Nasty featuring Miss Jack Davey
J Dilla
Jay Love Japan [Bootleg], 2007
I have two versions of this J Dilla album in my iTunes, one ripped from a CD that had the artwork at left (courtesy of my favorite Estonian power couple Bert & Heidy - hey guys!) and another titled “Jay Love Japan Bootleg!!” of dubious origin. I always wondered who the exclamation points belonged to so I decided to try to find out today. It’s actually kind of scandalous, according to this site from the Netherlands, which apparently has an explanation from someone at the label.
Warning: this probably won’t be interesting if you aren’t already a J Dilla/Jay Dee fan:
Everything was set, Dilla was excited, we we’re all excited. Then the unbelievable happened, we all lost a beloved hero. Shortly after, a now ex-employee (which will go unnamed, those who know, know) began exploiting the situation and confusion surrounding his death. We’ll even go as far as saying that this person was anticipating this situation. We’re NOT saying that he wanted it to happen, but he certainly was being an opportunist (like other people surrounding Dilla) planning around the reality of the situation. He had spent much of his time with Dilla toward the end of his life. Those involved could see it coming. It all begin there.
This person has a knack of positioning himself with some of the most talented people in the game, but it always showed to unravel when it counted. This person has put other labels into this same situation (which will also go unnamed). He began spending a lot of time getting close with J’s family, and the rest of the label’s priorities were being ignored. Other artists on our label began seeing an attitude change in this person, and suspected the scheming. He was even confronted and warned before all of this went down. Make no mistake, this person was responsible for most of the initial business with J Dilla. He organized most of the photoshoots which everyone uses for J Dilla’s press today, IE: BBE’s The Shining album pictures / World’s Fair J Dilla page, MTV pictures, etc.. we paid for all of this. Much of the material that exists, including the signing of the album to the Operation Unknown label, was because of this person. Greed is like crack though, and something snapped. This person was obsessed with Dilla, and it all shifted to high gear months after his death.
Shortly after, this person began recruiting unsupsecting upcoming artists and pitching the idea to them that he, and only he, had access to J Dilla beats, and they would be fortunate enough to be featured on the album (which the album was already completed at the time). This person started recording other artists verses over Jay Love Japan beats. Even the track featuring the Jack Davey rap (of J Davey) was done over a beat that was already used for Phat Kat’s 12″, “Nasty Aint It” [emphasis added]. There were even demos with the artist “Truth Hurts” singing over the track “In The Streets”. Most of this sounded better on paper than it did coming out of the speakers. The only artists commisioned for their work on Jay Love Japan, were those featured on the official album shortly released before it was pulled…
In June 2007, we were set on releasing this project. We couldn’t take the delay anymore, we had to just put it out. So we hustled, raised enough money to put it out, and moved forward with it through Fat Beats. About 2 weeks later, we get a call from J Dilla’s estate threatening a legal nightmare. The estate was looking to cease and desist the album. So now, all of the hardwork, all of the advertising, and most importantly, the FANS of DILLA’s music all had to wait, because we were being accused of doing shady business. It seems that this one person’s shady reputation had reached to high places, because we were even asked if “this person” was still working with us. It seems that certain people had made sure that our label had gotten a shake down, all because of the dislike of this one person.
These negotiations have lasted for the greater part of 2007…
We’re glad to say that we’ve resolved this situation and Jay Love Japan will be available worldwide in early 2008 on all formats.
>> songs are available for two weeks (192 kbps) [3.2 MB]
