Listen to Two J Dilla Tracks off of Dillatroit, Out Today

Listen to Two J Dilla Tracks off of <i>Dillatroit</i>, Out Today

J Dilla’s highly anticipated posthumous release Rebirth of Detroit is available today, and yesterday saw the release of two tracks from it, both of which you can check out below....  read more

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J Dilla's Mother To Release 12-Track Dillatroit EP

J Dilla's Mother To Release 12-Track <i>Dillatroit</i> EP

Twelve tracks of previously unreleased J Dilla tracks are set to be released on May 25 in the U.S. and June 12 internationally, according to Juno Plus....  read more

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See Photos of J Dilla's Recently Discovered Record Collection

See Photos of J Dilla's Recently Discovered Record Collection

If it weren’t for Google and an inexplicable whim, this story wouldn’t be told. If Jeff Bubeck hadn’t Googled the name “James Yancey,” the Detroit News wouldn’t have shown up at his store, UHF Records in Royal Oak, Mich. on Record Store Day and the tiny music shop wouldn’t have been on the front pages of websites like All Hip Hop, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork or even Paste.   read more

Found in: Blogs, Awesome of the Day

Posthumous J Dilla album on the way

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J Dilla, born James Dewitt Yancy, was only 32 when he passed away from Lupus in 2006. The founder of the legendary Detroit rap crew Slum Village was a major force in hip-hop production over the last decade and a half, serving up beats for luminaries like Q-Tip and A Tribe Called Quest. In honor of one of the great creative minds of the genre, Dilla's label has just announced a posthumous album titled Jay Stay Paid....  read more

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Raposauria, He: First-Listen Thoughts on DOOM's Born Like This

Raposauria, He: First-Listen Thoughts on DOOM's <em>Born Like This</em>

A couple weeks back, word came down that that tricky masked villain would be dropping a new album. MF Doom, now unfortunately rechristened DOOM ("All big letters, but it isn't no acronym," as he says on "Ballskin."), will release Born Like This on March 23 via Lex Records. For a guy with so much allegedly on his plate (a new Madvillain record? a collaboration album with Ghostface? other various stuff?), it's nice to see him get around to releasing something.We'll have a proper review of the full album, but in the meantime, take a stroll with me through the Born...  read more

Found in: Blogs, List of the Day

Tracks released from J Dilla, MF Doom, Ghostface collab.

Tracks released from J Dilla, MF Doom, Ghostface collab.

When J Dilla (born James Dewitt Yancey) died from a rare blood disease in February of 2006, he had unleashed instrumental hip-hop opus Donuts just three days earlier, on his thirty-second birthday. ...  read more

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Mos Def's Big Band to perform with Gil Scott-Heron

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Looks like we'll need to add one more item to perennial Brooklyn hip-hop veteran Mos Def's resume: rapper, actor, poet, band geek. Turns out that the mighty Mos has been doing some stuff with Mos Def's Big Band on the side since last year, namely a tribute to J Dilla. And, unlike other acts who've tried their hands at this with mixed results, they actually sound really good. Their next performance is on June 28 (with special guest Gil Scott-Heron!) at the JVC Jazz Festival in New York City. The event is described as "an evening of music and spoken...  read more

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