This set of rare and unreleased Dilla instrumentals spans many of his styles. All 19 tracks were picked by Dilla’s mother herself, with Ma Dukes including a letter to her son in the artwork.
“Motor City 13” glows with Dilla’s late-’90s clouds-of-bass warmth, and “Motor City 8” goes woozy with garage soul that feels at once delirious and peaceful. Some of the beats are audacious in their experimentation, even if the execution’s a little dicey. It takes some real razor-walking finesse to try and chop such an instantly recognizable piece of Creedence like he does on “Motor City 7,” turning the familiar swamp-trudge groove of 1970’s “Run Through the Jungle” into the jumbled rhythmic gait of someone trying to jog on ice.

Still sealed copy of the 2022 repress.