Hip-Hop

Louisville’s finest, Beatmaker Dr. Dundiff presents his very first band project called SGJAZZ… After last year’s very successful collaboration “Cool” with Otis Jr. and his standalone project “Muneybeats”, Dr. Dundiff and Jakarta Records team up once more for the beatmaker’s next project called SGJAZZ, a supergroup formed and crafted by Louisville’s finest musicians.Dr. Dundiff (done different) is a Hip-Hop/Neo-Soul producer based out of Louisville, KY. Producing music since 2010, Dundiff has released a lot of music. Most known for his ongoing collaboration with Otis Junior and their their debut EP “1moment2another” on Jakarta Records receiving wide daytime airplay and recognition from French tastemaker Radio NOVA, as well as 1.500.000 Mio. Streams via Spotify.SGJAZZ however is a Neo-Soul/Jazz project: All single members and particpants play together as well as they have their own projects. The group spent off days at Dr. Dundiff’s studio in Louisville, KY, playing around and creating the first foundations of the record. Idris Frederick laid down multiple chord progressions over a course of a few days. Dundiff then chopped and arranged these progressions and played drums over them. From there on everyone else wrote their parts to rest of the music. This process was quite quick and efficient and the album was recorded within a few months already. Dundiff then reached out to up and coming vocalists J.Lamotta and longtime collaborator K.Raydio to each write to a song. Though this album is primarily instrumental, these two features further establish the vibe SGJAZZ effortlessly creates.

When Ruff Draft saw its initial release in 2003, J Dilla possessed production skills on par with anyone in hip-hop – technically and creatively. “At the top of his game,” says longtime friend and collaborator, Karriem Riggins. After years of building while modestly deferring to others of both greater and lesser notoriety, Dilla finally completed the first solo endeavor on his own label, entirely on his own terms. The significance of such an autonomous success often gets overlooked, and partly accounts for why Ruff Draft is one of the lesser-referenced entries in Dilla’s oeuvre. “It’s a mysterious little project,” says his mother, Maureen Yancey. “But out of his entire career, that was the happiest time.”Prior to recording the EP, Dilla found himself at a crossroads. Estranged from his label, MCA, and separated from the mother of his youngest daughter, frustration abounded both personally and professionally. Dilla spent parts of 2002 and 2003 working on an album for MCA that featured his rapping over contributions from other producers with whom he had connected and whose music he respected. At the time, he was known primarily for his beats, yet reviled for his MCing by most anyone not from his hometown of Detroit. The project was to be an intentional freak of the industry.The project would go on to spur his collaborative album with Madlib, Jaylib, and would first showcase the template that he would take to his greatest heights with 2006’s Donuts. The Stones Throw reissue of Ruff Draft from 2008 featured remixes of the songs from the album, done without Dilla’s involvement. This version of the album takes Dilla’s recently discovered mixes of the album and restores his vision for the project. “Straight from the mothafuckin’ cassette,” as he phrased the sound he was going for on the EP’s intro. It is buttressed by unreleased tracks and is presented in two versions: LP one is the EP as it was originally released, LP 2 is the alternate version that Dilla had for the project. Author Ronnie Reese expands upon his original liner notes to further tell Dilla’s story, in a booklet complete with never before published photographs from the Ruff Draft photo session.The producer’s own mixes – recently rediscovered - of his seminal EP, expanded with bonus tracks into a 2LP set, with extensive liner notes and unpublished photos.