Jay Dee – The Unreleased EP (Presented By House Shoes)

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Want some free Dilla joints? Then you’re in the right place. But first… I’m sure I’m not the only one uncomfortable with all the unreleased material coming posthumously from J Dilla, or Jay Dee. I feel like it remained unreleased for a reason, and those releases feature a compromised – quite profoundly – artistic integrity simply because I always think that they remained unreleased for a reason. (This isn’t a thought exclusive to Dilla either – I remember listening to the Jimi Hendrix album released most recently thinking the same too.)

A release cosigned by House Shoes is a different proposition, however. A close friend of Mr Yancey’s, Shoes is not one who would ever corrupt his legacy, and so as part of his The Gift series he gives us The Unreleased EP, a series of remixes from the late 90s rejected by labels – despite being on a different level to anything else being made, even now – of De La Soul, Masta Ace, D’Angelo and others. It’s worth noting this isn’t actually unreleased material per se; in fact it was actually given two separate limited vinyl pressings previously when House Shoes spoke with Peanut Butter Wolf, but nonetheless the point remains the majors weren’t, I suppose, appreciative, and they never achieved a widespread release.

Whats more, we get it for free.

Read the whole story from House Shoes behind the EP after the jump, and vibe…

No cds. No vinyl reissue. No cashing in. It’s a gift.

In 1997, Jay Dee was the still new kid on the block. With the success of singles like Runnin’ (Pharcyde), and Stakes is High, he had his own undeniable sound, but the majors still weren’t sold.
This is proof of that.
Jay was solicited by a lot of majors to do remixes for artists on their rosters. Time and time again, they would another route.
The joints he was coming up with were fucking nuts, but to no avail. In one case, he was led to believe that one of his mixes got thru, only to see another producers remix when the 12″ showed up at Record Time.
I told him fuck it I wanna put it out. He trusted me.
I had never put a record out.
Got an investor.
Then I made a phone call.
Chris Manak, aka Peanut Butter Wolf, was my rep at TRC distribution in California. I was working at Street Corner Music ordering records from him every week. I got the #’s
from him. Sent the masters over and we had a record.
The first pressing was on blue vinyl. Limited to 1500 copies.
Gone.
Second press was on green vinyl.
Gone.
I also learned to listen to test presses on multiple turntables.
There was a skip in the middle of the fucking Woo Hah rmx that did NOT SKIP on my 1200. Swear to god I had the only 12 that could play that shit. It skipped on EVERY other turntable in the world. Fucked up. Check your test pressings on a few setups. But, that’s fixed now.