Jay Dee - Ruff Draft

I'm always looking to branch out and explore music I'm unfamiliar with. It's too easy to play it safe all the time and pick up a new classic rock or rockabilly album. There are a few genres of music that I'm always trying to break into; rap, techno and country. I've managed to find a few groups in each genre I like and often use that as a starting point to find additional groups.

A few years ago, I began listening to MF Doom and found the albums extremely interesting. One of the tracks featured J Dilla and after reading several articles about this producer / MC, I decided it was time to try out an album. In my searching, I only came across one album in the stores, The Ruff Draft EP. The album opens with "For my real niggas only." While I don't associate this with only black people would enjoy this album, I do believe that you have to be a true fan of hip hop to appreciate this one.

Jay Dee experiments with many of the beats on this lo-fi offering. While I did enjoy the instrumental disc, I just could not warm up to his work as an MC. Unfortunately, I don't often get the urge to put on instrumental hip hop albums and if I do, I will stick with the MF Doom albums I currently have.

I will try another Jay Dee album, but next time I will hunt out one where he was the producer and not the MC.