The Making Of Dabrye’s “Game Over” With J. Dilla & Phat Kat

An oral account from Dabrye, Phat Kat, Sam Valenti IV, and others

This article was published back in 2010 on The Loop Detroit, a short-lived Detroit music website that I ran in 2010-2011. This was probably the best piece I did on there.

Personally, I remember the first time I heard “Game Over”. Phat Kat was riding in my car with me. We were leaving his spot when he was on the east side of Detroit on a street over near French Road in the dead of these cold ass winters of ours. He mentioned that him and Dilla were working on this song with this cat named Dabrye from Ann Arbor.

At that time, I had been doing the Renaissance Soul web site for almost two years mostly centered around Dilla news. I knew about Dabrye’s music and had just started talking with people from Ghostly International – specifically the founder, Sam Valenti IV. It bugged me out that everyone from the label had already knew what I was doing with the web site – but the more I came to know Sam and the other people at Ghostly, the more I realized how in touch they were with everything. Over the years, Sam Valenti IV has become somewhat of a mentor to me and I definitely respect his vision.

Getting back to “Game Over”, Phat Kat had popped the CD in and from the first listen, I just knew this was something special. I even remember when Ghostly mailed me a white label promo of the vinyl (I still have it too). In 2006, I did an interview with Tadd Mullinix (aka Dabrye) for a feature in Real Detroit Weekly (which never happened) for the release of his Two/Three album. Tadd told me a great story about the making of “Game Over”. I ended up not doing anything with the interview but I didnt want to waste it. So I decided to take the “Game Over” story from it and then get quotes from everyone else involved in the making of this classic song.

Since it’s release, “Game Over” has become a staple to underground hip-hop and is still reverberating through speakers worldwide. It was a hallmark release for Ghostly International and for the discographies of Dabrye, J. Dilla, and Phat Kat. We love and miss you Dilla. Thanks for everything.

Sam Valenti IV (founder, owner, A&R, Ghostly International) – My friend [Reilly Brennan] was writing for a car magazine and was recording an interview with Dilla (just Jay Dee at the time) about the “Dillalade” and his favorite cars. He mentioned Dabrye to him, and he recognized the name. They got to talking and found out that Dilla was a fan, which was a big thrill.

Reilly Brennan (Director at AOL, former writer at Automobile Magazine) – In early 2002, I had the opportunity to drive the Mercedes-Benz G500 for a story for Automobile Magazine. Given that the truck wasn’t out in the market yet, I figured it might be an interesting perspective for us to let a hip hop producer drive it for his thoughts. Naturally, I also figured this was a way for me to meet my hero and favorite producer, Jay Dee.

Sam Valenti IV – Tadd (Dabrye) and myself were longtime fans of his. House Shoes had given me the first Slum Village tape years before and Tadd was very inspired by Dilla, so we very much wanted to collaborate. After that it was just a matter of getting in touch.

Reilly Brennan – It was during this time when Dilla’s relationship with Slum was sort of on the outs and his record with MCA was in production. To that end I wanted to see if he had ever heard a record by a friend of mine, Tadd Mullinix, aka Dabrye, more or less to let him know I had some hip hop knowledge (I figured the windsor knot and v-neck sweater didn’t exactly set me off as a hip hop head). Dilla thought and then said “yeeeeeahhhh” and asked me (I still can’t believe he was asking me this) if I could put him in touch with him. Dilla even gave me his cell phone number to give to him. That night I called my longtime friend and Ghostly founder Sam Valenti, told him this was a no bullshit offer, and a few weeks later Sam, Dabrye, Dilla, and Phat Kat were putting together the “Game Over” deal.

Tadd Mullinix (Dabrye, producer of “Game Over”) – In the first place, I had a handful of 5 beats to play Jay Dee. We just met up with him in the studio. I didn’t know if was just going to be him but I sat down in there. We got Phat Kat and Young RJ in here and Dank. They were passing blunts. Sam [Valenti IV] is not much of smoker but I am so I was more than happy. I love blunts [laughing]. We were smoking and listening to Jay’s new beat CD. They were playing Young RJ’s beats too. I was like “Man, that shit is sick”. Young RJ was like chillin’. He didn’t say anything the whole time. I was like “Oh man, does this cat hate me. Does he think I’m some white chump coming in from the suburbs trying to do hip-hop stuff bsaically”. That was my biggest fear about confronting them because I thought it would be like “This motherfucker thinks he can just roll in here and start making hip-hop.”

DJ House Shoes (DJ/producer, Detroit) – Went over Dilla’s crib one day. Sam and Dabrye and Kat and few other muthafuckas over there. Dabrye played some joints for Jay and as soon as he heard that joint he was like ‘”Thats the one, I’m fuckin with that”.

Sam Valenti IV – Tadd and I went to Dilla’s studio where Phat Kat was hanging out. Tadd brought a beat CD of recent tracks and he knew that was the one that would get their attention. We went through them together. When the “Game Over” beat came on, Dilla did his trademark “yeeeeeaaahhhh”, we knew we had it.

Tadd Mullinix – So, Jay skipped over to the beat that would become “Game Over” and Phat Kat started rhyming about guns and shit. The way everything was arranged in the room was perfect too. Jay’s great soundsystem and Phat Kat right here and it sounded like a single. Man this is perfect. So perfect.

Phat Kat (emcee, Detroit) – We linked up through Dilla. Dilla called me. He was already talking to Tadd and he was at Dilla’s crib so Dilla called me and told me to come over. I came over and listened to Tadd’s beats. It was on and poppin. We recorded that shit right on the spot. Thats how that came about.

Tadd Mullinix – Sam and I expressed “Tadd’s concern is that he doesn’t want to be confused with backpacker hip-hop because he definitely doesn’t feel that shit.” Jay was like “I’m hip. I’m down with that”. We gave him the beat and he comes back with these lyrics about “If your bitch talks shit I’mma smash her mouth.” I was like “YES!, Dude” [laughing]. He totally unloaded. That was like the first meeting.

Sam Valenti IV – Tadd knew that Dilla’s flow would be perfect and we loved Phat Kat’s single “Dedication To The Suckers.” Dilla and Kat were like fire and ice on wax, two different styles but together it was the perfect intensity.

Tadd Mullinix – We went back to Jay’s studio. I met his family and that was amazing. They were like such a beautiful family. His mom and dad and him were just smiling. They all had this beautiful smile on their faces. It was really brief and we really didn’t talk much but it was nice. They were obviously really warm people.

Sam Valenti IV – When the beat CD was playing, Kat just starting flowing on the spot, they recorded quickly. A week or two later, it was done.

Tadd Mullinix – It was simple. We went into the studio. Listen to the beat. He delivered the vocals back. He did the additional scratches and re-edit the beat a little bit to make it work. He just took care of business and brought it back to me and it was a done deal. I didnt have to do any post-production, which was uncommon. The rest of the album i had to do alot of post-production and re-arranging. He just took care of the fuckin business.

Sam Valenti IV – What was cool is that Dilla gave Tadd and I some burned CDs too. On them was a lot of the Jaylib record that was in the making as well as an early version Ruff Draft. It was too good to be true, I still listen to those discs a lot.

Phat Kat – Whenever I perform that song, its dope because a lot of people love that song worldwide.

Sam Valenti IV – I think it’s one of Dilla’s classic verses. There is a menacing energy there, but has that coolness that Dabrye brought that still makes it a party record. It’s a fan favorite and I know Dilla liked it, which is the most important thing.

Phat Kat – At the Dilla Day at the [Movement] Festival, it was special but kind of somber too because he wasn’t there to rock that shit with me.

Sam Valenti IV – The reaction I remember most was at the Dilla tribute at Movement Festival in 2006. The whole Detroit Hip-Hop community was there plus DJ Rhettmatic of the Beat Junkies who helped break the record in LA. House Shoes played the instrumental and Kat did his verse and just left Dilla’s verses go silent. The whole crowd did Dilla’s verses and everyone knew the words. I got the chills and a tear in my eye. It’s an immortal song and moment for me.

Reilly Brennan – Maybe it was dumb luck but the time frame in which Dilla recorded “Game Over” happened during the Ruff Draft / Champion Sound era of 2002-2003, personally my favorite and I’d argue his creative peak. I remember when Sam got the first edit back from Dilla and he played it for me one night at his place in Ann Arbor. I had to fight with Sam in order for him to give me a copy of it. It was in my car on repeat for a month, honestly. The song itself was incredible but it represented such an important milemarker for Dabrye, Ghostly, Sam, everyone. The real credit goes to Dabrye, Dilla, Phat Kat and Sam — I played just a small bit part but for that I’m incredibly thankful.

Tadd Mullinix – Jay was super humble. He didn’t have any kind of attitude which was my biggest fear because I knew he had all kinds of shit already done. Great discography. Obviously a living legend at the time. So he came off super humble and super friendly. He is my idol. That collaboration was a dream come true.