News: Ma Dukes Needs Our Help!

In honor of it being Dilla Month and in light of the fact that she needs and deserves it, I wanted to alert all my readers about a new T-Shirt that is being sold by Stones Throw, for which all of the profits will be donated to Maureen "Ma Dukes" Yancey, the mother of the late great J Dilla.

The reason she needs the dough right now is because she is battling Lupus just like her son did, she's going through far too much red tape concerning her son's much coveted estate and there is an unpaid debt to the IRS that she needs to pay. These things make for some pretty hefty bills that Peanut Butter Wolf and all the good folks over at Stones Throw Records wanted to help Ma Dukes out with. So they're releasing the "Raise It Up For Ma Dukes" T-Shirts on their site (see the link below). I wanna say thank you to Parra, the designer that stepped up to the plate to make this happen after he read that Vibe article that came out awhile back that outlined how Mrs. Yancy was getting shafted in her requests to establish a foundation in her son's name and to use his music and likeness to support the two little girls he left behind after he passed......

I think what Parra is trying to do is very admirable and very much so needed.....that being said, if you've ever used a heaping handful or maybe just one or two of the many beats Dilla left behind totally gratis for your mixtape or album or freestyle or whatever, hey, do what's right and pay your debt to that man's memory and family.....Dilla was a shining star that brought forth real Hip-Hop to so many in this country and world.....and even greater than that he's left behind a musical legacy that is so easily accessible to so many....his mother nursed him when he fell ill and she is very much so apart of that legacy.....She deserves far better than this.......Hip-Hop is a giant family and we don't turn our backs on our own when they need us, and right now, Mrs. Yancey needs us.......dig in ya pockets and find the scratch to help her try and make it through these tough times....

-BIG D O







http://www.stonesthrow.com/news/2009/01/raise-it-up-for-ma-dukes