{"id":5546,"date":"2018-11-01T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T16:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=5546"},"modified":"2019-08-06T15:30:10","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T19:30:10","slug":"around-the-world-jay-dee-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/around-the-world-jay-dee-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Around the World with Jay Dee: Part 2 – Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"
Illustration:\u00a0Jeremy Leung<\/a><\/h6>\n

Part two of our “Around the World with Jay Dee” (aka J Dilla) series takes us towards Asia, namely Japan and India.<\/h1>\n

Uncanny was Jay Dee’s ability to take such a small fragment of a record and hear potential. On multiple occasions, Dilla sampled Isao Tomita, a pioneer of synthesizer and electronic music known for his renditions of classical and jazz pieces.<\/p>\n

Waajeed, Jay Dee’s close friend, collaborator, and seminal part of his career from Slum Village onwards, recounts finding Tomita\u2019s \u201cKosmos\u201d while record shopping together.<\/a> \u201cThis Tomita record [Kosmos] was one of the records we bought together, and we used to share notes like, \u2018yeah I\u2019d probably change the snare, I\u2019d do this, that.\u2019 Just sharing producer notes.\u201d Jay Dee went on to sample Isao Tomita\u2019s records on multiple occasions. In many ways, he was like Tomita – an avid consumer of music from all genres, flipping and reimagining works into his own sound. Let\u2019s break down a few examples from Tomita and other Japanese artists, as well as his forays into Indian music, in this entry of our ongoing \u201cAround the World with Jay Dee\u201d series.<\/p>\n

Our “Around the World with Jay Dee” series is powered in partnership with WhoSampled.com<\/a>, the world’s largest community for fans of sampled music, cover songs, and remixes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Japan<\/h2>\n

J Dilla\u2019s \u201cBrand New Shit\u201d (Unreleased) samples Isao Tomita\u2019s “Daphnis et Chlo\u00e9 Suite No. 2.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The troves of unreleased Jay Dee music has been compiled into a number of releases, both official and unofficial. \u201cBrand New Shit\u201d reimagines Tomita\u2019s version of Ravel\u2019s \u201dDaphnis et Chlo\u00e9 Suite No. 2.\u201d The instrument here is unclear – is it a theremin? A synth lead playing around with pitch? A vocal? Regardless, it\u2019s added here as wistful flavor on top of the beat.<\/p>\n