When celebrated Detroit producer and MC James Yancey — best known to the Hip Hop community as J Dilla — passed away in 2006 at just 32-years-old, the genre lost one of its finest sons. Since then, the prolific producer’s catalogue has expanded by a dozen albums, including his latest work: an all-inclusive project titled The Diary.
Thanks to the Yancey Estate, who, according to Dilla’s official website, helped assemble The Diary over a ten-year period from two-track mixdowns and multi-track masters found in Dilla’s archives, listeners everywhere are now able to hear 16 previously unissued songs featuring artists such as Snoop Dogg, Frank & Dank, Bilal and more. A mix of hard-hitting battle tracks and soulful, sample-filled joints, The Diary intentionally was compiled to have something for everyone.
Hip Hop has been forced to move on from its love for samples since Dilla’s death, forever changing the genre. Its roots in jazz, funk, soul and blues can’t be understated, and The Diary – originally set for release in 2002 – serves as a time capsule of this earlier era. On the album’s second single “Trucks,” which pays homage to Gary Numan’s new wave hit “Cars,” Dilla grabs the mic and raps about one his favorite topics. Lyrics like “Here in my truck, with Belvedere in my cup/It got me feelin’ fucked up / But this is how we live in trucks!” are far from poetic, but Dilla’s experimental sampling will make listeners reminisce on Hip Hop’s past.
The Diary is full of risk-taking, with the storied producer rapping on nearly every track, a talent he used somewhat sparingly throughout his career. Though many of the lyrics are forgettable, mostly focusing on clothes, cars and women, Dilla tests the limits of the basic four bar scheme by adding extra lines to his rhymes. On “Give Them What They Want,” Dilla displays this penchant on the first verse: “Y’all think Satan is bad, J Dilla bad like Jason I stab/Stay in the lab/Quick to tell bitches bout my muthafuckin’ Timb size, 8 and a half.” The results of his experimentation are, unfortunately, unsuccessful.
If Kanye – who often cites Dilla among his biggest influences – has taught us anything during his transition from producer to rapper, it’s that creative differences should be praised, not scorned. While the neo-baller venture on “Trucks” fall flat, Dilla’s tendency to bend rhythms on tracks like “The Introduction,” which was created in conjunction with House Shoes and features a double hand clap overtop competing electronic notes — one dark and slow-moving, the other light and ever-changing — is another example of his willingness to explore Hip Hop in all aspects.
Though The Diary veers off the beaten path at times, failing to reach the meteoric heights of Dilla’s Grammy-nominated Common track “The Light” or The Pharcyde’s “Runnin’,” longtime fans will appreciate the intermixed ‘90s-influenced boom-bap tracks such as “The Shining (Pt. 1)” (created in part by Nottz), “So Far” (made with help from Supa Dave West) and “The Ex” featuring Bilal (co-produced by Pete Rock). For those more interested in raw-sounding battle tracks, “Fight Club” and one of the album’s two bonus tracks – “The Sickness,” featuring rhymes by Nas and beats by Madlib – will be a better fit. Whatever your preference, The Diary’s fresh sound, over a decade after its creation, is a rare gift.
Yeah i’d give this album a 3.5. Simply because it isn’t his creation entirely, and I can tell, being an avid listener to his shit. I wish they’d let him RIP now. He’s gone.
Dilla became a star with his death. He was a decent producer, but nobody really gave a fuck about him till he died. So don’t be hypocrate and list his works before 2006 without Wikipedia.
Tell Him! gzj is NOT HIP-HOP. Has no idea what they hell he is talking about!!
Yup. Jay Dee was huge in 95 already with all that Ummah climax sh*t, Pharcyde, Keith Murray, Busta Rhymes, ATCQ all fire, altho I fell in love with him when fantastic vol. 2 came out. Easily his best work. Don’t like the style he crafted on Jaylib and later on that much. When it comes to this album So Far does it for me and that’s kinda it. Add Diamonds maybe, still a nice listen tho
Yup. Jay Dee was huge in 95 already with all that Ummah climax sh*t, Pharcyde, Keith Murray, Busta Rhymes, ATCQ all fire, altho I fell in love with him when fantastic vol. 2 came out. Easily his best work. Don’t like the style he crafted on Jaylib and later on that much. When it comes to this album So Far does it for me and that’s kinda it. Add Diamonds maybe, still a nice listen tho
Please don’t project your wildly off-base claims on the whole game. Yeah, Dilla wasn’t as big a star in life as he became in death, but “nobody really gave a fuck about him till he died”? GTFOH.
Slum Village kickstarted the whole neo soul movement. Dude was nominated for a Grammy for his work on ‘Beats, Rhymes & Life’. He produced on every one of Busta’s album and they were the tracks a lot of heads checked for first on those albums. I know, because I was one of those guys, and I was far from the only one. He had stacks of hits even though he wasn’t out there dancing in videos for racks he produced, and people that actually read liner notes knew. When Jaylib’s ‘Champion Sound’ dropped in 03 it was an instant underground classic and when ‘Donuts’ dropped me and my friends played that shit on loop as much as we could, amazed by its nearly endless cavalcade of ideas. By the end of that week, Dilla passed away and we felt like we had lost a relative.
Now, I’m going out on a limb here and assume you weren’t around for much of the era I just described, were still a kid and/or just hadn’t heard of Dilla yourself yet. That’s all fine. However and whenever you first came across his work doesn’t matter much. Enjoy it, or don’t, whatever floats your boat. Just don’t don’t try to slander his name and minimize the enormous impact on music (and hiphop especially) Dilla had, just because you yourself were late to the party.
“Dilla tests the limits of the basic four bar scheme by adding extra lines to his rhymes. On “Give Them What They Want,” Dilla displays this penchant on the first verse: “Y’all think Satan is bad, J Dilla bad like Jason I stab/Stay in the lab/Quick to tell bitches bout my muthafuckin’ Timb size, 8 and a half.”
–Thats still four bars you dumb ass! You obviously know nothing about writing rhymes you fuckin herb
3/5