J Dilla

James Dewitt Yancey made beats the way other people breathe — constantly, instinctively, and without a ceiling on what was possible. Working out of Detroit under the name Jay Dee and later J Dilla, he redefined the feel of hip-hop production by loosening the grid, burying the swing, and making imperfection sound like the only honest option. He produced for A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, The Pharcyde, Common, Busta Rhymes, D'Angelo, and Erykah Badu before most of them knew who he was. He died in 2006 at 32, three days after his debut vocal album Donuts was released from his hospital bed. Everything here — from Jay Love Japan to Dillatronic — comes from the years after, presented by his mother Ma Dukes as the catalog he never got to deliver himself.