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J Dilla
Ruff Draft: Instrumentals
When Ruff Draft saw its initial release in 2003, J Dilla possessed production skills on par with anyone in hip-hop – technically and creatively. “At the top of his game,” says longtime friend and collaborator, Karriem Riggins. After years of building while modestly deferring to others of both greater and lesser notoriety, Dilla finally completed the first solo endeavor on his own label, entirely on his own terms. The significance of such an autonomous success often gets overlooked, and partly accounts for why Ruff Draft is one of the lesser-referenced entries in Dilla’s oeuvre. “It’s a mysterious little project,” says his mother, Maureen Yancey. “But out of his entire career, that was the happiest time.” Prior to recording the EP, Dilla found himself at a crossroads. Estranged from his label, MCA, and separated from the mother of his youngest daughter, frustration abounded both personally and professionally. Dilla spent parts of 2002 and 2003 working on an album for MCA that featured his rapping over contributions from other producers with whom he had connected and whose music he respected. At the time, he was known primarily for his beats, yet reviled for his MCing by most anyone not from his hometown of Detroit. The project was to be an intentional freak of the industry. The project would go on to spur his collaborative album with Madlib, Jaylib, and would first showcase the template that he would take to his greatest heights with 2006’s Donuts. The Stones Throw reissue of Ruff Draft from 2008 featured remixes of the songs from the album, done without Dilla’s involvement. This version of the album takes Dilla’s recently discovered mixes of the album and restores his vision for the project. The producer’s own mixes – recently rediscovered – of his seminal EP, expanded with bonus tracks and now available in a special instrumental edition.
Pay Jay
LP
J Dilla
Jay Love Japan
In 2005, rumors began circulating about an album called “”Jay Love Japan””, a J Dilla solo project inspired by one of Jay Dee’s favorite locations to visit on tour. After Dilla’s untimely death in early 2006, the album became a lost classic shrouded in mystery, with only unofficial bootlegs and promo versions available. An official CD version was eventually released in 2008, but quickly went out of print. Now, the album is finally receiving the official release it always deserved. J Dilla’s mother Ma Dukes and her label Vintage Vibez Music Group are proud to present official Vinyl and CD versions of “Jay Love Japan”. With six soulful Dilla instrumentals and vocal appearances from Blu, Miguel, J*Davey, Ta’Raach, Exile, Baatin, and more, this 11-track collection is a perfect snapshot of late-period J Dilla brilliance
Vintage Vibez
CD | LP
J Dilla
Dillatronic
40+ electronic influenced instrumentals from J Dilla! From the smooth, soulful soundbeds he laid down for A Tribe Called Quest, Slum Village, The Pharcyde, Common, The Roots, and D’Angelo to the hard-edged, synth-heavy tracks he crafted for Busta Rhymes, Jaylib, Oh No, and Phat Kat, Jay Dee’s music continued to grow and evolve throughout his brief time on this planet. As Dilla’s mother Ma Dukes explains, “He didn’t come with a limited capacity, and real producers produce, produce, and produce. “There are no formats for genius workers…just non-stop creations.” Now, a fresh batch of those creations will be made available to the world for the first time, in the form of the latest official J Dilla release, Dillatronic
Vintage Vibes / Ma Dukes Official
CD | LP
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