A posthumous release, J Dilla's Jay Stay Paidis a smorgasbord of beats and snippets lovingly put together by Pete Rock and J. Dilla's mother. The album consists of productions put together during the last seven or eight years of his life and show him continuing to develop into one of the most monumental producers of hip hop ever. While few of these productions are actually complete they paint a picture of JD's brain at work and that alone is worth the price of the record.
Coming in at 28 tracks it's a veritable feast of styles and beats that sound as underground as the subway and as cool as a winter day. Pieced together like some sort of radio show, J Dilla pops in and out of the snippets and short songs as if the album were live on air. It's pretty cool stuff and after listening to these beats on repeat you're left wanting to hear several of them turn into actual songs. Jay Stay Paid for that reason is kind of depressing, because you know that these songs will never be finished. On the other hand Jay Stay Paid is great because it's fantastic to hear all this material come to the light of day.
There are highlights everywhere, but songs like "Make It Fast," and, "In The Night/While You Slept (I Crept)" are fantastic examples of what J Dilla could achieve in five minutes. Jay Stay Paidis filled with drum machines rattling, synths bubbling, samples swirling in and out, and hooks bigger than Texas. Jay Stay Paidmight just be snippets, bits and bobs but it's great stuff that shows that Dilla clearly has the knack to create the jams.
Jay Stay Paid may not be of interest to the casual listener of J Dilla or hip hop, but for those of you out there that think Doughnuts is amazing than you'll see this record as an important piece of musical history. Jay Stay Paidis a fascinating peek into the musical mind of Dilla that's worth it's weight in gold.
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