There are plenty of music collectors that claim to have "All Things Dilla." Maybe that's true, if there is such a thing. With that said, I can honestly say that I'm fortunate enough to be amongst this breed. And it's not because I am the most Internet-savvy or because I belong to some special group of music nerds that have the rarest shit. In fact, I only have possession of this rareness because I happened to be there when it all happened! And for whatever reason, call it divine intuition, I kept every cassette tape I was able to get my hands on. I tried to collect every beat-tape, remix, or freestyle possible. Even when we were just hanging out in Dilla's basement in Conant Gardens, I'd often bring my hand held recorder and just tape us talking shit about any & everything.
Dilla was never the type to hoard music. Very often he'd make mixtapes for us to listen to while we drove around in his sparkling green Beamer. Those leather terracotta seats were the place to hear tracks that would never see the light of day to anyone outside of our small circle! I remember it was a fall afternoon in 1996 and he and I were driving to a record store when he first played me the Ray J "Let It Go Remix" (Version 1). I loved it then just as much as I do now. Excuse how quiet the recording is, I beat this tape up playing it over and over. The track was never released and only a very, very small hand full of people on this planet have even heard it. And now you will be among[st] them...
