Sango samples J Dilla in special episode of ‘Rhythm Roulette’

In the early days of hip-hop, it would have been impossible to see the inner workings of how producers create their beats. Now, it’s just a click away with Mass Appeal’s video series Rhythm Roulette. In each video of the series, a different producer is challenged to create a beat from scratch using three records chosen at random. In a recent special edition of the series, Soulection member Sango enters the production booth with a unique twist: along with the randomly selected records, he was also given access to Splice’s recently released package of original drum sounds from the legendary Detroit producer Jay Dee A.K.A. J Dilla.

Sango visits Seattle’s Holy Cow Records for his random record selections and ends up producing two beats using the soundtrack to the Richard Pryor film Blue Collar, some vocals from Countess Cathleen, and music from Amina Claudine Myers, in addition to the Dilla samples. Needless to say, the fellow Michigan native makes it look easy. Watch the process unfold below.