Storied hip-hop label Delicious Vinyl (Tone-Loc, Young MC, The Pharcyde) proudly announces a new partnership with Yancey Media Group, the family-operated company administering the catalog of late, great producer James Yancey aka Jay Dee, aka J Dilla. The fruits of the partnership will include new releases from what J Dilla Music Catalogue Curator Frank Nitt has dubbed ’The Lost Scrolls’ — previously unreleased productions from the considerable body of work Dilla left behind. Delicious Vinyl has significant history with J Dilla.

In the mid-’90s, Dilla (then known as Jay Dee) placed his first beats on an official release on The Pharcyde album Labcabincalifornia (including the hit single ”Runnin‘”) and remixes for Brand New Heavies. Then in 2009, Dilla’s younger brother John “Illa J” Yancey laced a cache of previously unreleased Jay Dee beats to create the critically and popularly acclaimed Delicious Vinyl album Yancey Boys. “Dilla was my closest childhood friend,” says Frank Nitt. “I went with him out to L.A. that first time in 1996. I met [Delicious Vinyl founder] Mike Ross then and saw he was giving Dilla the opportunity to get his beats out.

Fast forward thirteen years, after Dilla passed, Illa J makes Yancey Boys, and again I go out to L.A. to help with promotion. Mike Ross asked to hear what I was doing, and Delicious Vinyl wound up releasing my Jewels In My Backpack EP. So Delicious Vinyl goes back with Dilla to the beginning, and has always been part of furthering his legacy properly. We’re doing doing this with Delicious Vinyl with the total approval of [Dilla's mother] Ma Dukes, who’s known and trusted Mike from way back.”The first release from the ‘Lost Scrolls’ cache will be digital-only single “The Throwaway” this December. The song, credited to Yancey Boys feat. Frank Nitt, features new verses from Illa J and a tight hook from Frank over a vintage Jay Dee beat.

Subsequent releases in 2013 will include a 10-inch vinyl release of unheard Jay Dee cuts featuring the producer himself rapping. The new year will also see the first official release the oft-bootleged Frank & Dank album 48 Hours, the only LP ever produced by Jay Dee without any samples. Frank Nitt is set to host the Second Annual Dilla Day in Detroit on February 9th, 2013 with special guests Talib Kweli, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Brandon Williams Experiment, Frank & Dank, Illa J + DJ’s Spinna, Sicari and Houseshoes at The Fillmore Detroit. The flame of the Yancey legacy keeps on burning.

Covering a mix of soul, funk, and hip-hop, independent label Delicious Vinyl is responsible for the careers of The Pharcyde, Tone Loc, and Brand New Heavies just to name a few. Formed in 1987, the record label is still around today shaping up and comers Casey Veggies and Dom Kennedy.

This year marks the label’s 25th anniversary and to celebrate, they have joined Stussy for a small T-shirt collection. The collaboration consists of six tees featuring lyrics from some of the label’s well known hits. An accompanying mixtape is also available for download mixed by non other than the #1 soul brother, Pete Rock.

This one is strictly for kids of the 80′s, or 90′s babies that wish they were. Taken frm Delicious Vinyl’s recent Rmxxology compilation, Bobby Evans reimagines an obscure Tone Loc song (and by obscure, we mean any song not titled “Wild Thing” or “Funky Cold Medina”,) “The Fine Line Between Hyper and Stupid”.

Director Marcus Herring: “The visual look of the video was inspired by the beauty of low resolution pixel art in classic arcade games. I was intrigued by the idea that a face can still look beautiful even when it is scaled down to a resolution of 12 pixels tall.” As Delicious Vinyl Curator Rick Ross (not to be confused with this man … or this man, for that matter), who produced the video, says: “We really aimed to break that proverbial fourth wall in the gaming universe – the fine line between man, woman and machine.”

My thoughts on the video? 1010110101010101010101001010000111001010 . - DJ Pizzo