JAY DEE DROP THE BEAT

Posted by Jason Sun, 12 Feb 2006 06:13:00 GMT

James Yancey aka Jay Dee aka J Dilla died last Friday. It was a very bad way to end a bad week for me. I’m not usually deeply affected by deaths of people I’ve never met, but the death of Jay Dee got to me. Ever since Like Water For Chocolate was released, I’ve considered him the best producer in the game. In the past couple years, it seemed like he was finally finding his place in the industry. And finally getting the recognition he deserved.

It was obvious he’s been sick since Champion Sound was released. The weight swings, the hospitalizations, those European shows he did in a wheelchair… It’s just hard to hear that he was hiding lupus for so long.

I wanted to put together a Jay Dee compilation, but it’s already been done much better by other people (such as Mental Combat). But I will still offer a couple downloads:

Two Can Win from the new Donuts LP. I actually haven’t bought or listened to Donuts yet – this is the only track from the album I’ve listened to. If this track is any indication, Donuts will be great. Gonna buy the album on Monday.

Common – Heat from Common’s Like Water For Chocolate. LWFC is one of my favourite albums. I know I’ve spent a fair bit of time defending it. “Heat” is my favourite beat from the album.

It’s Like That from Welcome 2 Detroit. This is the most underrated Dilla beat ever. It follows the formula that Dilla used to win my ears – really simple drum patterns with the volume of the drums turned WAY UP. This beat isn’t much more than than one drum loop and a chopped bass sample. Who else can keep it this simple and make it this hot? Listen to this song in the car and turn up the volume.

http://jaydee.ytmnd.com/ – I made this about a year and a half ago. Click. It features the song “Welcome 2 Detroit”.

For the past few weeks, this has been my main CD stack…