IAmYourVillian-J.Dilla Tribute Screening

Miami events devoted to quality hip-hop may take a little digging to find, but they're there. If you've found them, you're probably already familiar with the circuit of weeklies and one-offs put on by IAmYourVillain. If not, get schooled on Wednesday, April 14 at the Standard, when the loungey-cool hotel's bar hosts a screening of one of the best installments of L.A. production house Mochilla's Timeless DVD series. Timeless documents a series of concerts the Mochilla team put on in its hometown last year, with a classical-style orchestra performing a suite dedicated to a hip-hop legend.

At the April 14 event, you can catch the filmed version of the second concert, Suite For Ma Dukes, dedicated to the late, great J. Dilla, whose posthumous profile is, bittersweetly, eclipsing that of his lifetime. Composed by Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, the performance features a 60-piece orchestra performing a goosebump-raising jazz/soul/hip-hop hybrid, full of moody strings that Dilla himself would have likely sampled. Guest vocalists read like a who's-who of Dilla collaborators: Bilal, Dwele, De La Soul's Posdnuous, Talib Kweli, and more. Hear and see it all large-scale at the Standard; this is music that needs to be experienced from a P.A., not your tinny laptop speakers. Promoters promise giveaways and other fun stuff, too
Wed., April 14, 9 p.m., 2010