J Dilla: Jay Stay Paid

I won’t talk about his death, I won’t talk about his legacy, but I will talk about Jay Stay Paid, J Dilla’s recently released project that was compiled by Pete Rock and executive produced by the infamous Ma Dukes.  The album works like a radio show, with Pete Rock as the show’s host playing all the hottest joints; of course, all of which are produced by J Dilla.  It’s hard to talk about “growth” and “development” with Dilla here because some of the beats could’ve been made when he first started producing and some could’ve been made right before his death.  They are presented as they were, with the touch ups from Dilla’s hip hop hero: the Chocolate Boy Wonder.  Mainly instrumentals, a few emcees still manage to hop on the beats and contribute adlibs and rhymes of their own including Blu, Black Thought, DOOM, Phat Kat, Havoc, Raekwon, Lil’ Fame, and Illa J.  It’s hard to talk negatively about anything J Dilla related, and for the most part, I’ve loved just about anything that had a J Dilla name on it. However, Jay Stay Paid lacks in a few areas that may be out of his control and the onus may be on Pete for the compilation of out of place/unnecessary beats, as well as teasing the listeners with so few features, only making them ponder more and more about the endless possibilities for particular beats.

“Reality Check” might be an early contender for song of the year.  Black Thought spits over a ridiculous neck-breaking beat by using Reality television show names to talk about his dismay of the façade everything currently is.  Word to Baudrillard.  “On Stilts” quickly chimes in with one of the most unorthodox and thoroughly enjoying Dilla productions we may hear.  It’s a shame no one got to rap over this.  “Fire Wood Drumstix” featuring DOOM follows, and in typical Viktor fashion he shines on it.  This reviewer thinks that DOOM teamed up Dilla may in fact be better than Madvillain, but that’s another conversation.  The onslaught continues with “Glamour Sho75 (09),” another neck snapper that literally dropped the stapler off of my desk.  It’s a shame no one got to rap over this.  It’s also a shame that Blu’s appearance on “Smoke” is so underwhelming and plain.  Hopefully he gets another shot at rapping over a Dilla beat.

More rap treats come from Havoc and Raekwon on the thoroughly impressive “24K Rap,” a spaced out, dark and dusty production filled with a remarkable snare pattern.  “Coming Back” is reminiscent of the beauty (and sound) “Time” displayed on Donuts and it is perfect in just about every way, while “Spacecowboy vs. Bobble Head” has a tasty dish that only appears in the last 20 seconds of the song.  Fans of last year’s highly underappreciated Akrobatik Absolute Value album, , will recognize Phat Kat’s 30 second spheel on “Digi Dirt,” a fast-paced, high energy energy instrumental that also served Ak and Kweli much better on “Put Ya Stamp on It.”

It’s also a shame that “CaDILLAc” went on for an eerily long two minutes and that “See That Boy Fly” features Cue D and Illa J unfortunately ruining a perfectly dark and mellow beat with empty substance and rambling.  It’s a shame no one dope got to rap over those.  Listen, I don’t have a problem with instrumentals.  But the fact that some rappers are presented here kind of leaves the album uneven on many accounts.  And when rappers don’t come hard enough, it’s a case of the Group Home syndrome.

While the album was supposed to have this radio-feel to it, it only feels like that because of all the call-in intermissions or the in studio talks with Dilla and what not (some which leave some cool mystery).  Still, Donuts had a radio vibe to it without being as blatant.  It gave the impression that we were effortlessly changing the dial from station to station, landing on different FM channels and getting a taste of every single network playing good music.  Here, it’s not as endearing or charming.  The bigger question is why does this album seem so unfocused and sadly, so boring at times?  The bright side is that when the beats bang, they bang hard.  But, there are simply too many negatives with this 60 minute product.

It sucks that I have to speak negatively about the album, but I truly do trust the audience to see the dark and light side of the moon with J$P.  I just don’t believe that every single beat here serves a purpose and suits the space like every single moment on Donuts did.  However, take a long drive down somewhere and pop this in.  It still could be an ideal hour in the car, and it still is radio with true soul

71/100

“On Stilts”

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“Pay Day”

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“Coming Back”

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“Smoke”

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