Back in 2012, six years after James Yancey aka J Dilla’s passing, Mike Ross, founder of Delicious Vinyl, was presented with a vault of unreleased beats by J Dilla’s mother Maureen Yancey (aka Ma Dukes), Following this, Dilla’s childhood friend (and longtime collaborator) Frank Nitt (Of Frank N’ Dank) was a part of a group of confidants, who lovingly went through the treasure chest of music, formulating a tribute to their departed friend the best way they knew how.

With hundreds upon hundreds of instrumentals to choose from, Frank and Dilla’s brother Illa J narrowed the pile down to a collection of about 50 tracks, some of which would become the building blocks of their debut 2013 Yancey Boys album, ‘Sunset Blvd’. Upon its release in 2013, the LP (which featured appearances from Hip-Hop royalty including Common, Talib Kweli, Posdnuos, T-3 & Guilty Simpson) became an instant classic, gaining recognition from tastemakers across the world.

Even without J Dilla’s presence during the record’s creation, Frank & Illa J were able to harness Dilla’s omniscient creative energy during the production process of making Sunset Blvd. His contributions and spirit couldn't help but permeate the beats, the undeniable foundation for the tracks on the record. “Beyond the beats, his fingerprints were all over the record, in the guest artist we chose to ask for a feature, to the guys mixing and mastering. Most of whom he (J Dilla) worked with before he passed”, said Frank.

Through Delicious Vinyl, ‘Sunset Blvd’ and the accompanying instrumentals were both released on wax in 2013, but have not been reissued since, until now. Thankfully, Milton-Keynes based label King Underground (AKA KU) have once again made this seminal record (and instrumentals) available on separate limited vinyl, with edition vinyl (including a brand new ‘All Beats By J Dilla’ artwork on the instrumental 12”). This new capsule also includes an exclusive limited edition T-shirt - an essential offering for any die-hard Dilla fan.

Describing how this reissue came to fruition, KU director Dan Englander explains: “I met Mike Ross the co-owner of Delicious Vinyl when I was invited on Soul Circle Radio in LA which was hosted at the time at Delicious Pizza on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles. Hence, the Yancey Boys album is called Sunset Blvd.

Mike and I hit it off and straight away got talking about music and what we could do to collaborate with our labels. I've been a big fan of Delicious Vinyl since I was a kid and listening to "Labcabincalifornia" and "Bizarre Ride 2" by The Pharcyde, so to have the chance to work with DV was really amazing and strange considering it was 27 years later.

The Dilla conversation came up pretty quickly as it does in most hip-hop discussions. Obviously, I'm a big Dilla fan. I threw a few ideas at him to release some merchandise and to do a special reissue of "Sunset Blvd." with an alternative version of the instrumentals. On the back cover of the original, it says, "All Beats Produced By J Dilla" so the idea to do a version with this title came from there.’ The making of Sunset Blvd created a space for Dilla’s loved ones and previous collaborators to cope with the loss and document tracks that kept them connected to his creative being. There could be an infinite list of the ways this record shaped those involved. Amongst many things on that figurative list, it was one of Illa J’s launching pads to his career as a solo artist, and not just as J Dilla’s little brother.

For Nitt it was an experience that allowed him to flex his skills as an executive, taking any role necessary to get the project done. Most of what Nitt knew about making records he learned from Dilla in real-time. He had an insight on his process that most never experienced and Dilla’s point of view was 2nd nature to him. There wasn’t anyone better to have curated the chosen tracks and honoured Dilla’s creative lens for making music. The making of Sunset Blvd was not only an opportunity for Nitt and Illa J to share unreleased music that Dilla contributed to, but also as a way to stay connected to their brother in the spiritual and creative form. The Yancey Boys LP is a direct result of J Dilla’s legacy.

Cop the limited edition T’s and vinyl here.