DJ Tony Tone Shares The Unreleased Interlude J Dilla Recorded for Him
Featuring a previously unheard freestyle from Q-Tip.
J Dilla rarities have been known to pop up at a rate that can be alarming. And that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.
In a new interview with Okayplayer, Dilla’s mother, Ma Dukes, revealed that the vault of unreleased material from the legendary producer very recently grew even larger with the return of tapes and reels that were being stored at a shuddered studio in Detroit. And not to be outdone, DJ Tony Tone, a fellow Motor City producer and DJ, unearthed his own unreleased gem from the late Donuts producer.
As Tone tells it, he and Dilla would run into each other at the record store occasionally and catch up, sharing new beats and updates on forthcoming projects. On one such meet-up, Tone put in a request for some new music from Dilla to feature on a mixtape he was putting together. And rather than just throw him an instrumental, some weeks later, Dilla handed Tone a tape with a rhodes-soaked interlude custom made for the tape (namedropped and everything,) featuring a previously unheard freestyle from Q-Tip. And to celebrate the late producer and the vault that keeps on giving, Tone shared the cut on Youtube in a tributary clip. The DJ also shared a video of himself explaining how he and Dilla first met and why he wound up with a song made just for his tape, which he admits is something the producer had only done for House Shoes until that point.
Hear J Dilla and Q-Tip’s previously unreleased interlude for a DJ Tony Tone mixtape below. Scroll on to catch the DJ’s backstory on the interlude and hold tight for updates on the next posthumous drops from the estate. According to Ma Dukes, it could be any day now.