Six Degrees of Dilla

Soulshock & Karlin, J. Dilla, and Mr. Bobby Caldwell.

As you probably already know, when the late Lesane Parish Crooks was murdered in Las Vegas on Friday the 13th of September 1996 (still unsolved, btw), he left behind a hoard of unreleased tracks- many of which still remain unreleased while others have thankfully leaked on to the net.

The unreleased tracks finding their way onto the net are swell because they give us a chance to hear the songs as Mr. Shakur heard them and/or planned to release them.  Many of the posthumous retail releases of his work unfortunately contain pairings with artist-of-the-month guest-appearances and producer re-workings in attempt to appeal to the Hip Hop market they are being released to rather than the era 2Pac recorded them in.

That ain't always a bad thing though.