And while his neck-breaking productions will always receive high praise in the music world, there was also love for Yancey’s inventive wordplay. Besides the witty punchlines and raw lyricism he demonstrated with Slum and on his solo projects, he collaborated with some the best MCs to pick up a mic. For example, on Common’s song Thelonious featuring Slum Village (Like Water For Chocolate, 2000, MCA), Yancey’s verse was truly the grand finale:

Yo we do it and we don't quit
Sucka nigga you don't want it, it's Thelonious
Ownin' this rap shit, super microphonist, and we known to spit
I spit fire like Esther on Sanford and Son did
I'm raw dude, more juice than Sunkiss
You want this, so MJ kept sayin’ the rhyme flawless
Shit fly like MJ in his prime, "Off The Wall" wit mines
I'm grabbin' my balls when I rhyme, nine nines bustin' plus
Ball all the time, now stay on your mind like great sex
You ain't on my mind I'm thinkin' 'bout paychecks
Niggas large like an Adex Avirex jacket
Yo the gods they bust like latex sex packets
Emcees they don't rhyme and ball, they lyin' to y'all
They dyin' to ball, the rhyme we do all the time
We do all the fine bitches they fall in lines
Me and my mans is somethin' like the Source Sports
We gettin' money a long time and y'all short
My niggas bounce and full rise and y'alls fall
You funny dude, cuz really you think you can do me
When you roll a 500 that's really a 320
Should of let somebody else hook it
Numbers look crooked like King Kong shook it
I'm from where niggas bang gats when they celebrate
That's how they play, don't let it be a holiday
Thelonious niggas, if you testin' us we get you laid back
Show you the definition of a pay back
- Jay Dee a.k.a. J Dilla

Besides the ageless creative works Yancey left behind, he also provided a greater awareness of a disease that contributed to his demise, lupus, which effects over 1.5 million Americans. Even more astonishing is the disease’s racial disparity. This illness is three times more common among African Americans, Hispanics/ Latinos, Asians and Native Americans than Caucasians. Dennis de Costa, the director of communications and marketing for the S.L.E. Lupus Research Institute (www.lupusresearchinstitute.org), stated, “Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system—normally our natural defense against disease—becomes overexcited and forms antibodies that attack and damage different organs and tissues such as the skin, brain, heart, lungs, blood and kidneys.” The institute reports that lupus is widespread, yet awareness and accurate knowledge about it lag behind Continued on page 3 »