Jay Love Japan

Jay Love Japan
Studio album by J Dilla
Released	2006 (Japan) 2007 (America)
Genre	Hip-Hop Instrumental hip hop
Label	Operation Unknown Pay Jay Productions
Producer	J Dilla
J Dilla chronology
Ruff Draft (Re-issue) (2007) Jay Love Japan Japan (2006) America (2007) Jay Stay Paid (2009)

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Jay Love Japan is an instrumental album by the late J Dilla distributed to retail by the California-based Operation Unknown label in 2008. It is now out of print.

Promo and semi-official retail versions of the album have circulated for several years, and the album was even given a 2006 release in Japan, although that version is now considered a promotional item. It was announced in an issue of the magazine Wax Poetics in 2005 and given various missed release dates in 2006, 2007, and 2008, with a track list containing two songs with other artists' vocals added after Dilla's death.^{[citation needed]} Bill Sharp, an upper level employee of major hip-hop retailer Fat Beats and the webmaster of fatbeats.com, had this to say on the matter:

"We had many thousands of units of Jay Loves Japan [sic] sitting in our warehouse while legalities were worked out with Dilla's estate for nearly one year. There are boots out there, there are imports. The one Fat Beats sells is not a bootleg."

The album, however, was released onto the iTunes Store on June 26, 2007 under PayJay Productions, Inc.

History

J Dilla began and possibly completed this album before his death in February 2006. Some say that the album was intended as an instrumental EP featuring two guest vocal tracks, whereas the label itself first described it as featuring Raekwon, Blu, Ta'Raach, Truth Hurts, and more, tentatively including Slum Village. The album was distributed by Fat Beats Distribution based in New York. The album has an accompanying video series for the track "Can't You See." An EPK was released as far back as 2005. Most recent photographs used of J Dilla, such as the inside cover of J Dilla's BBE album The Shining, as well as recent MTV pictures, were Operation Unknown photo sessions for Jay Love Japan.

Tracklisting

1. "Jay Love Japan Intro" -
2. "Yesterday"
3. "Say It" (feat. Ta'Raach & Exile)
4. "Oh Oh"
5. "First Time" (feat. Baatin & The Ruckazoid)
6. "In the Streets"
7. "Feel The Beat"
8. "Can't You See"
9. "Say It" (Instrumental)

• A track called 'Believe In God' appears in the track listing on the back cover, in between 'Feel The Beat' and 'Can't You See', but is not on the CD.

Samples

• "Jay Love Japan Intro"
  • "The Fairy Garden" by Isao Tomita

• "Say It"
  • "Nothing Seems Impossible" by The Emotions

• "First Time"
  • "Moments In Love" by Art of Noise

• "Feel The Beat"
  • "You Are Just A Living Doll" by JJ Barnes

• "Can't You See"
  • "Can't You See It's Me" by Diana Ross & The Supremes

• "Sun In My Face feat. Blu & Jontel"
  • "All The Befores" by Diana Ross
  • "(I Know) I'm Losing You" by The Undisputed Truth