J DILLA - The Shining Review

The Shining is packed solid with guest spots from friends and collaborators who worked with Jay over his decade-plus-long career. There's a soul-on-soul combination with Pharaohe Monch singing over one of Dilla's 45-infused beats, and an effortlessly dope set of verses from Black Thought and a casual hook he borrows from the intro to Jay's wax-only Ruff Draft EP (crucial material for any Dilla completists)....full text The late James “J Dilla/Jay Dee” Yancey was a consistent hip-hop workhorse, but that consistency was matched with what seemed to be a dissatisfaction with simply making dope music. Timbaland cashes his checks from futuristic soundscapes, and DJ Premier's bread and butter is his scrupulous scratching and rock hard drums; but ever since his emergence into Detroit's hip-hop scene in the early 90s, J Dilla seemed to work like a renaissance painter, pursuing a new trademark sound as soon as he perfected another....full text For fans of James Yancey aka J Dilla's work, the highly anticipated arrival of The Shining (BBE) will undoubtedly be a bittersweet affair. The influential Producer/MC who worked closely with an impressive cross-section of the Hip-Hop and R&B elite including Erykah Badu, The Roots, A Tribe Called Quest and Janet Jackson, to name a few, passed away on February 10th 2006 from complications due to Lupus....full text