Jay Love Japan

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Jay Love Japan
Jay Love Japan cover
Studio album by J Dilla
Released (disputed and unknown)
Genre Hip-Hop
Label Operation Unknown
Producer J Dilla
Professional reviews
  • RapReviews.com (8.5/10) link
J Dilla chronology
Ruff Draft
(Re-issue)
(2007)		 Jay Love Japan
(Japan Only)
( 2007)		 Dillagence
(2007)

Jay Love Japan is an instrumental album by the late J Dilla distributed to retail by the California-based Operation Unknown label most recently on March 7, 2008.[1]

Promo and semi-official retail versions of the album have circulated for several years, and the album was even given a 2006 release in Japan, although that version is now considered a promotional item. It was announced in an issue of the magazine Wax Poetics in 2005 and given various missed release dates in 2006, 2007, and 2008, with a track list containing two songs with other artists' vocals added after Dilla's death.[citation needed] Bill Sharp, an upper level employee of major hip-hop retailer Fat Beats and the webmaster of fatbeats.com, had this to say on the matter:

"We had many thousands of units of Jay Loves Japan [sic] sitting in our warehouse while legalities were worked out with Dilla's estate for nearly one year. There are boots out there, there are imports. The one Fat Beats sells is not a bootleg."[2]

[edit] History

The album is shrouded in mystery and, if rumors of Operation Unknown's improprieties are to be believed, deceit. J Dilla began and possibly completed this album before his death in February 2006. Some say that the album was intended as an instrumental EP featuring two guest vocal tracks, whereas the label itself first described it as featuring Raekwon, Blu, Ta'Raach, Truth Hurts, and more, tentatively including Slum Village. A bootleg version of the album leaked without Raekwon's vocals in mid-2006. The album has an accompanying video series for the track "Can't You See." An EPK was released as far back as 2005.[3] Most recent photographs used of J Dilla, such as the inside cover of J Dilla's BBE album The Shining, as well as recent MTV pictures, were Operation Unknown photo sessions for Jay Love Japan.

[edit] Tracklisting

  1. "JLJ Intro"
  2. "Yesterday"
  3. "Say It" featuring Ta'Raach & Exile
  4. "Oh Oh"
  5. "First Time" featuring Baatin & The Ruckazoid
  6. "In The Streets"
  7. "Feel The Beat"
  8. "Believe In God" featuring Ma Dukes (Dilla's mother)
  9. "Can't You See"
  10. "Say It (Instrumental)"

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.operationunknown.com/
  2. ^ Okayplayer.com Boards - Viewing topic #1708550 - Dilla "Jay Love Japan". Post from BSharp, June 5, 2008.
  3. ^ YouTube - Jay Love Japan
v • d • e
J Dilla
Member of
Solo Albums
Welcome 2 Detroit • Ruff Draft • Donuts • The Shining • Jay Love Japan
Collaborative albums
Singles/EPs
Related