J Dilla Album: “Ruff Draft”

The great thing about this album is Stones Throw released the instrumentals along with the CD. I gotta appreciate that, cause that didn't happen with The Shining.

Not everything on this one's classic, but it's J Dilla, and anything else we get from his mastermind is more than worth it. Just listen to "Let's Take it Back," "Nothing Like This," "The $," "Make'em Nv, "Crushin' (Yeeeeaah!)," "Wild," and "Take Notice." Not only was Dilla the best producer, but one of the better Detroit MCs. It's a priviledge that this album got released to the masses with extra tracks and instrumentals to boot. It's a must not just for hip hop fans, but for fans of true music period. Get two, one for the house and one for the car. You're gonna need it.

Just copped this cd and I have to say its bangin. The beats are real hard and the album has a real nice flow to it. I cant think of one track that i skip over. I really liked donuts and welcome 2 detroit and this is simply another great dilla album. I am feeling his flow on this too-some people aren't and thats cool. And if you happen to just want to bump the raw beats your in luck my friend cuz stones throw got you covered with that instrumental cd included too. Bravo. Isn't it refreshing when you buy an album and you just love the whole thing? Not an eveyday thing.

This disc is a bit of an anomaly, because while Dilla may have been known for his beats, his rhymes went mostly under-appreciated through the majority of his life. So here, in these 20+ minutes (15+ w/o the bonus songs or 40+ w/ the instrumental disc) we get to hear the producer covering all bases, with only one brief guest spot from Guilty Simpson on one of the bonus songs. I'm not a Dilla obsessed dude, but once I heard "Nothing Like This" I was totally blown away. It sounds more like dreamy indie-pop than anything I ever heard from him, but the rest of the songs are more traditional. While the production feels perfectly in tune with that Madlib and MF Doom type sound (respectively), and most of his vocals are just shouts through echo effects in the background, he also steps into the spotlight and drops many verses and hooks in a style kind of like a mellower Malik B (the other emcee from The Roots). I'll admit from the get go that I'm more on the backpacker side of this sound, but this release straddles the line in a way that excites me way more than most of the painfully safe stuff to come out of the Native Tongue clique in recent years. I'm sure some of this will be off-putting for purists of political correctness, but Dilla somehow seems to have remained near the pulse even past the grave, as seen in the rough edge he added to his neo-soul sound on this release. I would give the short EP itself a 7/10, but with the addition of the instrumental bonus disc it's easy to give it a higher score. 8/10

I got the album about 3 months ago. Honestly my first impression was not good but the album steadily grew on me. Dilla continuosly changes his style as a producer and keeps me guessing. His latest style is much different from his Slum Village days but I still like the vintage era sounds creates. Ruff Draft is a good album nontheless.

I found this great companion piece!

J. Dilla (Limited Edition) 18" X 24" Inch Poster

The definiton of Greatness: Anything made by J Dilla, Ruff Draft is in a universe by it self, absolute genius, By far one of the greatness peices of work to be released by the late great. Godbless Jay Dee, Good job. Look out for Jay love Japan!