As featured in this month’s issue of Dazed, Dilla’s little bro John Yancey aka Illa J is a 22-year-old chip off of the old block. An impressive producer, rapper and soul singer, his Yancey Boys album is a pleasure from start to finish. Especially with the fact that it’s Illa J rapping over his brother’s lost instrumentals from the 90’s Delicious Vinyl vaults. Check out the extended Q&A.

Dazed Digital: You grew up in an incredible music household, when did you start making music, rapping and singing?
Illa J: I started off writing poetry when I was around seven-years-old. And a little after that I started writing my first raps. Singing is something I've been doing all my life. I was in the choir at church at five-years-old. Combined with singing jazz with my parents and singing Al Green songs around the house, I can't remember a time when I wasn't singing. I just didn't get to put out any songs until recently.

DD: What was it like when you first heard the unreleased Dilla beats that Mike Ross gave to you?
Illa J: I would call these particular tracks Jay Dee tracks, because it was before he changed his name to J Dilla. When Mike Ross first played me the tracks it immediately took me back to '95, and I can remember sitting on the stairs listening to my brother's tracks when I was about nine-years-old. I always had an instinct for what I wanted to do over his tracks.

DD: How was it working with Delicious Vinyl, they have such an amazing LA music legacy?
Illa J: There's so much history there; my brother made a name for himself as a producer with some of the records that he did for Pharcyde. So it's crazy for me to start my career basically at the same place as he did. It's kinda like Marc Gasol starting off his career with the Grizzlies like his brother Pau Gasol.

DD: Can you talk about your tagline “new era of change”?
Illa J: I feel it's a time of change. And I feel honored to be a part of this change. My goal is to play my part to the best of my ability, while continuing to get better at my craft. At the end of the day, I believe I'm to here to inspire positive change, and even if I inspire only one person, I feel I've succeeded.

DD: Do you have any other aliases like your bro?
Illa J: Yes. Illa J is only one side of me. My producer and lyricist side. I have another side which is my singer/songwriter side which I preview on the Yancey Boys album on songs like Timeless and Swagger. My alter ego's name is John Regal. And I just recently finished the first John Regal album, which will be my second album. I just have to finish mixing it, and it'll be ready to for the world to hear. So you'll definitely start to hear about that project soon.

Photos by B+