Re: VINYL CLASSICS-MOTOWN HIP-HOP VST Torrents
Simone Whitmeyer
February is a very representative month for those who love the Hip-Hop culture, especially for if you are a fan of J Dilla, who today is more alive than ever before. Music producer, DJ, rapper, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, perhaps one of the most influential, genius, visionary and prolific artists in the history of the music industry, the native of Detroit, Michigan, birthplace of soul music and rhythm and blues in the United States, rhythms and genres that clearly influenced and guided their beats. Yesterday, February 7, Dilla would be 47 years old, a date that also marks the 15th anniversary of 'Donuts', his most acclaimed album, and the next 10th of February, is the 15th year since his death.
Because of everything that J Dilla represents to culture, and perhaps the artist with the most soul, sensitivity and virtue in RAP music and who always released a large array of emotions through his beats, the DILLA MONTH has been institutionalized as a live celebration , a whole month full of tributes and celebrations around the world to preserve J Dilla's work, memory and legacy.
J Dilla had passion, technique, sophistication and simplicity, a soft-spoken guy with an incredible work ethic and production. It made him unique. Very few artists have managed to bring these elements together in such a consistent, deep and vigorous way. Even though Jay Dee acted so ubiquitously in the musical universe, and that in fact all this cult and true recognition was only achieved after his departure for another life horizon. Dilla's death had a significant impact on the Hip-Hop community. In addition to countless tribute tracks and concerts in his honor, Dilla's death created an enormous array of interest in his catalog and, consequently, J Dilla's influence on Hip-Hop production became much more apparent and represented.
Fifteen years after the death of J Dilla, due to a rare blood disease related to lupus ... DJs, producers, rappers and fans still marvel at his - as The New York Times called it - "meticulous style, but casual". You don't even have to listen very carefully to understand the way his work continues to shape and influence music to this day. The concept of invention and creating something out of nothing is what distinguishes Hip-Hop from other musical styles. One of J Dilla's greatest qualities was that he was constantly reinventing his style and his way of working to find new forms of expression.
Still, J Dilla, born James Yancey, ended up becoming best known for his solo work, such as the 2001 Welcome 2 Detroit albums, his debut solo album, and 2006 Donuts, his latest release in life, that put the virtuosity and idiosyncrasy on an equal level and footing. The lush and heavy grooves show the ubiquitous versus the esoteric, creating an unmistakable and super experimental sound that no one has been able to reproduce over the years.
Having such a rich production between what he created and produced for himself and others, it is difficult to filter just about everything. We made a compilation, a list of 30 records with great Jay Dee productions that you need and must listen to. We could call them J Dilla's top 30 records, but that statement could trigger a war or more (((laughs!))). So, instead, let's say that these are the 30 essential records to understand J Dilla's work. The list is a bit long, nevertheless it is worth checking out and getting to know a little more about J Dilla and all the magnitude and immensity of his work.
"Stakes Is High" is the main track and also titled the fourth album by the power trio De La Soul, the group's first work without the collaboration of mentor and producer DJ Prince Paul. The chopped three loop chores (Dilla has always liked three and five bar loops) taken from the theme "Swahililand" from the jazz master Jamal Plays Jamal's 1974 album, Ahmad Jamal, is considered one of J Dilla's greatest productions of all time . In an interview on Juan Epstein's popular podcast The Hip-Hop Heads, the members of De La Soul revealed that they basically had to trick Q-Tip in order to guarantee the beat for the group. If you are not a fan of collecting singles, the complete album is mandatory for fans of classic Hip-Hop, despite being the only track on the album produced by J Dilla, who also handled the remix of the song, where The Plugs counted on the sure participation of Yasiin Bey aka Mos Def.
The Katz was an all-female Hip-Hop and R&B group from Detroit, which released their single album called "Come Fly With Me" on a small local independent label around the same time as 5-Ela (5-Elementz) and Slum Village were starting to move around the city. Jay Dee was an important figure in Detroit's growing Hip-Hop scene in the early and second half of the 1990s, and as the producer was involved in the project while producing the respective demos and premieres for all of these groups. Out of the eight tracks on the album that was released only on cassette, Jay Dee produced three, while his friend DJ Dez, a well-known name in the Hip-Hop scene "D", produced most of the others. I was not lucky to find the album in its entirety, however, only two of the three tracks produced by Jay Dee are on YouTube; "Happy Dayz" and "Funny" are Jay Dee productions from the early 90s, a very raw and heavy sound, but Jay Dee's trademark drumming is unmistakable. Mandatory registration for Dilla fans and much more interesting than many of the things produced later.
I'm not going to make any claims to be a Janet Jackson fan, but I absolutely love this song. I would never have imagined that the combination of Jacko's most famous and talented sister, Q-Tip, and J Dilla would make for an R&B classic. Not only does Janet and Q-Tip bring the best of both to the song, but Dilla does what seems impossible and manages to transform a song by folk singer Joni Mitchell into something totally hip-hop style. I remember reading somewhere, however, that there was a bit of controversy around this track, since Janet Jackson received producer credits and J Dilla did not, hence the remix title. But with all of Dilla's trademarks on the track, no one would mistake that sound for anyone other than Jay Dee.
It was in Things Fall Apart that Jay Dee's journey into The Soulquarians began - and what a start! The punctuation of the track "Dynamite" is a good example of the rhythmic techniques that made Questlove fall in love with Dilla. Roots never sounded like a jazz ensemble after Jay Dee's midas touch. Elsewhere on the same album; Jay Dee, The Roots, Erykah Badu and Eve (with assistance from Jill Scott) earned the jewel "You Got Me", which gave the group their first Grammy, being awarded as the Rap song of the year.
Best Kept Secret is a J-88 album (a nickname for Slum Village). Released before Jay Dee's departure from Slum Village, the album has been described as the missing link between the acclaimed Fan-Tas-Tic, Vol. 1 and Fantastic, Vol. 2, and includes some exclusive remixes from Madlib and the London-based producer of broken beat IG Culture. Although much of the material had not been released previously, two of the tracks, "The Look Of Love Pt. 1" and "Keep It On", remain largely unchanged from the versions found in Fan-Tas-Tic, Vol. 1. It was released in very limited quantities at the time and was not available to the general public.
It is also the first release to bear the name 'Jaylib' (in the notes and credits of the inside the album); the collaborative duo of J Dilla and Madlib, which would only debut a few months later.
The Shining is J Dilla's third studio album and the second posthumous album, and marked the artist's reunion with BBE Records, which had released the already listed Welcome 2 Detroit, J Dilla's debut album. The Shining serves as a showcase for the talents and versatility of J Dilla, who presents him not only as a producer, but also as a rapper, MC and musician. Like "Donuts", "The Shinnig" was also produced, in large part, in a hospital room, during the last days of Jay Dee's life. Unfortunately, the record was not finished before the producer passed. As the album was ultimately only 75% complete at the time of J Dilla's death, his friend and Detroit producer Karriem Riggins was entrusted by Dilla's mother and J Dilla himself for completion and the album, being finalized and released in August 2006. Guest artists participated in the album as Busta Rhymes, Common, Pharoahe Monch, D'Angelo, Madlib, Black Thought, Medaphor aka MED and Guilty Simpson. It is an extremely powerful and energetic work, considered the culmination of J Dilla's production work, as it shows a huge evolution in his techniques and skills.
Incredible collection of J Dilla's productions throughout his career launched by the Gran Slam Records label; rare remixes, B-sides, unpublished collaborations with Jamiroquai, Daft Punk, Das EFX, Maxwell, Steve Spacek, Macy Gray, Faith Evans (those you didn't know (((laughs!))) among others, tracks hard to find with limited release. All 6 volumes are on double vinyl with an average of 16 tracks on each album. This is a gold mine for every collector and fan of J Dilla.
The mark that J Dilla left in Hip-Hop during the 90s and early 2000s is undeniable, and his work with De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, The Pharcyde and many others, has long been cemented in the hallmarks of the Hip-Hop culture. His time as a member of Detroit's seminal group, Slum Village, is among the biggest and most prolific moments of his short career. His work with rappers Baatin and T3 would have a strong influence on today's rappers like Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar and would win widespread critical acclaim and comparisons with other legendary groups like A Tribe Called Quest.
Trends come and go. Styles and subgenres are born, evolve and disappear, but one thing is notoriously certain: J Dilla was a genius, and in an irrefutable way he remains one of the most talented, versatile and influential artists of our time. His contribution and legacy to the culture made him a legend and a name forever recorded in the history of music. At a time when many of his contemporaries were even more interested in vanity, Dilla was more interested in exploration through music, and that made him unique. Who is the best Hip-Hop producer in history? Difficult to measure, but certainly J Dilla is included with praise in this list.