Jay Staid Paid [PA]

Performer: J Dilla
Artist: Blue; Li'l Fame; Phat Kat; Constantine; Danny Brown; Black Thought; Doom; Diz Gibran; Havoc; Raekwon; Frank Nitty; Illa J; Cue D
Distributor: Nature Sounds

Notes: With the sheer volume of posthumously released material staking its claim to the musical legacy of late hip-hop producer J Dilla, one can take a cynical view that this is just another symptom of labels cannibalizing an outstanding music talent (in life and in death) for all that they're worth, and sometimes much more. In Dilla's case, well-intentioned memorial assemblages such as THE SHINING (2006) and RUFF DRAFT (2007) were less cohesive musical statements than fleeting sketches by an artist in a hurry to fix every wayward idea before they slipped away from the memory banks. Lovingly assembled by esteemed beatsmith Pete Rock and executive produced by Dilla's mother, Maureen "Ma Dukes" Yancey, JAY STAY PAID can in some ways be considered the definitive J Dilla album, being every bit equal in quality to the producer's 2005 swan song, DONUTS. The mostly instrumental album, a third of which features familiar Dilla collaborators such as Black Thought and MF Doom, is a fully-formed collection encompassing everything from his late-`90s beats for the Ummah collective to works put together during his final days in a hospital bed.

Spin (p.88) - "[With] a synth-heavy, rhythm-and-gangsta vibe....Dilla's brilliance remains stunningly apparent." CMJ - "The dirty rawness that made the producer so favored during his lifetime seeps through the album, which includes beats culled from Dilla's early years right up through his hospital time." XXL (Magazine) (p.98) - "JAY STAY PAID is yet another tour de force of crate digging from Jay Dee that's tailor-made for headphones." Pitchfork (Website) - "[I]t puts a new piece of Dilla's musical legacy in good hands and creates a life-spanning statement in a way that previous memorial assemblages like 2006's THE SHINING could only hint at."

Though he kept a relatively low profile in comparison to his less diffident producer contemporaries, J Dilla (born James Dewitt Yancey) confirmed that in hip-hop, substance above flourish will confidently withstand the test of time. Emerging from Detroit's thriving mid-`90s underground hip-hop scene, Dilla initially took the role of emcee for local rap ensemble Slum Village. His first forays into beat-making came under the tutelage of area musician Amp Fiddler, who lent the aspiring producer an MPC sampling drum machine. By the end of the decade, Dilla's deft production hand--both as Slum Village's beatsmith/emcee and as part of the Ummah collective (which counted Q-Tip and Raphael Saddiq as members)--was being sought by important players in both R&B and hip-hop. Though Slum Village's major label debut was shelved by A&M in 1998, Dilla's profile was raised tremendously in the coming decade through his work with artists like Common, Erykah Badu, and Busta Rhymes. In the new millennium, the producer enjoyed a fruitful solo career and continued collaborations, but eventually succumbed to complications brought on by a rare blood disease in 2006.

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