J Dilla: Ruff Draft [STONES THROW]

Why you'll love it

This Stones Throw edition pairs the original Ruff Draft tracks with a bonus single-sided 12-inch of alternate takes and extra tracks on side C. Its 2007 Stones Throw reissue gave Dilla the biggest first week of his solo career.

This edition

• Bonus single-sided 12" (side C)
• Includes alternate takes

About the album

J Dilla made Ruff Draft in four or five days and had it on wax ten days later. He put it out in February 2003 on his own new label, Mummy Records, still credited as Jay Dee, and called it Ruff Draft because, in his words, he was just doing him.

It's raw, warped and gloriously lo-fi. "Let's Take It Back" and "Reckless Driving" nod to A Tribe Called Quest, "The $" interpolates Eric B. & Rakim's Paid in Full, and "Nothing Like This" twists distorted vocals over a backwards sample. "Make 'Em NV" ends with lines that later turned up on Jaylib's Ice, and the liner notes carry the first ever mention of Jaylib, his duo with Madlib. That January he'd been on the road in Europe, playing DJ sets with Dank of Frank-N-Dank in Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Sweden.

The A.V. Club gave it an A minus and Metacritic sits at 81. The title still undersells it; most of us would be thrilled to call this a final draft.

Also at Kops: more J Dilla on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Stones Throw (cat# STH 2153), a reissue of the 2003 EP.