Ma Dukes Speaks On J Dilla's 'The King Of Beats' Posthumous Boxset Release
Ma Dukes is a woman with a whole lotta weight to bear. As both survivor and manager of her son J Dilla's estate, one can imagine that it might be a bit daunting to get a grasp of such an immense body of work, especially after that storage unit debacle, doubling or even tripling that catalogue with tapes no one had ever heard. But whatever the downsides the upside is...it seems we'll get yet another posthumous release. In a year that's already seen 3 in The Diary, Lost Scrolls Vol. 1 and the Diamond & Ice EP, we'll see another page added to what is already a deep posthumous release schedule in the form of Ma Dukes' handpicked and supervised The King Of Beats box set.
As a longtime naysayer in regards to repackaged donuts with varying degrees of MC aptitude, to hear that there were plans to bring yet another tape to surface was actually pretty unsettling. But in this particular instance, it seems Mama may truly know best, as there don't seem to be any swagger-jacking local MCs to spit garbage over Dilla's fortified audible gold. She explains in an interview with Rolling Stone :
"This project came about by a lot of soulsearching and meditation as to what can I do now that my son has so many bootleg projects out by unknown artists. Now that I’m out of mourning and full of insight and feeling my son’s energy radiate around me, I wanted to do something different but iconic; Something that people would preserve and relish for a lifetime that spoke quality.”
The latest batch of funk to drop from beyond the grave will be spread across more mediums than you can simultaneously play, rolling-out on four 10-inch vinyl pressings, a cassette with 5 extra beats on it and a floppy (yes, a floppy) of an extra beat, essentially covering the gamut of how his goliath catalogue came to be. We got a taste of the aptly named "Filth" last week, and I tell ya, I get the feeling we'll be getting a few more before that late August day. We'll have plenty more on The King Of Beats as we creep up on its release, so be sure to hold tight. You can cop the preorder for this mammoth release tomorrow via jdillathekingofbeats.com. Head over to Rolling Stone for the full script.