- 01Untitled (How Does It Feel)D’AngeloA camera revolved around his bare chest and torso in the video for Voodoo’s breakout song, “Untitled (How Does It Feel),” the clip stimulating fans’ eyes rather than their ears in ways that made the singer feel truly naked.
- 02Future ShockHerbie HancockGlasper knew that what he and his trio were doing was in some ways even harder to digest for the jazz community than what Herbie Hancock had done with Future Shock in 1983.
- 03MoodRobert GlasperWhen Robert Glasper’s independent debut album, Mood, was released in 2004, Hegeman approached the jazz world’s three big booking agencies on his behalf.
- 04Blue SkiesIrving BerlinOn Mood, Glasper and his trio covered Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies,” and it could have been like any of the thousands of jazz covers of Tin Pan Alley standards.
- 05CanvasRobert GlasperUpon his first Blue Note release, Canvas, in 2005, he told Nate Chinen at JazzTimes: “I keep those worlds separate, because they are two separate things … I don’t want to sound like I’m playing at jazz, or playing at hip-hop.”
- 06J DillaludeRobert GlasperGlasper recorded “J Dillalude”—his trio playing a four-minute quartet of four Dilla beats, “Thelonius,” “Antiquity,” “Fall in Love,” “Stakes Is High”—and stuck it right in the middle of his 2007 album In My Element, prefaced by a voice mail from Q-Tip making the suggestion that he do so.
- 07TheloniusCommonGlasper recorded “J Dillalude”—his trio playing a four-minute quartet of four Dilla beats, “Thelonius,” “Antiquity,” “Fall in Love,” “Stakes Is High”—and stuck it right in the middle of his 2007 album In My Element, prefaced by a voice mail from Q-Tip making the suggestion that he do so.in the selected discography
- 08AntiquityJ DillaGlasper recorded “J Dillalude”—his trio playing a four-minute quartet of four Dilla beats, “Thelonius,” “Antiquity,” “Fall in Love,” “Stakes Is High”—and stuck it right in the middle of his 2007 album In My Element, prefaced by a voice mail from Q-Tip making the suggestion that he do so.in the selected discography
- 09Stakes Is HighDe La SoulGlasper recorded “J Dillalude”—his trio playing a four-minute quartet of four Dilla beats, “Thelonius,” “Antiquity,” “Fall in Love,” “Stakes Is High”—and stuck it right in the middle of his 2007 album In My Element, prefaced by a voice mail from Q-Tip making the suggestion that he do so.in the selected discography
- 10In My ElementRobert GlasperGlasper recorded “J Dillalude”—his trio playing a four-minute quartet of four Dilla beats, “Thelonius,” “Antiquity,” “Fall in Love,” “Stakes Is High”—and stuck it right in the middle of his 2007 album In My Element, prefaced by a voice mail from Q-Tip making the suggestion that he do so.
- 11Double BookedRobert GlasperIn his 2009 album Double Booked, Glasper segregated the album into jazz and hip-hop/electronic halves, the latter with another quartet, the Robert Glasper Experiment, both anchored by his Houston comrade Chris Dave on drums.
- 12Black RadioRobert Glasper ExperimentThe result was an album, released in 2012, Black Radio, which wasn’t a merger of genres as much it was an expression of what it was to be a Black American musician immersed in all Black musical forms.
- 13Show Me What You GotBusta RhymesA remix album the following year featured Glasper’s second paean to J Dilla, featuring interpretations of four more beats: “E=MC2,” “Fantastic,” “Show Me What You Got,” and “The Look of Love.”in the selected discography
- 14Still ShiningBusta RhymesThey both became Jay Dee fans upon listening to Busta Rhymes’s song “Still Shining,” and for the same reason: its ever-shifting harmonic changes and rhythmic freedom; that it was so obviously composed in linear fashion—even though they both considered the four-bar loop to be as valid a song form as the twelve-bar blues progression or the thirty-two-bar standard.in the selected discography
- 15RetrogradeJason MoranOn his debut album for Blue Note Records in 1999, Moran’s song “Retrograde” was a conscious nod to Jay Dee’s harmonic fascination with “common tone” in songs like “Still Shining” and “Runnin’”—one note held constant as chords shifted in permutations around it.
- 16Runnin’The PharcydeOn his debut album for Blue Note Records in 1999, Moran’s song “Retrograde” was a conscious nod to Jay Dee’s harmonic fascination with “common tone” in songs like “Still Shining” and “Runnin’”—one note held constant as chords shifted in permutations around it.in the selected discography
- 17DonutsJ DillaHis death was a gut punch. Donuts his parting gift, the Detroit demigod rested now in the soil of Southern California.in the selected discography
- 18New Amerykah Part OneErykah BaduBadu’s post-repast requiem for J Dilla, “Telephone,” ended up on the 2008 album New Amerykah Part One, on which Erykah collaborated with a host of Dilla disciples, including Karriem Riggins, Madlib, Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Georgia Anne Muldrow, 9th Wonder, and Mike Chav.
- 19Welcome 2 DetroitJay Dee aka J DillaFor the follow-up two years later, New Amerykah Part Two, virtually the same cast of characters returned with one of J Dilla’s Welcome 2 Detroit comrades, Ta’Raach.in the selected discography
- 20good kid, m.A.A.d cityKendrick LamarDre’s Aftermath label, good kid, m.A.A.d city, on which Lamar made a trusted contributor out of Sonnymoon’s Anna Wise, whom he tapped to add vocals to a number of songs, including his single, “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe.”
- 21Bitch, Don’t Kill My VibeKendrick LamarDre’s Aftermath label, good kid, m.A.A.d city, on which Lamar made a trusted contributor out of Sonnymoon’s Anna Wise, whom he tapped to add vocals to a number of songs, including his single, “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe.”
- 22A Love SupremeJohn ColtraneMartin introduced him to John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme because he felt that the rapper and the saxophonist had several important things in common: dedication to their craft, an abiding spirituality, and trust in their collaborators.
- 23Wesley’s TheoryThundercatThundercat was already pals with Flying Lotus, and together they created the musical base for the song “Wesley’s Theory.”
- 24ComplexionKendrick LamarOne such moment happened on the song “Complexion.” Terrace Martin brought Robert Glasper into Dr.
- 25To Pimp a ButterflyKendrick LamarThe album, which had metamorphosed into To Pimp a Butterfly by the time of its release in the spring of 2015, marked a resurgence of that rhythm, one that had entered hip-hop and R&B more than a decade earlier.
- 26NakamarraHiatus KaiyoteThey worked on one of Nai’s ideas, “Nakamarra.” It was a sweet soul song, an affectionate ode to a friend of Nai’s … That is, it could have been, if Perrin hadn’t taken that left turn, launching into a lurching, limping beat during the chorus.
- 27Tawk TomahawkHiatus KaiyoteNo one dared harbor even modest expectations for their album, Tawk Tomahawk, released in 2012.
- 28Choose Your WeaponHiatus KaiyoteThus Hiatus Kaiyote began their second album, Choose Your Weapon, with an explicit nod to J Dilla.
- 29JekyllHiatus KaiyoteNai Palm wrote in a style that was simple to her, but whose strange chords, bizarre timings, and sudden transitions on songs like “Molasses” and “Jekyll” demanded her bandmates’ skills.
- 30Black MessiahD’AngeloIt was worth the wait. Black Messiah featured “Really Love,” the song that James had helped inspire back when D’Angelo needed a charge.
- 31Really LoveD’AngeloBlack Messiah featured “Really Love,” the song that James had helped inspire back when D’Angelo needed a charge.
- 32Fuck the PoliceJay DeeFor the next hour, Glasper, wearing a T-shirt that read DILLA STILL EXCITES, took the band and the audience through a range of Dilla-produced songs including “Fuck the Police,” “Jealousy,” “Climax,” “Conant Gardens,” “Raise It Up,” “Get Dis Money,” “Thelonius,” and “Hold Tight.”in the selected discography
- 33Conant GardensSlum Village, Abstract OrchestraFor the next hour, Glasper, wearing a T-shirt that read DILLA STILL EXCITES, took the band and the audience through a range of Dilla-produced songs including “Fuck the Police,” “Jealousy,” “Climax,” “Conant Gardens,” “Raise It Up,” “Get Dis Money,” “Thelonius,” and “Hold Tight.”
- 34Raise It UpSlum VillageFor the next hour, Glasper, wearing a T-shirt that read DILLA STILL EXCITES, took the band and the audience through a range of Dilla-produced songs including “Fuck the Police,” “Jealousy,” “Climax,” “Conant Gardens,” “Raise It Up,” “Get Dis Money,” “Thelonius,” and “Hold Tight.”
- 35Get Dis MoneySlum VillageFor the next hour, Glasper, wearing a T-shirt that read DILLA STILL EXCITES, took the band and the audience through a range of Dilla-produced songs including “Fuck the Police,” “Jealousy,” “Climax,” “Conant Gardens,” “Raise It Up,” “Get Dis Money,” “Thelonius,” and “Hold Tight.”
- 36The Look of LoveSlum VillageT3 flashes forward through the decades from the chanting crowd at Saint Andrew’s in Detroit to the Blue Note in New York, where they still know the words to Slum Village’s “The Look of Love.”