The Pharcyde- Jigaboo Time (1992)

This is why you gotta love YouTube, all those lost videos you didn't know existed. Here's one you will never see on TV.

Ed O.G.- I Got To Have It (1991)

Love this beat, especially the horn breakdown. I remember Roc Raida had a sick beat juggling routine with this back in the day.

Pete Rock in Da Bassment

An excerpt from Deep Crates 2. Put together by my man Beatdawg. Go cop that>>>>DEEP CRATES webpage<<<

JAY DEE aka J DILLA RIP

When I first started making beats in Grade 9, Labcabincalifornia had just come out and was on heavy rotation in my walkman. There was a whole slew of producers around that time that inspired me to start digging and get myself a sampler. Premo, Pete Rock, Diamond D, etc. Back then Toronto itself had a booming underground hip hop scene, and me and my friends would stay up late to record the hip hop shows that were on college radio.

As the decade progressed, Jay Dee became more and more known, and was shunned by some of the boom bap purists for his clean sound. However, despite the stuff that he became popular for, what really caught my ear was the beat tapes that started circulating after Fantastic Vol 2. As a beatmaker I was blown away by Dilla's ear for drums and samples and his bass programming. The SV Tour Beat Tape blew my mind. If he wasn't flipping some obscure record, he would be freaking the shit out of the Funky Worm. Dillas technical brilliance and his references to hip hop history only added to the charm of his beats which sounded dope on any system. In 2001 Welcome to Detroit confirmed his status as a beat making legend.

By the time Ruff Draft and Champion Sound came out, J Dilla had become my favourite producer, a man who was continually pushing boundaries in the art of flipping records. His premature death came at a time when he really seemed to be reinventing himself and breaking new grounds. The Dill Withers Beat Tape Vol. 3 and Donuts are in my opinion some of the best beats that he'd ever done. I hate to think how much more Dilla could have accomplished were his life not cut so short. While he was alive his output was incredible, and there are still hundreds of beats that no one has heard. As his legacy lives on and his fan base continues to grow I hope that in the future we will see a lot of his unreleased material come to light.

Here are just a few of Dillas beats that changed my life.


Crucifix(SV Tour Beat Tape)
Trashy (Vintage Instrumentals)
Secrets of the Sand Instrumental (Mood Remix)
Wishing (Beat Tape Vol. 3)
Shaolin (Beat Tape Vol. 3)