On paper, the prospect of a *new* Slum Village album – at this point in the game – just sounds like a bad idea. Two of the core members, J. Dilla and Baatin have passed away, and there’s already a shroud of negativity surrounding the group’s final LP, Villa Manifesto, as remaining members T3 and [cont.]

Now this is refreshing. Andre The Giant’s got a new album out on Fat Beats called Everything’s Berri, which we haven’t checked yet. He’s also got this ridiculous new mixtape, featuring him rhyming over J. Dilla beats from Donuts. We can’t see how this could go wrong. A.G. + J. Dilla – “Dunkin’ Donuts” (Mixtape)

The book will finally be closed on Slum Village with Villa Manifesto, dropping July 27th. Here goes the second leak, “Lock It Down”, produced by the late great James Yancey. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] LISTEN: Slum Village – “Lock It Down” (prod. J Dilla) (MP3) Slum Village – “Lock It Down” (prod. [cont.]

Slum Village will make a surprising return with their sixth LP, Villa Manifesto, despite the loss of two of the group’s core members, Baatin and J. Dilla. Dilla will be included on the LP on four tracks, with additional guest appearances from De La Soul, Phife Dawg, Little Brother, Dwele, and Colin Munroe, who appears [cont.]

New, old Slum Village stuff surfaces, courtesy of Culture King, produced by J. Dilla, over a beat you might recognize from Jay Dee Instrumentals V.3 (“Garage Band”). No word on if this will see official release anytime soon. Slum Village + J. Dilla – “Lock It Down” (MP3)

Big Paul Rosenberg chimes in via his blog, with some kind words about his fallen friends Proof and J. Dilla, as well as an unreleased collaborative joint with J. Dilla. Says Paul: A lot of people don’t know how close Proof and J. Dilla were. Back in the early-to-mid-90′s these two Detroit favorites started working [cont.]

Wha..huh? The Roots cover Dilla classics… Leaked by ?uestlove via Twitter a month ago, then re-released into the blogosphere by KNOWxONE. 01. Donuts Outro 02. Hot Shit (I’m Back!) 03. World Full Of Sadness 04. Upper Egypt 05. Stereolab 06. The Stars 07. Antiquity (feat. The Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Dillchestra) 08. She Said 09. Hall & [cont.]

We dug up another one from the cassette vaults today…. For 10+ minutes straight on one Sunday night in NYC, circa ’96, Marley Marl and Pete Rock allowed a freestyle session to take over the Hot 97 airwaves, as each Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Consequence, Black Thought, and Pete himself rhymed off of the top of [cont.]

Stones Throw keeps upping the ante with their limited edition goodies. The latest is a ridiculously dope special edition J. Dilla Serato set, which includes two discs – 2 sides with Serato Control Tone for Scratch Live deejays, b/w 6 previously unreleased Dilla tracks selected from the vault by J. Rocc, as well as 2 [cont.]

Missed this event last month? The Beat Junkies & Slum Village have released the full sets of J. Dilla tributes from Songs In The Key Of D @ Nightlife in Los Angeles 2/12/10, which you can get after the drop. – SET#1: THE BEAT JUNKIES: J.Rocc, Rhettmatic, Mr Choc, & Curse (MP3) – SET#2: SLUM [cont.]

Apparently, the story behind this track was that Biggie recorded his verse (not originally on this J. Dilla beat), and Busta and Nas were to join him. But because Biggie was apparently going at 2Pac in the verse, the song was never finished, as Busta did not want to get involved. Later in 2002, the [cont.]

Statik releases this beat he made on a flight (yes), paying homage to the almighty J. Dilla. Statik Selektah – “Never Gonna” (MP3)

Coincided with the now sold out Dilla / Stussy t-shirt…. Here is the whole documentary in three parts.

Mochilla – the company owned and operated by legendary photographer B+ – will release a three DVD box set on March 30th, chronicling the Timeless concert series. The set will include three concerts that paid homage to important figures that helped shape the sound of hip-hop music, with each J. Dilla, jazz legend Mulatu Astatke [cont.]

This is how DJ Babu spent his Dilla Day…. Bab’s new album “The Beat Tape Vol. 2″ is in stores February 23rd.

The Stones Throw street team probably had a ball with these, sticking them on people’s cars in parking lots of Peanut Butter Wolf performances. In promotion for the late, great J. Dilla’s Ruff Draft deluxe reissue, the “parking ticket”, was actually a postcard that entered fans into a contest to win Stones Throw schwag. In [cont.]

Sure, Michael Jackson’s legacy has been sampled to death, carving out a number of hit records for various artists including Jay-Z (“Izzo”), Kanye West (“Good Life”), Nas (“It Ain’t Hard To Tell”), and tons more. What you may not be aware of however is how many times Michael has tapped these same artists to appear [cont.]

Q-Tip will finally, finally see the release of his long shelved 2001 Arista LP, Kamaal The Abstract, on September 15th, courtesy of Battery Records, a division of Jive/RCA. Yes, that “Stanky Leg” money is being put to good use. The album was originally slated for 2002 release on Arista, which featured the rapper singing over [cont.]

Let’s face it, posthumous albums usually suck. No matter how great the artist behind it is, the end results are usually disappointing. This is mainly because the artist was not around to see the project through until completion. You won’t find many people singing the praises of Notorious B.I.G.’s Duets or any Big Pun album [cont.]

Having a famous, universally loved sibling probably isn’t easy. Ask guys like Charlie Murphey or Jermaine Jackson how flourishing their respective careers have been over the years. In Illa J’s case, he is the younger brother to J. Dilla, an artist who’s light was extinguished too soon, and is widely recognized as one of the [cont.]