It’s taken nearly 15 years and much legal wrangling for this album by Detroit producer J Dilla, who died in 2006, to see the light of day. Having built his reputation with beats for A Tribe Called Quest, the Roots et al, Dilla took the unusual step of recruiting others to produce his major label debut so he could devote more energy to rapping. As a vocalist, The Diary shows him to be agile and often abrasive – anger against US law enforcement surges through Fuck the Police – but somewhat lacking in imaginative range, falling back on standard jibes and brags. And while producers including Karriem Riggins and Madlib serve him well here, it’s clear that Dilla expressed himself best through his beats.
