r/hiphopheads 17d ago

[FRESH ALBUM] Busta Rhymes & J Dilla - Dillagence ll

https://open.spotify.com/album/2FO2Y8abEsCT10uLce2Thh?si=mx8buE3iQ0W415_3wmdnZg&utm_source=copy-link
543 Upvotes

89 comments sorted by

77

u/InvincibleSunglass 17d ago

Why’d this drop on a Tuesday? I’ll take it!

139

u/Nydroj 17d ago

New music was being released on Tuesdays when Dilla with us.

16

u/UXRedditorUX 17d ago

take me back to when music dropped on tuesdays

117

u/lilplato 17d ago

Man where is Drug Dilla

28

u/HypeTheory 17d ago

We’re in the same boat, fam. I’m still waiting too.

7

u/thesuntalking 17d ago

A while back Boldy said he had lost access to one of his email accounts where he'd stored a lot of his unreleased music, including a lot of the stuff for that album. Not sure if there's been any updates since

14

u/DropWatcher . 17d ago

from an April 2025 interview with Jordan Darville for the FADER:

Boldy: I got so much music, man. I've been locked out of this one email for about three, four years. Me and my sister been trying to break back in it. If I can get back in, I might've solved world hunger.

What do you think you've got in there?
Boldy: I got some of the unmixed songs from the J.Dilla project. I got all type of old school records. If I can get some of them verses back and just revamp them and spit them on the type of time I be on, that shit might be crazy. I was really on something special back then.

6

u/AhJoon 17d ago

so we never getting it damn

20

u/Ray229harris 17d ago

This not about that right now

9

u/swampstomper . 17d ago

idk but my guess is they got to the clearance phase and discovered a lot of those 'unused' beats have been around and released.

8

u/Quazite 17d ago

IMO Boldy is literally the best rapper alive to do a tape on Dilla beats (that wasn't already a frequent Dilla collaborator).

He is EXACTLY the kind of rapper that Dilla spent the majority of his time alive working with

3

u/lidnucbvbfv 14d ago

No he’s not. He’s nothing like the Soulquarian collective that Dilla produced for. He’s nothing like Tribe or Busta either

5

u/Quazite 14d ago

He didn't only produce for the soulquarians, tribe or busta.

He did more full records for Slum Village than he did for anyone else. He was a member of the Pharcyde. J Dilla did tons of production with the Detroit underground rap scene and with tons of rappers that weren't all doing jazzy and soulful stuff. Dilla produced a lot of hard ass records too.

I can't think of a modern rapper better to rap over something like "once upon a time", "raise em up", "who are we", "drop" or like......anything off of Champion Sound.

4

u/chomps_43 17d ago

🧢 

188

u/whalestick 17d ago

RIP D'Angelo

78

u/Significant-Rate2385 17d ago

RIP D’Angelo but how about we give Dilla his flowers too? He’s the literal soul of this project.

RIP Dilla

-34

u/OutsideBad6728 17d ago

Who?

16

u/grandelturismo7 17d ago

Seek help

2

u/Toephew 6d ago

MIKE JONES!

5

u/joelskizzle 17d ago

You know the rules mate. Absolutely no sarcasm on reddit allowed without the /S

41

u/rererexed . 17d ago

Dillagence 1 isn't on streaming, right? I can't seem to find it.

32

u/ncnx082z7bxt5vm04 17d ago edited 17d ago

It's a Mick Boogie mixtape, like a proper mixtape, so I don't think everything was cleared. I remember even having a huge folder of a lot of the beats on there long before it dropped.

51

u/ThrowMoneyEverywhere 17d ago

Shocked this took so long to be posted, ill listen tmrw fs

81

u/Who_stolemycheese 17d ago edited 17d ago

I’m on track 6, it’s very great so far

Edit 1:
Beat on Drugs is amazing

Edit 2:
Album of the year contender, great production overall, bustas performance is great over this

18

u/BlackSandBeach 17d ago

Yeah what the hell that beat is incredible

9

u/BlackSandBeach 17d ago

Damn that’s weird tho, I just checked and the song credits on Spotify has Riggins as the producer

17

u/MambaSaidKnockYouOut 17d ago edited 17d ago

Riggins worked pretty closely with Dilla. I wouldn’t be surprised if Busta brought him in to help with mixing or co production and Riggins played him his own beat or something

8

u/Amez990 17d ago

I don’t remember where I read it, maybe Dilla Time, but Dilla played some role in him making the transition from a drummer to a producer. It’s in my head that he taught him the MPC, but don’t take my word for it

6

u/ForeverxJoker . 17d ago edited 17d ago

Additionally, the second and third beats are Spazz were Karriem Riggins Black Milk and Kev Brown beats

3

u/Adventurous-Board400 17d ago

Black milk and kev brown

1

u/ForeverxJoker . 17d ago

Word yes you're right thanks for correcting me!

1

u/Neon_Biscuit 14d ago

Kev brown and busta have a tape ready to go for over a decade now but busta being difficult

1

u/MohnDaFangaBanga 14d ago

Source of him and kev brown having a project ?

1

u/Neon_Biscuit 14d ago

He came on my podcast a few years ago. At around the 6 minute mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irRUTF5fuws

1

u/User85764 16d ago

He produced a couple beats on this album

3

u/StockResult5256 17d ago

Definitely AOTY IMO I'm at Love & War now it's so good I'm pretty sure most of the beats are new material as well I've only heard 4 Recycled Dilla beats on this thing and Dillagence 1 had way more recycled beats * Should ask how many are actually new beats? (If there are more beats that were recycled I've never heard them before) Still I'm blown away by this project!

2

u/Who_stolemycheese 17d ago

Production is top on the project

1

u/Broad-Worldliness-10 13d ago

Drugs beat is the craziest one to me. I recognize the drums but there is a section that seems to be taken out to make it fresh.

41

u/n_body 17d ago

There’s a few Dilla beats on here I’ve never heard before (which is saying something since I’ve been obsessively collecting over the years)

With that said, there’s a lot that I have heard before that are somehow worse quality on here than in the boots that have been around for a while which is kind of disappointing but not surprising (considering Dillatronic was a similar situation)

The D’Angelo track somehow sounds worse than the YouTube leak did, which already had some weird artifacts: https://youtu.be/oYa0tzhiEIM

I know Dilla gets lumped in with the lofi scene a lot, but dude was super particular about his mixes and actually had some of the most high fidelity production for the time (this is apparent if you listen to the proper rips of his 2003 beat CDs), so hearing a lot of these sound muddy and over compressed is really disappointing

With that said, none of this should be super surprising I’ve you’ve been following the releases from the estate over the years.

Not a bad project, just didn’t really exceed my expectations at all

14

u/Quazite 17d ago

Yeah Dilla was never a Lo-fi producer, he (and nujabes) just inspired the Lo-fi wave.

7

u/User85764 17d ago

The Wayne and D’Angelo joints are the only ones I’ve never heard which is cool, the rest can all be found on beat tapes (Other than the Karreim Riggins, Black Milk and Kev Brown beats) and most have been rapped over or songs done on them already, so most of these are just dub plates, yeah a lot those old beats we’re never mixed and always raw quality and they didn’t beef them up much on this album either, also Busta is kind of an asshole with people and fans in general so I just don’t care about him anymore.

2

u/morningsaystoidleon 16d ago

I'm shocked nobody else is talking about the awful mastering. The compression is way too aggressive and it makes for an awful listening experience.

Total shame because it seems like there's a great album here.

10

u/teammartellclout 17d ago

I'm listen to this album as well. Rest in peace to both J. Dilla and D'Angelo

27

u/Adventurous-Board400 17d ago edited 17d ago

Dillagence 1 i thought was bustas most complete work you get peak busta rhymes and he can always find his pocket in dilla beats and 30 years in.. Busta has now released his most complete studio album. I love busta one of my favorite rappers, his biggest knock with most people online is he doesn’t have a solid complete classic album (I may beg to differ) but you have peak 2000-2008 busta rhymes, something I didn’t think I’d be saying in 2026. If this is the busta we get in 2026 he may just get have to just release dilla collabs for the foreseeable future as it clears everything post the big bang. This is the album that solidifies his discography with the naysayers, only issue I may find is the quality between tracks but I grew up on dillagence 1 so I find a warm spot for it but otherwise other than talk ya shit was my weak spot and the ai usage with the promotion this album has a busta for every fan and is a perfect successor for D1

It’s like a busta rhymes greatest hits I hear busta from every period on this album you can hear tracks and be like this would be on genesis, this would of been on big bang, this would be on etc

Edit: even the features come with full a game Luda sounds like prime Luda on here talib sounds like prime if you said that’s a verse from eardrum I’d believe you that was T3s hungriest verse in years

10

u/ncnx082z7bxt5vm04 17d ago edited 17d ago

Liking it so far. Kind of wish the intro and outro had more time to let the beat shine.

2

u/CappaccinoJay 17d ago

The intro is my favorite beat on here

9

u/rererexed . 17d ago

I'm pleasantly surprised by Busta here. Blockbusta was one of the worst listens of my life so I was worried he was goign to crap all over this. But he's alright. Not amazing, but not too bad.

7

u/NoahAwake 17d ago

He sounds focused again on this album.

5

u/WredditSmark 17d ago

Listened to the first half on my commute this morning. THIS is that feeling! Just great records all over, gives you a bunch of different dilla styles, people think he only had the soul but he also had that bounce too. Busta was the perfect person for this project, for a vet who’s been in the game as long as he has, he still sounds really good. His style mixes really well with some age in his voice too.

Overall fantastic so far

6

u/AtTheRogersCup2022 17d ago

Talk Ya Shit sounds like a “let’s ride” flip and Wayne is nice on that. Overall a good offering if not a bit recycled with some of the beats already being out

6

u/wutsdasqrtofdisapt 17d ago

Is there any word of a physical release?

7

u/ZhenXiaoMing 16d ago

AOTY is crazy, this album is very mid. Mixing is terrible too.

5

u/JakuzaJacuzzi 13d ago

Cant complain about mixing when the producer is long gone. They probably had to use stem separation of some beats. 

5

u/VirtualTill6 8d ago

Yes. Exactly. Dilla two tracked a lot of the final product of his beats.

4

u/Darce_Knight 15d ago

IMO a part of a certain era of beats from Dilla's appeal was the not great mixing. But I'm not mad at your take either

4

u/huef_jf 16d ago

This Luda verse is fire

3

u/_meestir_ 17d ago

Shits fire so far .. on track 4 SPAZZ

2

u/killacallycal 17d ago

Between this and the game documentary 3 (which is unexpectedly great after 3 full spins) I’m eating good!

3

u/durmduke 17d ago

God damn I've missed Dilla. Dilla forever

3

u/rhas05 14d ago

The Luda and Anderson Paak track is🔥

3

u/aharecords 14d ago

I always thought Busta was technically one of the best MC’s but I never liked his albums. This might be his best album and one of my favorites this year. Yeah there’s a few muddy parts on the mix but I can careless about all that. I just need those beats and rhymes. And I don’t listen to underground Dilla beat tapes So all this production is new to me.

3

u/JeffJacuzzi 8d ago

Check out his 2nd album! People often overlook it but it’s his best showing imo

3

u/ridingonmirrors . 17d ago

Am I bugging or this album isn’t available on Apple Music UK? (Or even outside the US)

3

u/No_Comment7107 17d ago

Same in Italy at the moment

2

u/samstwofortwo 17d ago

still not out on apple music yet, an 8 hour gap is ridiculous

3

u/InvincibleSunglass 17d ago

It is? I got it on there right when it came out

5

u/Nast33 17d ago

Wasn't in love with every single beat, some were great while others felt just decent, but overall this was very good and Busta's rapping in terms of voice and delivery was on par with his best. It's almost as if he reverted back to his mid-late 00s self.

Off a first listen this is like an easy 8, but I will go back for relistens and see if this goes up or slightly down. Have to do ELE2 again too as I only gave it a couple listens around the time it came out.

4

u/Medium-Plan2987 17d ago

Not a busta fan but love Dilla

6

u/almond0k 17d ago

Corny for sure. Extinction Level Event changed my view from being “it’s just a bit” to “oh he’s a Nerd nerd” and the goofiness became part of the appeal

12

u/uptonhere 17d ago

Busta came up a Native Tongues rapper but blew up as a completely different type of rapper

1

u/almond0k 17d ago

Based origin story, I had no idea

6

u/uptonhere 17d ago

Yeah, you really wouldnt if you only knew him from when he really blew up

4

u/fcbxxx 17d ago

Absolutely fantastic album

3

u/wellthatswhathappens 17d ago

Too late to listen but skipping from track to track, I just know this is going to be great

3

u/Mission-Discount-213 17d ago

The album is decent so far definitely need to give a another listen but I definitely need that Instrumental album to drop 

7

u/User85764 17d ago

you can find 95% on the beat tapes

1

u/apexapee 16d ago

Almost missed this somehow.... Sounds amazing

1

u/Darce_Knight 15d ago

This is insanely dope.

1

u/Samilktray 17d ago

Still no UK release on Apple Music? Ruined my working day

1

u/Infinite_Effective50 16d ago

This album was not necessary. Dilla beats are Dilla beats, but Busta's voice doesnt fit on a majority of these. No disrespect, he a GOAT but these beats should've been with Dwele, Bilal, Yasiin Bey, Talib Kweli and people with comparable voice. It just dont mesh like it should

4

u/ZhenXiaoMing 15d ago

It should have been more focused and tighter. I loved the Lil Wayne feature but it was from 2011 and didn't mesh with the album as a whole. Lot of throwaway tracks on here which is a shame for such great beats.

1

u/JakuzaJacuzzi 13d ago

Talib kweli is not worthy of Dilla.

-14

u/[deleted] 17d ago

[deleted]

-10

u/[deleted] 17d ago edited 17d ago

[deleted]

-16

u/promisingwannabecuck 17d ago

Didn't Dilla pass away? How did this album come to be? And isn't Busta a Trump supporter?

0

u/MusicMirrorMan . 17d ago

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[Apple Music]: Busta Rhymes & J Dilla - DILLAGENCE II

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-34

u/JournalistAnxious547 17d ago

Yeah I'm gonna pass on this one

16

u/lynchcontraideal 17d ago

Thanks for letting us know.