J Dilla, The Shining

J Dilla’s album The Shining was released after he passed away from lupus, completed by his friend Karriem Riggins after J was gone. Needless to say, the rappers that performed on the record perform with obvious love for J Dilla, and the album has something of an old-school vibe — many of the beats have the minimum required to keep your body moving. J Dilla played most of the instruments on the record, which makes the album feel more like a live band more than a bunch of samples (although there are plenty of those, too).

J and Karriem use the rapping in interesting ways. Common raps less on “E=MC2” than he normally does, and they create a call-and-response feel between the rapping and the samples. The beats behind the song is pretty minimal, with a great bass drum sound (which J uses throughout the album) and other sound effects. There are some other interesting beats — “Jungle Love” is made up almost solely of percussion sounds,, with an occasional keyboard fill to give it some melody, and “Geek Down” features a crazy melody line that sounds like a distorted trumpet, along with some other distorted keyboard parts, all of which match Busta Rhymes’ frenzied rapping perfectly.

The song “Love” sums up the theme of the album. Beneath a soulful beat, Pharoaoh Monche says you got to “put love in the music,” and they put love in this one. Appropriately enough, it’s the best beat here, with a pretty backing female chorus and great horn and string samples you just want to listen to over and over. And it’s also about love for J Dilla; “Jungle Love” isn’t actually about jungle love but, as the chorus goes, “J D to the I to the L L A,” one of many heartfelt shoutouts to J on the record.

Much credit, however, goes to J Dilla himself or Riggins — the album is strong largely thanks to J’s beats, as well as the rappers that contributed lyrics. It’s good to see J Dilla going out on a high note. Or, at least, a funky bass line.