By Jrox
February has a few titles. It’s black history month, heart month, and also the month that gave us and took away the great James Dewitt Yancey (Jay Dee, J Dilla). Born Feb 7th in Detroit, Michigan, James was pushed by his parents to become musical. Learning to play cello, keyboard, trumpet, and drums, Jay also became a record fanatic at an early age. In 1988 he formed Slum Village with high school friends, but it was in 1992 that a fellow Detroit native Amp Fiddler taught Jay how to use a MPC drum machine. He also introduced some of Jay’s music to Q-Tip who liked it and helped to get the word out. Over the next few years, Jay racked up a huge list of credits. Producing work for Busta Rhymes, The Pharcyde, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. In the later half of the 90’s he continued to produce incredible work like Common’s ‘Like Water For Chocolate’ as well as tracks for Talib Kweli and new Slum Village records.
Over the first half of the past decade Jay began to focus on a solo career, releasing albums such as ‘Welcome 2 Detroit’ and his final masterpiece ‘Donuts’ on Feb 7th 2006, three days before he would pass away from cardiac arrest after years of battling a rare blood disease. This mixtape is a light introduction to the brilliant resume of a ‘producers producer’. He was only with us for thirty-two years, but has left us with a body of work that will last forever. Thanks Dilla, TURN IT UP!!!
- Pause- Jay Dee
- Find a way- A Tribe Called Quest
- Raise it up- Slum Village
- Light my fire- J Dilla
- The Mission- Jaylib
- Runnin’- The Pharcyde
- Strapped ft Guilty Simpson- Jaylib
- Nothing like this- J Dilla
- McNasty Filth ft Frank N Dank- Jaylib
- The $- J Dilla
- Wonce again Long Island- De La Soul
- The Red- Jaylib
- Didn’t cha know- Erikah Badu
- African Rhythms- Jay Dee
- Lightworks- J Dilla
- Fall in love- Slum Village
- Two can win- J Dilla
- The Light- Common
- Workinonit- J Dilla
To listen to Jrox’s Dilla mix go here: