J Dilla
One of hip hop's most influential DJs and producers, J Dilla packed a lot in
before his premature death at 32 in 2006. Raised in Detroit by a musical family
(his mother was an opera singer and his father a jazz bassist), and collecting
vinyl from a young age, he developed a love of hip hop and formed the Slum
Village rap group with T3 and Baatin, making their mark with debut album
Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol. 1) in 1997. After adopting the name Jay Dee, he gained a
reputation as one of hip hop's most exciting producers for his remixes of tracks
for Janet Jackson, Pharcyde, De La Soul, Busta...
