In thinking about Amp, I forgot about how much he did to help Dilla when he
was just a kid. Dilla was a talent that would have found a way without Amp,
but we're all lucky Dilla had such a mentor. Detroit might not be unique
in how its network of mentoring & influence works but the results have been
staggering over the years. And it's a web that connects everyone alive &
working today back to Detroit's amazing past.
On Monday, December 18, 2023, the Beauty and Belief Society <
thequietoverh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Words.
> RIP.
>
> Long time no hear kent.
>
> Def made his impact on some Dilla shit off the top, and if im thinking
> correctly he's prob the guy who ended up lugging an obnoxiously heavy old
> ass synth out just to record Over the Breaks.
>
> Lots of 313 folks like that during the same era. No disrespect. Just wanna
> recogonize real for being real.
>
> Like... on some Mike Huckaby shit.
>
> For real I'm pretty sure I have a Prince Po 12" somewhere burnin' up for a
> spin right now.
>
> Any Bling 47 fans out there?
>
> Don't mind me. I have no idea what I'm talkimbout
>
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 18, 2023, 9:43 PM kent williams
> wrote:
>
>> Amp was singular. I had a press pass the year he played the main stage
>> at DEMF so I watched him from close up, checking his hands on the keys
>> and how he interacted with thousands of people like they were friends
>> on his couch. I drove into Chicago to see him again a few months
>> later, and he was the same, but different. In both contexts, he read
>> the room and modulated his performance for the space and audience.
>>
>> When I think of comparisons, Prince, Stevie Wonder, D'Angelo all come
>> to mind. But it's more like they're all drinking from the same well,
>> not that Amp was like them, in any imitative way. He was someone who
>> you can identify from just a few notes.
>>
>> And it always seemed effortless, weightless. The funk flowed out of
>> him like his breath. That's how you can tell that someone is an
>> artist - they've mastered the mechanical demands of their music, to
>> where they don't have to think about playing. They're just there in
>> the music, and their goal is emotion and communication. The music is
>> a seamless part of themselves they can share.
>>
>> When I think of Amp that's what I think of: his personality, his
>> humor, his emotional connection. I will miss him a lot.
>>
>
