I randomly ran into my mellow DJ Nappy while getting off of the bus he was getting on earlier today. In our (too) brief encounter, we shared some usual Hip-Hop love, with Dilla and Busta Rhymes' awesome catalog being the focal point. What prompted Nappy to pen this quick piece (and share this dope collection) escapes me, but I'm glad he did...My problem with a lot of the underground hiphop that came out in the late 90's was that there were phenomenal emcees, but terrible production. Think of Aesop Rock, Atmosphere, Sage Francis, and Edan. The beats were horrendous, yet we listened anyways because the lyrical content was that raw. Even classics like Wu Tang's 36 chambers sound muddy when compared to today's quality (or even compared to Ghostface's Ironman).
Enter the past with this disc I randomly found on an old hard drive. It's either proof of a secret love affair between the most underrated rapper in the last 20 years and the illest beatsmith ever, or it shows that you can have music that isn't mainstream, yet still sounds crisp. All drums snap like lettuce, and all mixes are perfect.
What's even more amazing is that most of this was done before technology had the capacity to move music digitally. How a guy from Detroit linked with Busta AND ended up doing a chunk of Tribe Called Quest's best album is beyond me. Dilla's ability to link himself to the New York scene probably was the reason we still say his name to this day (and likely most of the reason people even know who Slum Village are) and his production credits continue to amaze me.
I'm thinking this may have come from a dump of J Past's hard drive, but I have no clue where it actually came from. I know most of these tracks to be official releases though, either off of albums or vinyl b-sides. It's a shame we can't remember that era like this...
1 comment:
Thanks for posting that up Khal, that's a nice little treat. You heard about the new Stones Throw free download? > 6 unreleased Dilla tracks in a project sponsored by Serato - free mp3s when you sign up for Stones Throw's newletter.
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