{"id":679692,"date":"2026-09-09T04:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T04:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/679692\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T04:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T04:21:22","slug":"busta-rhymes-j-dilla-dillagence-ii-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/679692\/","title":{"rendered":"Busta Rhymes \/ J Dilla: Dillagence II Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlike many of Busta Rhymes<\/a>\u2019 most fruitful creative relationships\u2014Hype Williams, the Neptunes, Q-Tip, Spliff Star, Rah Digga, Swizz Beatz, DJ Scratch\u2014his long-term partnership with producer J Dilla<\/a> was never flashy, almost understated. When teaming with Dilla, Busta never got any volatile, flamboyant, shout-rap singles with music videos made of Tex Avery-styled antics and critical levels of fish-eye lens; never any hip-hop radio chokeholds or sneaky pop radio Trojan horses. However, the juxtaposition of Busta\u2019s fire-breathing flow and Dilla\u2019s muted, ill-proportioned pockets always served as a perfect chaser to the rapper\u2019s more ostentatious moments of woo-hah and rowr-rowr and cha-cha-cha-cha-cha.<\/p>\n

Between 1996 and his death a decade later, Dilla quietly contributed seasick tracks to six of Busta\u2019s first seven albums\u2014a legacy of incredibly funky songs that were never marketed in a way to warrant a blue text hyperlink on Wikipedia. In November 2007, under the aegis of mixtape DJ Mick Boogie and with the blessing of Dilla\u2019s mom, Maureen \u201cMa Dukes\u201d Yancey, the Dilla-Busta Accord continued with Dillagence, featuring more unheard and underheard recordings of the rapper-producer team. It was an incredible showcase of their working relationship, with Busta often mirroring Dilla\u2019s off-kilter rhythms and skipping melodies, dipping into Nice & Smooth flows (\u201cStep Up\u201d) and eating up the occasional Donut<\/a> (\u201cBest That Ever Did It\u201d). It didn\u2019t make much of an impact at the time, though: The cult of Dilla was still growing, Busta was in his \u201cKing of New York\u201d phase (cf. \u201cTouch It,\u201d \u201cNew York Shit\u201d), and mixtape junkies were busy watching the tail end of Lil Wayne<\/a>\u2019s classic era and the beginning of Gucci<\/a>\u2019s.<\/p>\n

No score yet, be the first to add.<\/p>\n

Nearly 10 years later comes Dillagence II, a sequel that is slightly less exciting than the original, but still full of thrills. Since Busta is recording brand-spanking-new raps over vintage productions, the album\u2019s timeline is asynchronous. But Busta remains a reliable craftsman and, hey, who doesn\u2019t want to hear 19 never-released Dilla beats?<\/p>\n

The best songs here move at mixtape pace: short durations, chorus-less raps, experimental beats, and gonzo flows\u2014especially since Dilla\u2019s own work has most often been appreciated via the sketches and scribbles of albums like the landmark Donuts and the posthumous Jay Stay Paid. Little tracks like \u201cHow the Boss Will Deliver,\u201d \u201cEntry,\u201d and \u201cDrugs\u201d are quick and dirty knockouts. \u201cSPAZZZ\u201d combines the work of three producers\u2014Dilla, Detroit grimester Black Milk<\/a>, Kev Brown\u2014into a vintage boastfest where Busta is having so much fun that he starts pretending the mic is off. Album highlight \u201cTalk Ya Shit\u201d makes magic with a slowed-down Gilberto Gil sample and a vintage, Auto-Tune-free Lil Wayne punchline rap. \u201cHow You Want It\u201d has a \u201cDilla time\u201d snare that\u2019s so off the beat it feels like it\u2019s going to teeter off the track entirely.<\/p>\n

Dillagence II falters when it starts making overtures to being a big-tent rap album. The famous guests\u2014many who never rapped on a Dilla beat during the producer\u2019s lifetime\u2014all sound perfectly serviceable, but the illusion becomes anachronistic when Ludacris<\/a> starts joking about \u201ccancel culture\u201d and Big Sean<\/a> says he\u2019s \u201cgot you swinging off of the chandelier like the Sia song.\u201d A raw and unfinished collab with D\u2019Angelo<\/a> (\u201cThis Woman\u201d) has the neo-soul icon doing some falsetto Sister Nancy lines, a nice flashback to the Voodoo<\/a> days. However, Busta\u2019s soggy \u201cI Love My Chick\u201d-style love-rap is mostly cornball. A six-minute closer with Common<\/a> and Jon Batiste<\/a> (\u201cWhat We Got in Common\u201d) pushes dramatic Dilla beats into the melodramatic and sounds like they\u2019re both gunning for second Oscars.<\/p>\n

J Dilla made beats like regular producers make carbon dioxide and it\u2019s still a joy when new ones emerge. Should Busta have just data-dumped the 300 instrumentals he\u2019s sitting on? Maybe, but then we wouldn\u2019t get Lil Wayne saying, \u201cI ain\u2019t doin\u2019 well, bitch, I\u2019m doin\u2019 Wells Fargo\u201d over one of the funkiest pulses to ever grace his voice. And whither Busta, still a relentless and hungry old-school craftsman, even in his 35th year in the game\u2014should he be relegated to trying to Dungeon Dragon on a blown-out rage rap beat? Instead, Diligence II captures both of their vintage magic in a sturdy, powerful package.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlike many of Busta Rhymes\u2019 most fruitful creative relationships\u2014Hype Williams, the Neptunes, Q-Tip, Spliff Star, Rah Digga, Swizz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[12327,18,117,19,17,337,806],"class_list":["post-679692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-albums","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-web"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117239171121141366","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}