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]

MF Doom Changes Name Again, Preps Album

(swiped from Pitchfork Media)

MF Doom has a new name now: DOOM. All caps. He insists. He also wants his album title spelled that way. So just to make sure I keep him happy, I'm going to write this whole news story in all caps.

BACK IN 2007, THE INDIE-RAP ENIGMA SET OFF MASSIVE CONSIPRACY THEORIES...

Jesus Christ. That's so annoying. I can't do it. Sorry.

Back in 2007, the indie-rap enigma set off massive conspiracy theories and even death rumors by allegedly slapping his mask on a skinny imposter and letting that guy do shows while he stayed at home reading back-issues of Alpha Flight or whatever. (Doom's label simply claims that he lost some weight.) Since that time, we've heard barely a peep from him. Given that the guy used to release roughly 58 albums a year, that absence has been noticed.

Well, Doom has now renamed himself DOOM, possibly to distance himself from any worst-rapper-ever reputation I may have given him. And now he's breaking his silence. On March 23, Lex will release BORN LIKE THIS, the first all-new DOOM album in a couple of years. And he's coming back in a pretty big way, with some of the bigger names in the frantic head-knock rap underground on board.

DOOM's frequent collaborator Ghostface Killah, performing as Tony Starks for some reason, guests on one song, as does fellow Wu-Gambino Raekwon. Whatever happened to that planned DOOM/Ghostface full-length? Can that happen, please? Anyway, Jake One produced the appetizingly titled first single "Ballskin", and DOOM used a track from the late stoner-rap deity J Dilla's Donuts album for "Lightworks". (A quick digression re: Donuts: Brandon Soderberg's No Trivia blog has been running a really moving essay series on that album for a couple of weeks now.)

Here's the tracklist:

01 Supervillain Intro
02 Gazillion Ear
03 Ballskin
04 Yessir [ft. Raekwon]
05 Absolutely
06 Rap Ambush
07 Lightworks
08 Batty-Boys
09 Angelz [ft. Tony Starks]
09 Cellz
10 Still Dope [ft. Empress Sharhh]
11 Microwave Mayo
12 More Rhymin' [ft. Kurious]
13 That's That
14 Suppervillainz
15 Bump's Message
16 Thank Ya

• Stream: DOOM: Ballskin [from the forthcoming BORN LIKE THIS LP]