family, my god (laughs).
AllHipHop.com: Let me
throw another quote at you from Charles, “Now if I did a séance and Dilla’s walking around
in my house –"
Ma Dukes: Oh my goodness!
AllHipHop.com: "...you
can’t take away that paranormal aspect of it and I’m not gonna say whether I
did that or not because then I ‘d be crazy."
Ma Dukes: He is crazy. Quote me! Totally insane, oh my god
he’s insane. I feel for him if he believes things like this. You know we all
have our experiences (out of body or in our dreams) and we believe them because
of how vividly it might have happened but to conjure up a whole scenario with
relatives and friends, (laughs) that’s a really big one. He had to of been
asleep for a few days to get that together. And as far as Dilla walking around
in the house, the only house that he walks around in would be mine cause it’s
like a museum so I can really think that he’s here and you smell the nag champa
burning because he burned that every day, everything in his house smelled like
that (laughs). So yes, he’s very much alive here because we keep it that way
and we rejoice in his music and listen to it. You know, it’s not uncomfortable
for anybody in the house to have it playing because he was just a swell son and
brother, he was just a great person and a good Dad might I add. He’s alive here
but I don’t know about anywhere else (laughs) and if he did it’d probably be to
go see his kids first before anywhere else (laughs). When House Shoes told me
that my mouth dropped, I was like, “Wow!” And I didn’t have anything to say,
and when I have a loss for words there’s really something up because usually I
can go forever (laughs). He is some character, if he is creative in his music
he ought to be able to do something good without stepping on other people’s
toes. If he’s even half as creative in his process of doing his music then he’s
got a good product and other than that he should be writing stories. Yes, he
should be doing books, he really should.
AllHipHop.com: What
did you think about the physical threats directed to Charles Hamilton?
Ma Dukes: Oh my God! I felt that way so what can I say? I
was like, “If I can get my hands around his neck!” Like I said though, don’t bring
the ghetto out (of me). I don’t like that part, but you know I was born and raised in
Detroit, lower east side and in the ghetto so it’s not prim and proper. And
hey, I got friends on every walk of life so nothing would faze me but I
wouldn’t want to go into that kind of thought process cause when people do
things like that it kind of takes you out of your norm and you kind of think
about, “Well, you know what should I really do?” That’s not very good, the
position he put himself in. It was like a thoughtless process. You’re just
going to go step out into a black hole, and that’s literally what he did from
what I saw of the responses. It was like everybody was looking at their
computer at that time.
I hope he will recover from it, he better watch it
(laughs). I got like dozens and dozens of calls and they were all for the same
thing the last couple of days. “Who is this guy? What in the hell is going on?”
And when I told them I didn’t know him they got even madder and so it was going
back and forth with the same people who were going to Twitter and just blowing
him out of the water. That’s not a good thing, if he ever wants to make it he’s
got to come out of this mess first (laughs). House Shoes is like a police watch
and he [Charles] should’ve known that just about anything that goes up someone
is watching all the time. I don’t think I would’ve done that on my dumbest day
(laughs) and stepped out there like that not knowing what to fall back on. I
mean at least you should be able to know what you’re talking about, know who
you’re talking about, before you same something. He came hardnosed like he knew
what he was talking about.
AllHipHop.com: Of
course House Shoes cleared up the comments about the J Dilla Foundation, but
what is its current status?
Ma Dukes: The J Dilla Foundation has not been up and
operating in the past year. I’m bringing that back around August when I get
myself settled I’ll be able to start working on it again in August so by the
end of the year it will be back up but it will be international. I’m still
contemplating a name change though because of all the stuff that went around
it. I’m trying to figure out if I should use one of Dilla’s other names like
one that has not been used before that’s from his early years. So I got to talk
to my daughter about that because she has all his secrets (laughs).
AllHipHop.com: What’s
next for yourself as you move on from this small bump in a far more important
road that you are traveling?
Ma Dukes: Well, I’m just gonna pray that he owns up to his
own stuff and gets his stuff together before someone comes after him. If he’s
releasing stuff like that and that name like that, and beats like that, then
he’s setting himself up for a really big law suit if he doesn’t get it right.
He needs to just maybe lay back and get it straight. That’s my advice because
I’ve seen it done too many times. Some people will do it when they have no
benefit coming from it but they’ll still go after him. You’ve got people out
there and when you’re talking about Dilla they’re not buying it. As an artist
it’s a bad start. I don’t wish him any ill; he just needs to get it right. We
all make mistakes it’s just that the first remedy is to own up to it and he
hasn’t done that yet. And that’s silly when you don’t apologize for things and don’t
own up to what you’ve done. He has some issues to address that have nothing to
do with music. I do expect respect at the end of the day.
