RZA couldn’t let J Dilla‘s birthday pass by unnoticed, especially since the duo have a short but impactful history together.
On Wednesday (February 7), which would have been the late producer’s 50th birthday, RZA hopped on his Wu Wednesday show on SiriusXM radio to pay tribute to the Detroit native, who passed away in 2006.
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Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah played two songs that Dilla produced for Raekwon‘s 2009 LP Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II and reminisced about their creation. He recalled that Busta Rhymes was the bridge between Dilla and the Wu-Tang Clan.
“This is one of those joints Busta Rhymes had brought to the studio,” RZA said of the album cut “10 Bricks.” “He was like, ‘Yo God, Dilla made a joint just for the Wu.’ And we passed it on to Chef and he blessed it.
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“This track is one of them tracks I wish I produced myself. The way he chopped this sample, the way he caught this cadence, it was something that I was impressed with.”
You can hear the songs, with RZA’s commentary, below.
During the show, RZA also played the J Dilla-produced “House of Flying Daggers,” and acknowledged that Jay Dee had done something unique.
“He was paying homage to the Wu, grabbing samples and tracks he thought that I would chop up and then interpreting them in his own way,” the Abbot said. “He did a fantastic job.”
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RZA’s comments are in line with another time he talked about Dilla over a decade ago, at a Red Bull Music Academy event.
“When [Busta] played that shit, it was the first time — and I gotta admit this — it was the first time I heard somebody say that they had a RZA-inspired beat that sounded crushing, like how ‘Ice Water‘ sounded when I first heard it,” RZA said of “10 Bricks” at the 2010 gathering.
“So J Dilla, to me, really captured that fucking sound like no other producer. If I was to back out of it, and if J Dilla was still here, I would just pass it over to him, because he fucking had it, man.”
Busta himself paid tribute to Dilla on his 50th birthday, along with a number of other Hip Hop legends who knew and worked with the influential producer.
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“HAPPY 50 TO THE GREATEST TO EVER DO IT @officialjdilla,” Busta wrote on Instagram. “MY FAVORITE PRODUCER EVER AND ONE OF MY FAVORITE MC’S EVER!! I WILL FOREVER REPRESENT YOU THROUGH MY WORK KING!!”
