If you don’t really know who Dilla was, I’ll spare my gushing and geeky introduction and direct you to his wikipedia.
He is almost probably my favourite artist ever, certainly my most played, and I’m still finding gems amongst the ~2 days worth of his production I have amassed over the past 5 years.
I’ve numbered this post, as I will no doubt want to blog about him again, when I find some ridiculous hidden bassline that I hadn’t even considered hearing, or drum pattern that could have easily taken 2 years for the guy to create…
I guess I’ll start off with a few examples of (in my humble opinion) J Dilla’s finest work:
» The Pharcyde - Drop
The Pharcyde deliver solid verses (as usual). But…wow, the beat is genius - the drums are PERFECT, and complement the hypnotic reverse sample faultlessly.
» Oh No - Move
Are you serious? Sampling Bach? Amazing
»Guilty Simpson - Stress
ARE YOU SERIOUS? SAMPLING ‘ELEANOR RIGBY’? AMAZING
This last song is pretty special to me. It was so surreal when I heard J Dilla sampling my favourite Beatles song for less than 30 seconds, in a strange beat-tape I downloaded about 2 years ago. For those 2 years I have been Google-ing ‘J Dilla Eleanor Rigby’ every few weeks, to absolutely no avail and to absolute frustration.
It was about a month ago that I heard ‘Guilty Simpson’ was releasing a track that he’d recorded with J Dilla before the producer’s untimely death. To my delight/surprise/relief I found the elusive beat in all it’s (youtube quality) glory! Cue song on non-stop repeat for a good 2 days, and it entering my top 3 favourite Dilla productions ever.
Subjectively, ‘Stress’ probably isn’t his best work, but for me it just shows how innovative Dilla was. If any other hip-hop producer samples The Beatles, it’s either some tacky remix or a gimmicky mash-up project. Dilla makes ‘Stress’ a legitimate banger in its own right, without any pretensions, or nods to the obscure sample. That’s so awesome.
can you upload your j dilla discography when you get a chance? i’m missing a lot
