J Dilla aka Jay Dee
The Shining
Release Date: Aug 22, 2006
Genre(s): Rap
Record label: BBE
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Album Review: The Shining by J Dilla aka Jay Dee
Excellent, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Months before he passed away, J Dilla asked fellow Detroiter and longtime associate Karriem Riggins to help him complete The Shining. With the album apparently 75 percent complete, Riggins -- an accomplished multi-instrumentalist and producer in his own right -- was handed the masters and went about the completion of the album as if he were inside the mind of Dilla. Though it's disjointed, a little bumpy, and -- in places -- perceptibly unfinished-sounding, The Shining is a very worthy addition to Dilla's discography.
Opinion: Very Good
J Dilla, the hip hop impresario born James Yancey, passed away this winter, finally succumbing to the complications of lupus. In the wake of his untimely death, two albums have been released, with a third slotted in the near future. The Shining, the second of these posthumous works, may inspire less awe than Yancey’s preceding Donuts, but it is, perhaps, a more forthright testament to the collection of songs Yancey released in his lifetime, thus providing a richer, more telling eulogy for a man so well respected by his peers and fans.