ZEITGEBER: Jay Dizzle fo shizzle x 2

I recently got a request for some J Dilla from blogger bud, Shaun (see my blogroll for his blog "A Blog Ain't Too Much To Love")... I didn't know if wanted to do a post or not because his stuff notoriously gets pulled down fairly fast 1. Because his record label cares A LOT and 2. because his hardcore fans know that his mother (Ma Dukes) can barely pay her bills and she gets (a small amout of) money from every album sold, thus the fans report the posts to blogger.com or to the file sharing network out of respect to the memory of Dilla and his mother. I TOTALLY understand this sentiment, trust me... but hear me out. If people out there who don't know about Jay Dee come to listen to his stuff by downloading it for free... they will NO DOUBT be hooked and want to buy MORE J Dilla merchandise. It's happened with me hundreds of times. This is how it usually goes: I don't know who an artist is... I go download a few things... If I like it I go out and buy ALL of that artist's albums or my favorite albums in their catalogue. Now... the artist would have NEVER had my money if I hadn't sampled it for free at first, because I will not buy an album without knowing that I already am going to like it (unless I REALLY know the artist well). That's how most people work on these music blogs. Sure, some people are going to just download it and not pay for anything and that's that. But those people are in the minority in my experience, plus they would not have paid for it regardless of whether or not they can find it for free. Okay, end rant.

Shaun asked for his best stuff, but honestly his best depends on what you like most about specific albums. I'm not a huge fan of hip-hop so I don't like his albums where there is a lot of rapping. I appreciate Dilla more as a producer and beat maker/DJ.... so my favorite albums are of his stuff with the LEAST amount of rapping over it. I mean, Donuts is such a good record in general, I think all fans of his work will recognize it as the most cohesive and focused product he ever released... even if you are a fan of his rapping. This is probably the most essential album in any Dilla collection (and the last album he release himself before his death) with all others being preferences of what style of J Dilla you like most. Also, if you watch adult swim every night like I do, you will also hear like 5 of his songs off of Donuts on their "bumps" in between shows. It's kind of annoying because I now associate a lot of his best stuff with strange transitions from shows to commercials. Damn them and their good musical taste! I also included the new Jay Stay Paid with this post because I was happily surprised by the amount of really amazing material in this disc. Yeah, there is rapping on it. Most of it is totally chill... so I was okay with it... but where the album truly shines (as usual) is with the instrumental tracks. So start with these two and see where this takes you... and especially with Dilla... if you like it, PLEASE PLEASE go buy it and support his mother, whom he wrote Donuts for on his deathbed (literally) so that she wouldn't be stranded financially after he was gone. God damn. This post is way too serious... haha