Remembering J-Dilla

Last week the hip-hop world celebrated the life of Jay Dee aka J-Dilla. Both his birthday and date of death fell in the same week. I first heard his music in 1996 when he began working with A Tribe Called Quest on their fourth album Beats, Rhymes and Life. He had already been working with his group Slum Village in his hometown of Detroit, and apparently stepped to Q-Tip with a tape while Tribe was in town with Lollapalooza. From that point on, Jay Dee became the “producers producer”. Highly acclaimed he worked with the likes of Pharcyde, Busta Rhymes, De La Soul and later in life with Madlib, Common Sense, Erykah Badu just to name a few. He also had a solid solo career, his first single F-ck Tha Police dropped in 2001, and it was followed up by my personal favorite Welcome To Detroit. His influence in music will always be heard, and he is missed. I’ve compiled a few videos from Youtube, the first being a new Stussy produced documentary, followed by some tracks.