mainstream singles produced or co-produced by J Dilla, 1995-2001

voted "didnt cha know"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDBIvE9J4xk

these were all hits?

these weren't all bit hits or necessarily charted obv -- but these are all officially released singles by established 'name' artists, mostly on major labels

gotcha

Gotta be "Breathe & Stop". Although i do have a soft spot for "The Light", the beat anyway

yeah i'm voting for "Breathe & Stop," that beat is so awesome. does he have any other great clubby uptempo beats like that?

also interesting that aside from Tip's solo career and Common, pretty much all of these artists saw their sales go down w/ their Dilla-produced projects compared to the previous albums

I suppose something from D'Angelo's Voodoo could be on here but it was never really clear what role he had in which songs on that album

my attempt to provoke pipecock into posting again was a total failure :(

Anyone who votes for anything other than "Vivrant Thing" (or maaaayyyybe "Got Til It's Gone") is a disgusting savage imo.

"Breathe & Stop" is so so so so much better than "Vivrant Thing"

http://i17.tinypic.com/6ptj2ua.gif

"Vivrant Thing" is top 10 jams all time imo

"Breathe and Stop" is the weakest single from that album.

it's not even top 10 songs q-tip has made (xpost)

shit it's not even top 30 songs q-tip has made

fuck you, that's one of my favorite songs ever and fuck you, fuck you fuck you

i feel strongly about this fuck you

i was being nice, for real i hated "Vivrant Thing" for like 10 years and have only recently been like it's aight

like i am literally fucking trembling right now that's how strongly i feel. there are some songs i will not stand to see dissed.

like even after The Love Movement i was like Tip this shit is wack what are you doing

It's been one of the songs I am most happy to hear ever since it dropped.

I wasn't really familiar with ATCQ at the time so there's no reason it would have that effect for me. I've always just heard it as one of the best party jams ever.

mostly i think it's just hilarious that i touched a nerve without even barely saying anything bad about the song initially, because i could've been much meaner right off the bat!

Like...how the fuck can you be mad at Q-tip doing this fun song over one of the funkiest, most incessant beats ever? It doesn't compute.

i agree that the beat is incessant, but not in the way you mean

Yeah, I recognize you weren't trying to be provocative or anything, there's just some moments where it's like you're getting told something that has brought so much joy to your life sucks and you have to react against it whether you want to or not, you know?

right

i can't even give you the benefit of age gap because there were like 50 better rap hits in 1999

It's just like, that's been one of my favorite songs ever since I was a kid and I feel like I'm having the very core of my foundation spat upon. (I realize I'm doing some horrible mixing of metaphors but forgive me.)

i can't even give you the benefit of age gap because there were like 50 better rap hits in 1999

― some dude, Friday, July 1, 2011 7:40 PM Bookmark

I'm struggling to think of one.

Like...I can think of a few that are close and all but

Jigga What Jigga Who, The Block Is Hot, What's My Name, My Name Is, Who Dat, Simon Says, Still DRE, Back That Azz Up, My Name Is, Money Cash Hoes, Bling Bling, Quiet Storm, Forgot About Dre, Ms. Fat Booty, Watch Out Now, Down Bottom, Guilty Conscience, Cash Money Is An Army, Bitch Please, Holla Holla, What Ya Want, You Got Me, Nas Is Like, Do It Again...

ok sorry, only 24

rev isn't easily trolled, so i'm just taking advantage of a rare opportunity here

I'm gonna call no on all of those. "Watch Out Now" is closest tho.

"Got Your Money" is almost as good as "Vivrant Thing".

ok fuck that song and fuck you

that's a serious piece of shit

smh

sorry i'm just taking it out on you that ILM voted "Got Your Money" the 33rd greatest rap song of all time

I just discovered one of my very first ILM posts was about the greatness of "Vivrant Thing" tho haha. Didn't find what I was looking for tho. :(

xp: I never got around to voting in that poll so it would have been even higher if I had. :D

ugh

i mean how that song can place over "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" and "Brooklyn Zoo" is in itself ridiculous but 33?

You hate fun, etc.

so none of the 24 songs i posted upthread are fun?

Love both those songs, but would take "Got Your Money" over either. But this is another case of experiencing something as a hit vs. hearing stuff in retrospect.

xp That was a joke, obv.

i would like to think my perspective isn't this warped and rong about my favorite songs from 1994 but it probably is

Fwiw, I think both "Vivrant Thing" and "Got Your Money" are both way more bright and disco-y than any of the songs you listed? That's kind of where my bias was at the time. I was fresh off the era of Puffy/Ma$e and "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It".

Also listening to my mom's old disco records a lot.

BOOM

it's the worst Wu Tang hit and the worst early Neptunes hit, shit is just corny

― some dude

^ fucking ridiculous

Got til it's gone is the only Janet single I like. The other artists on this list have better songs.

Actually strike that. Breathe and stop and didn't cha know are way better than the janet single... still... nostalgia factor is winning for me this time so Janet it is.

joni mitchell never lies

Got til it's gone is the only Janet single I like.

it's good to know that no matter how far i stick my neck out, Moka will always be more o_O than me

haha true

got to say 'runnin', but to be really real,

A Tribe Called Quest - "1nce Again"
A Tribe Called Quest f/ Faith Evans - "Stressed Out"
De La Soul - "Stakes Is High"
Janet Jackson f/ Q Tip - "Got 'Til It's Gone"
A Tribe Called Quest - "Find A Way"
Q-Tip - "Let's Ride"
Common - "The Light"
Erykah Badu - "Didn't Cha Know?"
Erykah Badu - "Cleva"

would all feature on my ipod playlist of fucking sublime awesome stuffz

went for "vivrant thing" cuz i liked it so much then and it's stuck w me since, but this is an insanely great series of tracks.

moka OTM abt everything: "gone til it's gone" is astonishing, at least close to my favorite jj single (great video, too). and "breathe and stop" and "didn't cha know" (and "got ya money" and "stakes is high"). and nobody's mentioned it, but pharcyde's "runnin", too, no thanks to people who aren't fatlip. umm, and "1nce again" (RIGHT?). such a thick, fucked up, fogged out sound, killer hooks almost every time. jeezis. come on. fuck.

xpost - well, almost nobody's mentioned it

I mentioned it, too!

voted vivrant thing

damn, rev went ham upthread

That's as heated as I've seen Rev! Vivrant thing is controversial!

eh al was just trolling, i dont think theres anything really shocking abt liking vivrant thing as much / more than tribe stuff, nor is liking 'got your money.'

i thought it was in fact a myth that he produced "got til it's gone". still, that.

wow, mind utterly blown anyone could have a strong opinion on vivrant thing let alone a nuclear one

lots of o_O here

Yeah, obv I overreacted and all but ¯\(°_o)/¯

al relentlessly otm in thiz thread

i voted "vivrant thing"

i dunno how "this" became "this" except that my phone is set to 2001

"Breathe and Stop" is the weakest single from that album.

― these goons were made for waka (The Reverend),

On an album with lots of dull shit -- the dullest of his career.

Went with "Vivrant Thing" over "Didn't Cha Know"

Stressed Out holds really strong memories of meeting my wife, so has to be that. Otherwise Running.

'stakes is high' imo

uhm love Tribe's Stressed Out

"breathe & stop" is great, just on the track alone, steamrolls the (sometimes) weak rapping, just need to ~listen~

Stop the nonsense. We're voting for J Dilla, there's no wrong answer.

Stakes Is High.

Love the reggae echo and just about everything else about "Find a Way," so many great lines. I always felt like "Runnin'" never lived up to its chorus and sound, but that's not Dilla's fault. "Stakes Is High" is so funky for being that sour. "Vivrant Thing" never did a thing for me.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Rev otm like a motherfucker itt. Voting Cleva just over Vivrant Thing and Didn't Cha Know

al relentlessly otm in thiz thread

i voted "vivrant thing"

― death to ilx, long live the frogbs (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Saturday, July 2, 2011 5:22 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

those seem like 2 contradictory statements though? or anyway i'm just mad at votes for vivrant thiz

All of that first Tip album is garbage. Utter shite.

Vivrant Thing is awesome! Totes voted for both that and Got Your Money in the rap-tracks poll

(Sorry al)

::shakes fist::

the love movement's production is really underrated. some of the best stuff dilla ever did imo. didnt hurt that tribe put their normal engineering stamp on it either.

I despise The Love Movement so much. I tried to go back and listen to it with fresh ears last month but after a fantastic opening track I just feel like the entire rest of the album is ATCQ shitting in my ears; primarily using flat beats with no syncopation was really not my bag at all.

Pulled the trigger on "Vivrant Thing." May be the only time I've ever not voted for Erykah when she's on the ballot.

i could go for most of these really but i'm voting "got til it's gone" because the weather achieved in that track is something special, i think.

like every element of the song seems transmitted from a distance? janet's voice, the sample, the bass. the only thing immediate and intimate is the rhodes which is basically predicting voodoo

I dunno, I'd say Janet's voice sounds very intimate (but not immediate) on that song, like she's telling you a secret.

Listening to the last two minutes of "Drop" and wondering how I didn't vote that.

i have a hard time thinking of "Drop" as anything but an annoying sample with a schticky video

tbf music video never gets to the song's denouement.

So many good choices, but in the end nothing else hits me quite like Didn't Cha Know.

and I think Let's Ride may be the best of those 1st wave of Tip solo singles. As great as the other 2 are, I don't think that big mainstream club bangerz were really the best look for a Q-Tip.

I heart the "Drop" video--that's beautiful schtick.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Fine by me.

they're all awesome awesome songs

the beatminerz remix of drop is better than the original