finder's keeper.

You may know that the hip hop circus has been under shock for a few days, actually since the news of the sale of Dilla's records surfaced. 

Here's a summary of the situation, if you missed it. 

A record dealer was offered to browse a storage full of records, because the rent had not been paid for months, if not years. During his digging, the guy, who owns a record store in Detroit, found out that these records (7000 to 8000) used to belong to James Yancey, aka Jay Dee, aka J Dilla. Along with the records were original beat tapes, which are a Graal for all Dilla die-hard fans. 

Quite naturally considering the lucky guy's job, he sold a few of these records on Record Store Day, after failing to contact Jay Dee's mother and foundation. 

This could have been one of the most interesting and beautiful digging stories of the recent years, if the web hadn't turned bitter towards the record store owner who found the records and started selling some. 

Since then, the record store owner has been accused of violating sacred items, authentic relics, etc. 

Now, to me, if Hendrix guitar can go for auction, why not Dilla's records ? They were Dilla's records, well only a part of the collection according to ?uestlove... big deal. The valuable stuff here is the beat tapes. And they should go public. All the other stuff already is public. 

By the way, the finder did the right thing by contacting the mother, Jay Dee's foundation and Stones Throw. Even Jay Dee's mother stated that he didn't do anything wrong. 

Idolizing ain't reasonable. Can't people just enjoy a cool story ?

Anyway, more interesting and accessible is the series of videos by Bling47, showcasing interesting guys (Amir, Waajeed, Spinna, Benji B...) dissecting Dilla's samples. Love it. And here's a glimpse, by Waajeed.