This J Dilla x Mary J. Blige Mixtape is The Last Mash-Up You'll Ever Need to Hear
A mashed-up masterpiece.
A few weeks back, on the heels of that painfully-perfect missed-Twitter-connection between Aha and Kendrick Lamar, an era-smudging layering of Marvin Gaye's cool croon and J Dilla's endless catalog of heard and unheard suites emerged to varying degrees of success. Mostly forced, but not without its sporadic, if sparse, glimmers of genius.
And now, another tape has surfaced with the familiar knock of the late Detroit legend's stratospheric swing. This time, pairing all phases of his compositions with the equally timeless voice of Mary J. Blige. Spotted on FULLBLAST RADIO's Youtube page, the Mary J Dilla mash-up is a damn-near spotless specimen.
Cover-to-cover, from the pitch and tempo matching to the very selection of respective catalog cuts incorporated, Mary J. Dilla is perhaps as good as a mash-up can get. One that respects the legacies and trajectories of both artists by bringing them into an eerily harmonic co-existence. The Boston Creme of beat-melding, the Stradivarius of sample-stitching, an apex-piece rendering all prior efforts immediately obsolete and inferior by association. Dare I say, the last mash-up you ever need to hear.
No producer credit for this masterpiece has been listed. But whoever you are, where ever you might be, thank you.
Hear the Mary J Dilla tape below.
