Underground: J Dilla and Nujabes

February 7, 1974. If you were wondering why I put this date on here is because it was the birthday of two of the most influential people in hip hop were born on this date and they were J Dilla and Nujabes. Today we are going to talk about them both and what made them both so unique.

James Dewitt Yancey, better known as J Dilla was a record producer and rapper who sadly passed away on February 10, 2006, just days after his 32 birthday due to Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura or TTP for short. The impact he left in hip hop was tremendous, the way he created music, his worth ethic to music and his craft and the people who he works with such as:

• Slum Village
• Beat Junkies
• Busta Rhymes
• Common
• Erykah Badu
• MF Doom
• Questlove
• A Tribe Called Quest
• The Pharcyde

To better understand how vital J Dilla was here is a fantastic video Vox did about J Dilla.

Jun Seba, better known as Nujabes was a record producer, DH, composer and arranger from Japan. He founded Hydeout Production, an independent studio in 1998 and went on to create what is now know as Lo-Fi hip hop. Sadly he passed away on February 26, 2010, in a traffic collision in Tokyo, Japan he was 36. He had a lot of beautiful songs such as:

• Lady Brown
• Aruarian Dance
• Horizon
• Reflection Eternal
• After Hanabi (Listen To My Beat)

Although they both only released three solo albums, they had a lot of music that was released sometime after and continue to inspire people to this day. Take some time out of your day and give them both a listen.