J Dilla’s equipment will find a new home in The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. His mother Maureen Yancey has made the donation for the museum’s Musical Crossroads exhibit, which will feature J Dilla alongside seminal artists such as George Clinton and Ella Fitzgerald, according to a Smithsonian press release.
“I feel it’s necessary to raise the level of art appreciation in the hip-hop sector and honor my son James Dewitt Yancey, one of the most influential individuals in the history of hip-hop,” Yancey said on her decision.
The donation was announced at the Howard Theatre in Washington at the annual D.C. Loves Dilla event, a fundraiser against Lupus, the disease that took the musician’s life in 2006. Hip hop legend James “J Dilla” Yancey produced during the ‘90s and 2000s, and released his final album, the acclaimed Donuts, in 2006.
The album was released three days before his death. J Dilla received the 2007 Plug awards for Artist of the Year and Record Producer of the Year as well a 1996 Grammy nomination for producing A Tribe Called Quest’s Beats, Rhymes and Life
The museum, which will feature J Dilla’s custom made Minimoog Voyager synthesizer and Akai MIDI Production Center 3000, is set to open in 2016 on the National Mall.
