Respecta.is - The Ultimate Hip Hop Portal

First single from J Dilla's infamous "long lost" vocal album, mixed and mastered for the first time, released by the Estate of James Yancey's imprint Pay Jay Productions.

“Anthem” and “Trucks” were two of the songs J Dilla recorded in late 2001 and early 2002 as he put the finishing touches on what was supposed to be an album featuring his raps over production by the likes of Madlib, Pete Rock, Nottz, House Shoes, Karriem Riggins and his own production. The album was shelved, Dilla moved on to Ruff Draft (2003), and the years following Dilla's death found the album caught up in legal and bureaucratic red tape. Although some of the album was leaked in muddy MP3 form some years back, this is the first official release.

These tracks come straight from multi-track masters found on 2-inch tape shortly after Dilla’s passing in 2006. They've been mixed by engineer Dave Cooley, who worked extensively with Dilla during his years in Los Angeles. Using Dilla’s original demo mixes as his guide, Cooley attempted to finalize Dilla’s vision for these tracks, while keeping all of the elements that Dilla had in place in his original demos present.

Rounding out this 12” is Dilla’s original mix of “Trucks” discovered as a two-track demo mix, featuring an alternate version of Dilla’s vocals and a third verse not found on Dilla’s final sessions for this song.