Today is the Lupus Walk in Detroit. I didn't realize it until a few friends from back home posted it on their facebook page. I woke up this morning and jumped on the net so I could sponser some folks. When I got to the Jay Walkers page, I started to spread the dough around. I wanted to support all the friends I had that were walking.But then it dawned on me. There are a lot of sites and fans out there praising Dilla's work. There are blogs that use images of the man and from his albums. A lot of people walk around with the shirt that says J Dilla changed my life. Looking at the donation breakdown page for the Jay Walkers page, that's a lot of BULLSHIT! Hell, a Yancey was walking and no gave a dime for her efforts.
When I say something changed my life, I walk the walk. Anyone who knows me and my passion for Mr Yancey's legacy, they know I mean it. Not only do I know the music very well and some of the behind the scene stuff, I work very hard in the fight against lupus. Losing J Dilla taught me how much lupus is affecting my life. I have a few friends that were diagnosed with it and TOO many friends with family memebers living with it. But I digress. With 22 people walking this morning in the D on that team, I was shocked to see that they were shy of hitting the $1000 mark. I thought to myself, with all the people around the globe proclaiming to be forever changed by this man, they should have raised at least 5 times that amount. Maybe it's the promoting (or lack of) or it could be that the J Dilla Foundation is in higher gear now. But regardless, I felt the support of the team, that bears his name in his hometown that is raising money to fight the very disease that claimed his life, was lacking.
