Jay Love Japan

Infobox Album |
Name = Jay Love Japan
Type = Album
Artist = J Dilla


Released = (disputed and unknown)
Genre = Hip-Hop
Label = Operation Unknown
Producer = J Dilla
Reviews = * RapReviews.com (8.5/10) [http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2008_03_jaylovejapan.html link]
Last album = "Ruff Draft"
(Re-issue)
(2007)
This album = "Jay Love Japan"
(Japan Only)
( 2007)
Next album = "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. [http://www.operationunknown.com/]

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.Fact|date=May 2008 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. [http://www.fatbeats.com/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=397&products_id=5258 The one Fat Beats sells] is not a bootleg." [ [http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=5&topic_id=1708550&mesg_id=1708550&page= Okayplayer.com Boards - Viewing topic #1708550 - Dilla "Jay Love Japan"] . Post from BSharp, June 5, 2008.]

History

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. The album was finally made available in April 2008 and is distributed by Fat Beats Distribution based in New York. Operation Unknown confirms that the official Jay Love Japan vinyl, promotional material, and limited edition vinyl will be available late 2008. The album has an accompanying video series for the track "Can't You See." An EPK was released as far back as 2005. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsqzCOuRZ_Q YouTube - Jay Love Japan ] ] 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".

Tracklisting

# "JLJ Intro"
# "Yesterday"
# "Say It" featuring Ta'Raach & Exile
# "Oh Oh"
# "First Time" featuring Baatin & The Ruckazoid
# "In The Streets"
# "Believe In God" featuring Ma Dukes (Dilla's mother)
# "Can't You See"
# "Say It (Instrumental)"

References