If you haven't been following this story - Busta Rhymes has been a keeper and collector of J Dilla beats since they started collaborating in 1996, including the period after his passing, as people realized he was collecting and curating work and would share files with him. Busta talks about Dilla as his favorite producer and collaborator, beautifully, as in - if you don't get choked up hearing him talk about it, I don't know, but the love is real even if their continued ability to collaborate on this plane of existence has ended.

Busta announced a revisiting of work, with new creations added on top, sometime back around the beginning of the pandemic. I got really excited, then assumed like so many things, it might never materialize.

Part of the reason I got so excited was because, back in 2007, he'd put out the Dillagence mixtape with DJ Mick Boogie. It was easier to download back then and now it's kind of a pain to stream, but check here if you're curious, or at least listen to this reimagining of one of Dilla's signatures, "Lightworks" featuring Talib Kweli and Q-Tip.

Dilla gets something a little different out of all of these guys. Their vocal performances, I mean. Maybe if you have to listen to them a lot to see how it works, but there’s a thing like when Miles plays differently with different drummers going on, and all I know is that once I noticed it I couldn’t notice it.

And, maybe nobody else’s approach is so slightly different from everywhere else than Busta. Their combination creates something beyond special - which was apparent since the 90s, but whatever this magic was, it was undeniably magic and it shows. We played this song to death in the early 2000s.

So, this “new” project was teased, forgotten, teased some more, and then a few weeks ago the singles started coming, the Popcast episode came out talking about it, and I got giddy. Like, schoolgirl giddy. Not just because there’s even MORE if he decides to do it (but seriously - there’s more!).

Last week the full project finally dropped. Dillagence 2. Not in my hands, but into the cloud, or - bah. It’s weird. But it’s still OUT.

You should listen to the whole thing, especially if this is your thing, on good headphones or great speakers. I'm hoping they do an instrumental release of this, which I almost never say, but some of this stuff sounds so good - and other parts of it, where you can tell he's restoring from a lesser quality demo, I want to live in these sounds.

Yes, the all too familiar wobble shows up in spots, but mostly, the sounds? The curation of how he stacked the samples, or parsed them, or just decided to include them - Dilla beats sound like nobody else, and to hear them 20 years after his passing and they still feel like they could have been made yesterday... such a loss. I'm so sad and so happy all at once.

I'll give you a few tracks as a taste. It's only right. Take these in order, even if it's out of album order.

Let's start with "Kingpin (Knock Ya Head Off)" feat. Anderson .Paak & Ludacris. You know what? Jump to the end and hear the quick sample from synth and sampler god (re: creator) Roger Linn, paying his respects to the ingenuity of J Dilla. Then jump back to the beginning and feel the arpeggiator and sequencers. Bonus here - Luda's verse on being old and rich kind of cracks me up in the best way. I got scared with his opening line, but the verse is good. I didn't expect that.

"Shoo" is next. I think I just like saying shoo. The attitude on this one is absurd. And I think when he shouts out De La Soul he's talking about "Shoomp" (feat. Sean Paul) by De La, but if somebody wants to correct me, please do - because (A) I love that song, and (B) I figured it's the Dilla production connection, but (C) I don't know if there's a mixtape connection I'm missing and I feel like there might be.

Last but not least - no words. D'Angelo and Dilla demoed this out. It's an interpolation of "Bam Bam" by Sister Nancy. RIP both of them - this song has not left my head since I first heard it. Probably my favorite on the record as of now. You can listen, or hey, watch the racy video (I'm no prude, but that was A LOT) here or on your audio platform of choice. "This Woman feat. D'Angelo."

Dillagence 2 is an A+ record. Very happy Busta did this. Made my week.