This is relatively old news, but I completely missed the boat on it when it first came out, and it’s dope, so I’m posting it anyways.
14KT is a producer from Ypsilanti, Michigan.  Apparently, the beats on Nowalataz were made as a sort of tribute to Dilla.  Here’s 14KT describing it in his own words:
“Here it is… a project I unofficially had done since 2006. It started when James Yancey a.k.a. J Dilla passed that February. To cope with the death of my favorite producer, who I liked to call my …

Electric Wire Hustle is an “electronic/organic trio” from New Zealand who’ve been getting mad love from across the ol’ blogosphere.  I honestly don’t know a lot about them, but this track, called ‘Perception,’ definitely got my attention.  Based on a sample from “Inside my Love” by Minnie Riperton (a joint that was best flipped, in my opinion, by Tribe on ‘Lyrics to Go‘), the track has a nice mellow vibe to it:

Also making the internet rounds is a new music video for the J Dilla track ‘On Stilts.’ From …

Michael Jackson’s passing has inspired countless tributes from, it seems, every corner of the pop culture landscape.  A testament to both his transcendent artistic influence and his catalog’s massive revenue-generating potential, the man has to date been remembered (slash exploited) on film, television, in print and, of course, by a variety of professional and amateur musicians.
Two of the better tributes I’ve heard have come via Metal Lungies (yeah, Google Reader!).  The first, by the legendary DJ Jazzy Jeff, is a comprehensive mix of MJ’s “greatest moments,” including some tasty …

Sites all over the internet have been going crazy for this new mixtape.  Okay, definitely not new, since it came out back in Feb of 2007.  But somehow I, and many others, slept on this. 
J. Sands of Lone Catalysts fame decided to lay down a bunch of tracks over some Dilla beats.  The mixtape, entitled Mrs. Sands.
You can stream some of the tracks off Sands’ MySpace if you want a taste.  Not bad, check out the track “Love feat. Rashad“.  It’ll give you a good idea of what the …

In the early 1970s, nine American servicemen stationed in Germany formed a soul band.  They called themselves 100% Pure Poison (it was the seventies, after all). After sneaking in to a music industry conference and snagging a deal with British EMI, they released their first and only album, Coming Right At You.  According to All Music Guide, the album features vocal interplay “recalling the Temptations” and “a jazzy instrumental sophistication equal to the Blackbyrds.”  
While I can’t vouch for the whole thing, one track on Coming Right At You has found …

Our boy J Dilla has some major posthumous issues.  He was never a very rich man (he actually ended up crazily in debt since he had huge health care bills) and the small amount of royalties flowing in are decreasing all the time thanks to rampant piracy and biting of dope Dilla beats.  His estate is still trying to pay off all his debt.
Apparently Dilla didn’t even get credit for a lot of his dope beats for fairly major artists.  On his biggest it (Janet Jackson’s “Got til its gone”) …

It’s been a minute since we’ve posted any music on 4080, so I figured it was time to upload some auditory dopeness. And Fan-Tas-Tic Vol. 1 fits that bill perfectly.
Recorded in 1996 and 1997, Fan-Tas-Tic Vol. 1 is Slum Village’s debut album. Produced by J Dilla and recorded entirely in his home studio, the album was leaked as a bootleg in 1997. It became an instant classic among underground heads in Detroit and, later, across the world. In fact, according to Wikipedia, at one point copies of Fan-Tas-Tic were fetching $50 apiece. …

Welcome to the first post in a series intended to explore hip-hop’s musical roots. Although not an expert musicologist by any means, my aim with this series is to demonstrate how hip-hop’s uniqueness lies in its ability to incorporate a limitless variety of sounds and styles. This idea is critical, I think, because it is precisely this property which separates hip-hop from the genres that preceded it. Indeed, with the invention of beat mixing, and later sampling, hip-hop producers discovered a method for making music that transcends the limits posed …

Atmosphere, your girl’s favourite hip-hop group, released their latest ablum, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, last week.
I’ve had mixed feelings about Atmosphere since I first heard tracks like “Modern Man’s Hustle” and “A Heave And A Ho” (does anyone know where to find this?). On one hand, Ant is a talented beatmaker and Slug is a dope lyricist. On the other hand, however, the common criticism levelled at the Minnesota duo – that they spend too much making introspective “emo rap” – is often true, …

I managed to catch Mos Def playing in Ann Arbor the other night. His show was on MLK Day and was dedicated to the memory of J Dilla, the slain Detroit producer.
I’ve got to say it was a really interesting style of show. For those of you who’ve ever been to the Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan, you know it’s not exactly the traditional hip hop spot. Plush, upholstered, assigned seating is not the way I normally catch these shows, but it did lend a …