First of all, happy birthday to the legend, the great J Dilla who’s signature sound inspired a lot of the music we write about here. Today, Ghostly International beatsmith Shigeto released a Soundcloud set that’s “All raw. Unfinished. Made in an hour or so with friends. Inspired my J Dilla’s effortless and relentless output.”

This is a special collection of tracks and one that does justice to J Dilla’s experimentation, workhorse mentality, soulful sound, and tendency to put you in a percussive headlock. On the flip-side, If you take a step back, some of these tracks sound more indebted to the current state of electronic beat music in general than to Dilla’s influence specifically, and that just proves his influence was so great It’s hard to say where you can or can’t hear Jay Dee-isms. The raw acoustic drums, chopped vocal samples, lingering hi-end textures, and big bass-lines definitely take us back. The Joseph Deas collaborations are a personal favorite for drifting off. I hope we see them collaborating more in the future. Stream and download below.