+ + [[ R.I.P. J-Dilla "Jay Dee" ]] + + Options

[yo pusha]

Hip-Hop producer/MC Jay Dee, also known as J Dilla, has reported passed away earlier today (February 10) in a hospital in Los Angeles, due to liver complications.

The beatmaker (born James Yancey) has been sick for an unspecified amount of time. Last year at this time SOHH.com learned that Dilla was hospitalized after rumors were spreading that he was in a coma.

Dilla, who was a founding member of Slum Village and a member of A Tribe Called Quest's production team The Ummah, is best known for producing tracks for Busta Rhymes, Common, De La Soul, D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, and The Pharcyde.

Dilla has more recently worked with Ghostface Killah, Kanye West on Com's critically acclaimed album Be, as well as Champion Sound with fellow quirky producer Madlib.

Besides Donuts, Jay's latest album which was released earlier this week, he also released another solo LP, Welcome To Detroit, in 2001, and has another album dropping later this year on Stones Throw Records.

Longtime fan Pharrell of The Neptunes, has gone on record calling Dilla one of his "favorite producers of all time."

Jay Dee will be sorely missed. SOHH will be sure to provide you with more information as it becomes available.

I guess the good die young. This is very sad, Jay Dee was a legend and his beats will remain timeless classics. I just downloaded Donuts today, and I have to hear this. What a shame. Truly one of the best producers ever. RIP.

Common - The Light

CODE

http://rapidshare.de/files/12985193/Common_-_The_Light.mp3.html

Common ft. Mos Def - Questions

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http://rapidshare.de/files/12985469/Common_ft_Mos_Def_-_The_Questions.mp3.html

Feel free to share your favorite Jay Dee tracks. Peace.

[yo pusha]

I want to share this article that was published last year in XXL, when there were rumors floating around about Jay Dee's hospitalization.

Thanks to everyone who came through and commented on my post about J Dilla's hospitalization back in January. I want to give y'all an update on J Dilla's health because there are some people out there who still think that the acclaimed studio wizard is still in the hospital sick and dying.

Well, far from it . . . J Dilla (aka Jay Dee) is alive and is doing quite well.

If you peep the latest issue of XXL Magazine (w/ cover boys Damon Dash and Cam'ron) and flipped to the "Production Credit" section (pg. 144), you will see a nice picture of the now-svelte producer J Dilla and an small interview.

To update: Jay was indeed in the hospital for two months but wasn't in a coma.

Here's an excerpt:

XXL: Were you really in a coma?
JD: Nah, man. The rumors were like, Jay Dee is dead and all that, but I was just in the hospital for, like, two months. I was in ICU, with all types of tubes, man. It was crazy.

XXL: What exactly happened?
JD: I went overseas for two weeks and was eatin' all this crazy-ass food. As soon as I got back, I had the flu or something, and I had to check myself into the hospital. Then they (doctors) [found] out I had a ruptured kidney and was malnourished from not eatin' the right kinda food. It was real simple, but it ended with me being in the hospital.

XXL: Damn, that must've cut into production time.
JD: Oh, nah. My boy brought a sound system and some vinyl through, so I was in the hospital making beats.


Are You Down With PPP?

J Dilla is still on the grind, y'all, so let's continue to support his groove movement.

To hear some of J Dilla's latest production work, check out this new album by the Detroit rhyme duo Platinum Pied Pipers (PPP) called Triple P (Ubiquity Records). The pair consists of Waajeed -- a former Slum Village alumnus -- and Saadiq -- a multi-instrumentalist and a protege of Motown singer-composer Barrett Strong. You can peep songs from their collection HERE or HERE. There's also a nice little write-up about PPP HERE.

The entire Triple P CD has a nice, soulful boom-bap vibe to it. I like it a lot. But I'm already hearing critics calling PPP the future of hip-hop. Why do critics do this? Fine, whatever. But I like to call PPP's Triple P CD just real good hip-hop music. I recommend the disc. So what do you think?

And of course, get ready for the onslaught of universal praises by critics when Common's Be hits stores in June. J Dilla is supposed to have at least three tracks on the CD, which has been hailed a "classic" by XXL and nabbed 4.5 (Vibrations?) from Vibe magazine. Blog diva Ty of Brown Suga even believes that the disc is undoubtedly the Best Album of 2005. "It's really one of those solid albums that you can bump from start to finish, which is quite rare nowadays," she writes. "So again, go get this joint sometime in June when it hits the streets because its straight heat . . . trust me."

There are a whole bunch of bootlegged Common songs floating around the net. I found a few: Here's Common featuring Consequence and John Legend on "They Say" (you need real audio, dog). And some joints from off the Be collection HERE, HERE and HERE. (real audio on all links) (Hat Tip: HipHopDX and HipHopGame.com)

J Dilla is gettin' illa, my nillas!

Holla Back!