REVIEW | DILLA: THE TIMELESS TRIBUTE ALBUM BY VICE BEATS

By Faizah Cyanide • On What is New ,

Dilla: The Time­less Trib­ute by pro­du­cer Vice Beats is an offi­cial J Dilla Trib­ute album released on what would have been J Dilla’s birth­day 7th Feb 2020. Pro­ceeds from this album will go to the James Dewitt Yan­cey  found­a­tion based in Detroit. The found­a­tion was set up in 2015 by J Dilla’s moth­er to cel­eb­rate his leg­acy. It provides young musi­cians music­al oppor­tun­it­ies, a cause close to Vice Beats heart hav­ing over ten years’ exper­i­ence of work­ing with com­munity youth projects.

This com­pil­a­tion is six years in the mak­ing by Bris­tol based Vice Beats. The four­teen tracks on the album, merge very dif­fer­ent music­al worlds of Hip Hop and Clas­sic­al music with an orches­tra which works per­fectly. A fusion of Hip Hop, Jazz and soul. It is a feel-good pos­it­ive sound exper­i­ence warm­ing our hearts to remem­ber why we loved J Dilla and his music. ‘That Love’ (feat. Tha­laas­sic & Vince Mar­tin) words it well, ‘Music is uni­ver­sal it doesn’t mat­ter what lan­guage you speak, it doesn’t mat­ter where you’re are from but it exudes a love that we can all understand’.

It fea­tures an array of UK artists such as Bro­ther­m­an, Jaz Kah­ina, Nutty P, Oracy, Habit­us, Joe Pub­lik (Born­in­aBarn) and many more. In addi­tion, there are col­lab­or­at­ors from the US, Aus­tralia, Brazil, Hol­land et al, includ­ing Audes­sey (Sound­sci), Dis­tant­s­tarr, Ris­skant and Toddy (formerly Toddla Emcee). Togeth­er they bring a range of dif­fer­ent rhyme styles, flow and deliv­ery which work well togeth­er in per­fect har­mony. It is a testi­mony to how many people J Dilla influenced.

One of the aspects of this album which stood out for me was the list of musi­cians which fea­ture from all over the world, come togeth­er to cel­eb­rate their love for J Dilla and how they influ­enced their lives. ‘Ima­gine’ (feat. Toddla Emcee, Shugs, Lupo & Say­id the Zulu) reminds us to ‘ima­gine if the world nev­er had J Dilla, it would be as if MJ nev­er made Thrill­er’ mak­ing com­par­is­ons to J Dilla’s effect on hip hop sim­il­ar to that of MJ in pop, highly influential.

The work that has gone into this is evid­ent in the flaw­less sound. Once I put it on I had to let it play all the way through, it took me on a music­al jour­ney and I was not in a rush to reach my final des­tin­a­tion. It is an atmo­spher­ics album which gives the impres­sion of being back and forth between a live con­cert and the stu­dio. This album is a truly unique trib­ute with some­thing that will appeal to every­one. Reflect­ive, ener­get­ic and invig­or­at­ing. This feels like real music and for a great cause at the same time.

Out now and avail­able on .hhv, Fat­beats, Spo­ti­fy, Apple Music, iTunes, Band­camp, Amazon Music, Google play, Deez­er and Tidal.

Check it out here: www.vicebeats.lnk.to/Dilla

 

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Faizah Cyanide

Faizah works in clin­ic­al research by pro­fes­sion and has been an avid Hip Hop lov­er since the early 90’s, hav­ing cre­ated her own Hip Hop event, ‘Breakin’ Bound­ar­ies’ in the early 2000’s which was pre­dom­in­antly based around the concept of bboy battles, she has worked with sev­er­al inter­na­tion­al events pro­moters and dan­cers to inspire oth­ers through this artform.

About Faizah Cyanide

Faizah works in clinical research by profession and has been an avid Hip Hop lover since the early 90's, having created her own Hip Hop event, 'Breakin' Boundaries' in the early 2000's which was predominantly based around the concept of bboy battles, she has worked with several international events promoters and dancers to inspire others through this artform.