Big Sean has made a case for J Dilla being the greatest producer of all time.
In a promo for an upcoming Shinola watch inspired by the late production legend, Sean Don discusses the impact and legacy of his fellow Detroiter, who he hails as a “genius.”
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“He was born with a gift, a natural rhythm about him,” he says in the artsy clip. “They say he could match pitch-perfect harmony before he even learned how to speak. And for a kid from the eastside growing up in the ’80s, music was like currency.”
“It was a way to make sense of the world, to connect with people. And his craft connected us all. His greatness is clocked in the tiniest increments of time,” he continues.
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“That’s why J Dilla is one of the greatest producers, if not the greatest, of all time. He was a genius, hands down. He changed music forever.”
Sean added in his Instagram caption: “Rest in power, Dilla. We feel you in every beat.”
Big Sean has shown love for J Dilla a lot in recent years and revealed that he once tried to get Eminem to spit over a Dilla beat.
In an interview with Essence, Sean explained that he got his hands on an unreleased Jay Dee beat for his 2020 album Detroit 2 and sent it to Em, but the song never materialized, despite Em liking the instrumental.
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“It reminded me of an old Eminem,” the former G.O.O.D. Music MC said of the beat. “And when I sent it to Em, he was like, ‘Man, I like the Dilla beat, for sure. I get it.’”
D12’s Denaun Porter previously revealed that A Tribe Called Quest‘s “Get a Hold” — from their 1996 album Beats, Rhymes & Life — originally belonged to Slim Shady.
“He had the illest song to that beat. Em had that beat before Tribe and them had it,” the producer told Em’s longtime manager Paul Rosenberg on his Paul Pod in 2022.
“Proof gave it to him. It was like, ‘Yo, I gotta get some Dilla beats,’” he added. “I don’t know if he recorded it, but he wrote it because I remember him writing it and I remember the song being ill as hell […] The concept he had to it was crazy.
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“Proof told Jay Dee, ‘Yo, Em wants this beat.’ And it might have been another beat too. But that song… when we heard it on the Tribe album, we were like, ‘Aww man!’ But it’s A Tribe Called Quest — what you gonna say?”
Porter added: “[Dilla] told him a price and I think Em was trying to get the money up for it or something because we were broke […] Mind you, they would’ve got Slim Marshall. This was before ‘Just Don’t Give a Fuck.’”
