Welcome 2 Detroit

イギリスは＜BBE＞の定番アイテム「Beat Generation」のJay-Deeヴァージョンが登場！Jay-DeeといえばSlum Villageでお馴染みながらも「Ummah」「Soul Quarians」のプロデューサー集団としてその奇才を発揮するブラック・ミュージック界の師！そんな彼が今回のこの企画でコンパイルしているのは、ジャズ/ファンクからテクノ界にまで冒険したそのレア度満点なビート・ジャンキーぶり！必聴です！

Alternative Press (6/01, p.77) - 4 out of 5 - "...A weirdly worldly hip hop that's as hard as the Detroit underground scene that inspired it..." Muzik (3/01, p.59) - 4 out of 5 - "...This is victory for the Motor City....Jay Dee shows just how much breadth there is to his abilities..." Vibe (4/01, p.169) - 3 discs out of 5 - "...His charmingly spare sound gets grittier....a winning nod to the open-minded, crate-digging, cipher-gathering purists who keep the heart of underground hip hop pumping."

Jay Dee made a name for himself as one-third of A Tribe Called Quest's beat-making faction (the Ummah). Thanks to his work on Common's critically acclaimed Like Water for Chocolate and Q-Tip's post-Quest endeavor Amplified, Dee has also established himself as a hip-hop super-producer. While Dee's stock continues to rise (working with Janet Jackson, Erykah Badu, and Macy Gray), his underground projects have been less fruitful. Reason being, when it comes to enlisting new MCs to collaborate with, Dee has yet to locate a lyricist capable of augmenting his sublime production. This fact became apparent during Dee's short-lived stint as a member of Slum Village, and the trend continues with his first solo outing, Welcome 2 Detroit. Here, Dee continues to showcase a diverse assortment of sensuous melodies and booming funk samples. The Detroit-bred MCs who Dee chooses to highlight -- Phat Kat on "Rico Suave Bossa Nova" and Beej on "Beej-N-Dem, Pt. 2" prove to be very mediocre lyricists. Yet Dee did manage to round up a few hometown prospects, as Frank N Dank liven up "Pause" and Elzhi rips a few furious verses on "Come Get It." Though Dee flips a few clumsy bars as well, Welcome 2 Detroit really takes off when he sticks solely to an instrumental script, retouching trumpeter Donald Byrd's "Think Twice" and transforming Kraftwerk's indelible "Trans-Europe Express" into the strippers'-anthem-in-waiting "B.B.E. (Big Booty Express)." ~ Matt Conaway