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Ruff Draft, by J Dilla (Double LP on Stones Throw)

Cover art for Ruff Draft by J Dilla Description: 2LP on Stones Throw
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Format: Double LP
Label: Stones Throw
Price: £12.99
Availability: despatched in 2-5 working days (on average!!)

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Rating: happy This record left our Ant feeling happy.

J DILLA is back from the dead with what I think is a reissue of the 'Ruff Draft' LP. Nothing like cashing in on a mans death eh? Just kidding. This was originally released in 2003 on his own Mummy Records label. 'Nothing Like This' has just come on. It's a fucking corker of a track that I been listening to a lot at home on the Chrome Children sampler 12". These self produced tracks are anything but ruff. A little raw maybe but the production is top draw. It goes without saying that his flow is sick. Dope shit on Stones Throw.

What the label says:

“Before we get this started, let me explain it. It’s Ruff Draft. For my real niggaz only. DJs that play that real live shit. You wanna bounce in your whip with that real live shit. Sound like it’s straight from the ma’fuckin’ cassette! Ruff Draft... Let’s do it.”

... Thus begins Ruff Draft. These self-produced tracks make up one of the late J Dilla’s least known works. Released on vinyl only in February 2003 by Dilla’s own newly-formed Mummy Records and distributed by the German label Groove Attack, this sought-after release remains elusive and virtually unknown to the casual Dilla fan.

In retrospect, Ruff Draft proved to mark a turning point in Dilla’s career. He spent the ’90s making a name for himself as an all-around, top-notch hip-hop producer. First arriving on the scene with his own group Slum Village in his native Detroit, Dilla would establish himself throughout the decade on classic tracks for A Tribe Called Quest, Common, The Pharcyde and De La Soul, eventually branching out to work with a variety of heavy-hitters in hip-hop and R&B, from Busta Rhymes and The Roots to D’Angelo and Erykah Badu.

In contrast to the often understated, mellow vibes and minimal, crisp drumbeats he brought to the boards for those groups, Ruff Draft revealed – to those who heard it the first time around – a whole new side to Dilla’s musical genius. Freewheeling, in-your-face synthesizers, blend perfectly with an uncharacteristically sample-heavy approach that was as bangin’ as it was experimental. And, as he indicated in the intro to the album (quoted above), it’s supposed to bump in your car like an old cassette – one of those well-loved ones that get played over and over and over.

This album marked a geographical change for Dilla, as well as a musical one. 2003 would be the year he transplanted to sunny Southern California. At the same time as he was completing Ruff Draft, Dilla was crafting the beats that would become his contribution to the Jaylib album, Champion Sound (Stones Throw, 2003) – his collaboration with the L.A.-based Madlib. The two iconic visionaries had been influencing each other from halfway across the country; now, they were collaborating on wax – each rhyming over the other’s beats. Dilla’s stylistic unpredictability and technical rawness announced first by Ruff Draft became undeniable with his work on Champion Sound, as he and Madlib joined forces to champion all things “ruff.”

Dilla would spend his last few years in Los Angeles. As his health gradually declined, his pace of music making never did. His beats became, if anything, more urgent – the product of a visceral need to create, as if he knew he had only so much time left. His first and only solo LP on Stones Throw, the 31-track instrumental suite Donuts (2006) plays out like a vinyl fanatic skipping through radio stations on the dial in his perfect universe. With a fresh style from one beat to the next, Dilla conceived this cut-and-paste masterpiece mostly from his hospital bed with nothing more than his sampler, a portable record player and whatever vinyl his friends brought through. Coming full circle from his slick productions of the ’90s, Dilla was now practicing hip-hop at its most essential: bringing out the soul in any style, from any source, with the most fundamental tools.

Dilla’s final album, The Shining (BBE, 2006), hints at the future music that might have come had his health not declined so severely. The sound is thick, with robust soul samples at the forefront, the culmination of the bombastic latter phase of his career. Stones Throw Records now presents the reissue of Ruff Draft as a crucial milestone in the evolution of one of hip-hop’s greatest producers.

 

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Other items by J Dilla:

Donuts by J Dilla Donuts by J Dilla (CD, £9.79)

Ruff Draft by J Dilla Ruff Draft by J Dilla (CD, £9.79)

Ruff Draft Instrumentals by J Dilla Ruff Draft Instrumentals by J Dilla (LP, £10.49)

Wild/ Make 'em NV by J Dilla Wild/ Make 'em NV by J Dilla (12", £5.79)


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Norman Records:
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About the humble LP:

The LP is the daddy of formats. 12" inches of sheer joy. The LP adds to the glory of the 12" record as it can be played at a slower speed (33rpm instead of the usual 45rpm for singles), consequently more musical joy can be had. Played on a decent deck the sound of an LP is about a million times better than any other format. They look fantastic...... a nice gatefold sleeve with a information rich inner sleeve will keep you entertained for hours even before your stylus has chance to make eye contact with it's 12" prey. An essential part of musical heritage which will never be forgotten. It still does play at a multitude of speeds but as it's recorded to be played slower they normally sound ridiculous sped up. Though double albums can make up for this slight inadequacy by ramming more tunes into your ears for your money. Utterly essential.

'A CD is half a computer'