J Dilla - Diamonds (The Shining Pt. 1)

Here’s Diamonds, some more “new/not new” material from J Dilla on the upcoming Diamonds & Ice vinyl EP out on 27th August.

This may well be old news to some but we’d be mad not to let everyone know. A couple of tracks off Dilla’s forthcoming posthumous album The Diary are being released as an EP called Diamonds & Ice. The first track, Diamonds (The Shining Pt. 1), just dropped onto Soundcloud yesterday. Ice (as you may have heard as an unlisted bonus track on the first US and UK pressings of Champion Sound) is the other part. Both tracks come with extras including alternative versions and a Diamonds instrumental and there’s also an extra joint called The D, a Madlib instrumental that Dilla put on The Diary before it was shelved. Got all that? No? We’ll move on anyway.

This “lost” track, one of many from Dilla, packs as much of a punch as the other Diary cuts we’ve heard so far thanks to flawless production work from Nottz (if you’re wondering what the sample is, it’s Seals & Crofts’ Diamond Girl). As for Dilla himself, I get the feeling he preferred to ride on the beat as opposed to verbally obliterating it which works brilliantly for me.

Stream it below and pre-order the Diamonds & Ice EP on Rappcats.