Credit: B+

ed. note — This post originally ran on Feb. 7th, 2014

In the short time left this February 7th, we at Regal Radio want to wish what would have been a wonderful 40th birthday to James Yancey, the greatest producer of hip-hop music ever.

Known more popularly as J Dilla, earlier in his career as Jay Dee, Yancey passed eight years ago this Monday due to the blood disease TTP. Working basically up until his death, Yancey left his ever-growing fanbase with so much great music that they could lean on in his absence, starting with the masterful instrumental album Donuts, which came out eight years ago today.

A year after his passing, a fledgling media company called Regal Marketing and Entertainment Group put together a three-part tribute to the man who provided much of their coming-of-age soundtrack, going out into the streets of Chicago to solicit tributes and playing a mix of Dilla’s music.

If you can excuse the shameless promotions of a young upstart company embarking on its first substantive project, we hope you’ll enjoy Regal’s Tribute to J Dilla. Below you can also see more recent tributes which came today, including a brand new track by the group Dilla came of age with, Slum Village.

Update: We’d love to add one more YouTube link here, the unofficial album-length video of Donuts that made the internet rounds last month, but unfortunately it was taken down, likely by force because there is no trace of it to be found. Really sucks because it was an impressive work. In its stead here is the special “J Dilla’s Vinyl Collection” from the Fuse network. Good stuff as well.

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