Are Dilla’s kids really starving?

The only thing more pathetic than a rapper who can't get any money is a rapper who can't get any money whose kids get dragged into the matter.

A few weeks ago, I had an issue with one of the bums who did some of the production on the first Lupe Fiasco album, and one of the main sticking points was the fact that his kids were starving. He went on okayhater throwing a bitchfit about how Lupe was taking food from his kids' mouths by not letting him get any beats on The Cool. I did a post about that, and about how he's been going around in interviews calling Lupe Fiasco the most disloyal person he ever met in his life, and this clown had the nerve to get upset with me. He even had the nerve to try to threaten me. I responded that he was just upset that his kids are starving, and he was all like, "How dare you bring my kids into this?" As if I was the one who brought his kids into this shit in the first place!

That guy's obviously got some issues.

J Dilla had some issues, and then he died. And apparently, he left a mountain of medical debt that's gonna keep anyone from ever actually making any money from his back catalog, like 2Pac's mom has done with his garbage-ass music. (Hi, haters!)

You'll recall that a few weeks ago (notice how things always took place a few weeks ago), a lawyer named Artie Fufkin took out a full page ad in Billboard talking about people have been violating, using Dilla's material, as well as his name and likeness, to promote various ventures that haven't been authorized by his estate, and how this has been, in effect, taking food out of his kids' mouths. He's obviously yet to be convinced that J Dilla's corpse won't be able to pull in some money point or another.

That ad struck me as bullshit for a few reasons. First of all, who the fuck is Artie Fufkin, and who in the fuck died and left him the executor of Dilla's estate? (Erm, never mind that last question.) Also, there was some shit in the ad pointing out how no one - and it made it a point to note that no one includes members of Dilla's family - other than himself is allowed to sign off on business matters regarding J Dilla. I can't remember if the ad itself actually mentioned Dilla's mother, but I pretty much assumed that was the case. I've seen her do some press for some things since Dilla bought the farm, and I know she was on the intro to that Busta Rhymes and Dilla mixtape that came out a while back. Then I read, the other day, in a story by Jeff Weiss in the LA Weekly, that Artie Fufkin might have to go after Dilla's moms for appearing on that tape. The fuck?

Something tells me that if Dilla were alive today, he'd be mad skinny he wouldn't approve of some Jew lawyer going after his mother just for trying to get a few dollars off a motherfucking mixtape. This is, after all, the woman who moved out to California to wipe his ass while he was out there dying of whatever he was dying of - not to mention the fact that she raised his ass in the first. Presumably, in the process, she incurred a cost that far outweighs whatever measley amount she's been able to extract from his corpse since he died. And the bottom line is that, that's his mothers. You don't go siccing the white man on your mother just because she cost you a few dollars. Maybe if you're Dilla's fellow Detroit rapper Eminem, you do. But you know how white dudes are; they get mad upset with their mothers.

So I think it's obvious this guy Artie Fufkin is the one that's violating. The real question is, why? When I did a post on this shit back around the time that ad was in Billboard (i.e. a few weeks ago), I figured this was probably a matter of Dilla's baby's mother trying to cake up off of his back catalog. She wasn't actually mentioned in the ads, but the kids were. And you know, anytime someone shows up trying to collect money for somebody's kids, there's usually a stingy-ass baby's mother waiting in the wings. Just like with Fiddy Cent's baby's mother. How much of that $25,000 a month she had been getting (before Fiddy sicced the junkyard dog on her) do you think was really going towards Fiddy's son? $100? $200? There's only so many Ninja Turtles you can buy a kid. At least Dilla's baby's mother, unlike Shaniqua, has done a good job of keeping a low profile, and letting Artie Fufkin do her bidding.

But that doesn't excuse the bullshit she's been pulling - laying guilt trips on people just for stealing the guy's music, as if it's really hurting him at this point; threatening the guy's mother; let alone whatever it is she plans on doing to actually get any money out of his back catalog. Don't let me turn on the TV one of these days and see that tranvestite Santogold dancing to a Dilla beat in a commercial for Bud Light with Lime. (If they used Kurt Cobain's shit in a commercial for a baseball video game, who knows what Artie Fufkin's got in mind for Dilla's shit.) I can see her ostensible argument for making sure his kids have something to eat, but who really thinks that's all this is about? If that's all it was, I'm sure we could take up a collection. I might even be willing to part with a few dollars myself, provided I knew for a fact that it was going to the man's kids, and not some skeezer he once dropped a load in and her lawyer.