![late registration zippyshare late registration zippyshare](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*AYPRvr2rlgLhEoFU-j-q3Q.jpeg)
Dilla flips the same Minnie Riperton sample that Q-Tip did on Tribe’s “Lyrics to Go” for a team-up with his onetime mentor and another close collaborator in Busta Rhymes.
![late registration zippyshare late registration zippyshare](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/sanitaryequipmentdesignguidelinesvmay-2017-170502162143/95/sanitary-equipment-design-guidelines-part-1-of-2-13-638.jpg)
“You Can’t Hold the Torch,” Busta Rhymes featuring Q-Tip and Chauncey BlackĪ deep cut from a mostly forgotten Busta album, “You Can’t Hold the Torch” is part of a lifelong conversation between mentors and mentees, collaborators and fans. (“Nowadays kids don’t get beat,” he raps, “they get big treats / Fresh pair of sneaks, punishment’s like, ‘Have a seat.’”) This beat also evinces a sort of use every part of the animal ethos: The vocal sample comes from the same Luther Ingram song that provided the backbone of “Gobstopper.” -Thompson 39. It’s telling that, while every other beat on Donuts was given its own title-as they should have been in nearly every case, the instrumentals function as finished songs-this track appeared as “One for Ghost.” When that promise was realized just weeks later, on Ghostface’s Fishscale, the Staten Island native did right by it, bemoaning the restraint of parents who lacked his mother’s grit. “Whip You With a Strap,” Ghostface Killah And maybe this look at the past will inspire you to shape a new future. Hopefully you’ll get a chance to revisit some old favorites and maybe discover some new ones. (It didn’t make the list, but the last beat he made before his passing is a must-listen.) What you will find is a wide-ranging, loving look at Dilla’s work.
![late registration zippyshare late registration zippyshare](https://64.media.tumblr.com/b95e31f5d81a64a7f6bc6cfce5dd6745/335a165d42212ecb-e2/s640x960/2ab4f34a14b0c047647d99543fefb9f2753e7d0b.jpg)
And while we could’ve made an entire list out of unreleased beats, we stuck mostly to official songs, though there were a few notable exceptions. This list is an attempt to wrap our arms around the wide breadth of music Dilla created in his 32 years.īefore we begin, some important notes: While his influence is felt throughout D’Angelo’s Voodoo, we didn’t include any tracks from that album because he’s not officially credited as a producer on any and his involvement in songs like “Feel Like Makin’ Love” is still somewhat murky. But there’s still a lot of music to sort through: the early work with the Pharcyde and A Tribe Called Quest, a genre-shifting album with Slum Village, remixes for pop stars and electronic music producers, beat tapes that exist today only in YouTube and Zippyshare links. Charnas’s book is the latest-and likely best-work in that regard. Dilla’s death in February 2006 of complications from lupus and a rare blood disease known as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura kicked off hip-hop’s attempts to grapple with his legacy, which has only grown in stature over the past 16 years. Diving deep into his history-let alone ranking it-likely wouldn’t have sufficed for him.īut the past is all we’re left with. But for Dilla, the past was just a means to imagine the future. On the surface, it seems paradoxical: An artist whose sound was built upon pieces of the past had little time for looking backward.
![late registration zippyshare late registration zippyshare](https://64.media.tumblr.com/8a42fa7e48732fd719680cc9a00a6350/a55b7f0f057e8987-aa/s500x750/193512a84762f37919e0f3eb757694695301a309.jpg)
And when his sound became one of the dominant strains of hip-hop and R&B, he quickly reinvented himself, finding ways to stay a step ahead of his contemporaries. In Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm, Dan Charnas’s excellent new book on the producer and rapper born James Dewitt Yancey, collaborators repeatedly tell stories about how quickly Dilla worked, crafting masterpieces in minutes before moving on to the next beat. It’s worth stating up top that J Dilla himself would’ve likely had little use for this exercise.