REVIEW | DILLA: THE TIMELESS TRIBUTE ALBUM BY VICE BEATS

By • 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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