Today marked the 3rd anniversary of J Dilla’s passing, It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t post something up to remember the man and his craft.
Here are some things that I came across today that I recommend you check out in remembrance:
Brandon has, well deservedly, dedicated the whole month to breaking down each and every single track from Dilla’s masterful instrumental album Donuts.
SofaKing got a bunch of noteworthy cats such as Black Milk & 6th Sense to list their 10 favorite Dilla beats. It’s interesting to see there isn’t that much overlap, which reiterates how deep & diverse his Catalog of work was.
Stones Throw recently shared a live recording of Jaylib show from 2004 (with a guest appearance by Common), download it and check out the pictures & some words form J. Rocc.
Sweeney has some tracks and info on how you can purchase A Suite for Ma Dukes EP, which directly benefits Dilla’s mother.
And if you have somehow missed it last year, ML’s Dilla Beat Drop is worth your time as well.
Note: This was supposed to go up a little earlier, but just as I was about to publish, the internets went out. Thanks Comcast.
Remix Tuesdays is back after a 2 week hiatus and in honor of Raekwon announcing for the release date for Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 for the 6th time (April 7th, make your calendars!), I’m doing a Remix Tuesdays on a track off the original OB4CL.
Cam’ron has come back to drop a track, get an XXL cover, talk to Miss Info.. and announce he is coming out with a TV show based on Larry David’s Curb Your Own Enthusiasm. Combined with the fact Curb is one of my favorite shows of all time, normally, my Cam’ron obsessive genes would kick in and I would start shaking with excitement. I really want to, but I don’t see it happening right now. You know why? HE NEVER DROPPED THE PROMISED PEDOPHILE HUNTING DOCUMENTARY. WE NEED THAT, CAM. I’M DEPRESSED, PEOPLE ARE LOSING JOBS, WE NEED A HERO (NO SULLY SULLENBERGER).
If it doesn’t come to fruition, maybe Cam should look into hosting a special episode of NBC’s To Catch a Predator. Can you imagine if one of the creepers turns out to be a Dip-Set stan? He’d probably forget about the underage kid and try to hug Cam.
Here is the entire 1st episode from the TI doc series we mentioned a little while back. If you aren’t the watching TV on the computer type, you can catch the premier on MTV on Tuesday at 9PM EST.
Anotherpart of this interesting sitdown. Young Guru has an interesting point at the end, saying the labels need to develop the best protected format on the internet? With Apple recently going pretty much DRM free, I highly doubt that is the answer. Quality of the format (for the general public) isn’t either.. people are listening to music on youtube!!
Here’s a great interview with the heads of two great record labels, Pedro Winter (aka Busy P) of Ed Banger and Chris Manak, aka Peanut Butter Wolf of Stones Throw. There’s some interesting back story behind both labels and Busy P’s answers are all in charmingly broken English (the title of this post being the best example).
Particularly interesting: Pedro explains how Slum Village ended up remixing Daft Punk’s “Aerodynamic”.
Pedro, how did the Daft Punk remix by Slum Village/Jay Dee occur?
Pedro: You all probably know the classic “Raise it up” from Slum Village. This beat was insane at the time. Jay Dee as usual came up with an avant-garde beat. I did not notice the sample at first sight, but a friend of us was there and say, “Hey hey hold on, isn’t it a Daft sound?” And fuck yes! It was in fact a sample from Thomas Bangalter’s solo project for his label Roulé.
Instead of loosing our time and react as ass holes and ask for money or shit, I propose to the Daft boys to take care of it and ask a remix in exchange of the use of that sample. I met Dilla in Miami and he was of course up for it and was really friendly. He is from Detroit and electronic music never scared him. We were so happy with the result and the shout out. It was a simple and nice adventure. I feel really lucky to have met Jay Dee it was 8 or 9 years ago.
Been waiting on this one. Co$$, from the Blu & Exile school of underground rap, drops a mixtape of unreleased tracks. I’ve always thought of Co$$ as little more than Blu’s weed carrier who can drop a worthwhile verse here and there, but he really stepped up with this mixtape. His bars and his flow are formidable and the production is on point. Best mixtape of the year so far.
