J Dilla Gets Anthology Treatment

(swiped from Pitchfork Media)

Last week marked the third anniversary of space-rap visionary J Dilla's death, and his influence over younger beatmakers like Kanye West and Black Milk probably looms larger now than it ever has. So it makes sense for Rapster Records, the company responsible for those compilations of sampled material from Daft Punk and Massive Attack records, to put out Dillanthology, Volume 1, a sort of Dilla 101 compilation. Dillanthology collects some of the production work that Dilla did for prominent clients and frequent collaborators like Erykah Badu and Busta Rhymes. But it's interesting to ask whether it really serves as an ideal introduction to the man's work.

A huge part of Dilla's peculiar brand of genius was his fractured intensity, the way he'd spend hours in the studio manipulating one old record-loop until it skipped and warped in just the way he wanted. And so most Dilla devotees would probably point to his 31-track Donuts beat tape as the ideal diving-in point for anyone interested in the man's deep legacy. The crew of writers on Brandon Soderberg's No Trivia blog currently paying tribute to the album on a track-by-track basis can attest to that. My own favorite might be the posthumously reissued Ruff Draft EP, where Dilla's likable, awkward vocals sort of charmingly set off the synthetic ripples of his tracks. Point is: Dilla wasn't exactly the seasoned industry-pro type, and it's a bit weird to see him honored with what basically amounts to a standard greatest-hits package.

Still and all, there are some amazing tracks on Dillanthology, which Rapster will release on March 31; Badu's "Didn't Cha Know" is a particular favorite. If nothing else, it'll be good for filling in some iTunes gaps, and maybe it'll inspire the folks at Rapster to dig a little deeper with any future volumes. But curious parties should know that a comp like this is merely the tip of a completely fascinating iceberg.

Here's the tracklist:

01 The Pharcyde: "Runnin'"
02 Slum Village: "Fall in Love"
03 Common: "The Light"
04 Erykah Badu: "Didn't Cha Know"
05 De La Soul: "Stakes Is High"
06 Busta Rhymes: "Show Me What You Got"
07 The Roots: "Dynamite"
08 A.G. [ft. Aloe Blacc]: "Hip Hop Quotable"
09 The Pharcyde: "Drop"
10 Amp Fiddler: "I Believe in You"
11 Steve Spacek: "Dollar"

• Video: The Pharcyde: Drop [from the Labcabincalifornia LP]

Video: Kanye West, De La Soul, Nas, Will.i.am, Mos Def, and Damon Albarn: Freestyles (Live in London)

SEMTEX TV: DELA SOUL, MOS DEF, NAS, WILL I AM, KANYE WEST, DAMON ALBARN ROC THE MIC @ THE G.O.O.D. MUSIC AFTER PARTY, LONDON, UK from DJ SEMTEX on Vimeo.

After Kanye West's London double-header-- and the UK leg of the Rock the Bells tour-- the live hip-hop still wasn't quite finished. Those in attendance at at West's G.O.O.D. Music after party got to witness a star-studded freestyle cypher, captured at high quality in this 13-minute video by DJ Semtex. De La Soul start things off, over the Honeydrippers' "Impeach the President" break, followed by Mos Def. Ex- (or not?) Blur frontman Damon Albarn-- also of the Good, the Bad, and the Queen, the recent Monkey opera, and of course, animated hip-hop project Gorillaz-- even croons a few bars before Will.i.am takes over. West holds the mic as the DJ drops God's Son's "Made You Look". Then it's Nas' show. (via Nah Right)

Egypto's Recent Vinyl Listens, Volume 1

Pulled this vinyl out just last night. I originally copped it from Aardvark, but hearing this album on vinyl made the quality of this album all the more richer of an experience to me.



This happens to be one of my favorite punk albums of the 70s. I had originally heard about it from a friend back in like 98 when I was just getting into older punk like Sex Pistols, The Clash, and numerous other punk bands. I had scoured a lot of places then managed to find a used copy for 8 bucks. The rest is history.

Another album that I purchased on vinyl which I was rather happy to find and loved for the same reasons as Electric Ladyland was the first hip hop record I fell in love with:



The sound on vinyl is almost primitive, but man, it definitely enhances the Prince Paul sound to me all the better. Kind of reminds me when I first bought it on tape.


--The other thing I purchased, was more of a bulk purchase than anything, and there was a funny story about this. This old lady at my job knew I have records and the like, so she had a friend within the company that was selling her jukebox. She had about 30-40 45's that she was selling, so I told her to name her price and I would take all that she had off her hands. Walked away with a ton of gems for about 20 bucks, which wasn't bad at all. I'll post up some pictures here when I get home this evening of some of the choices if anyone's interested.