Ruff Draft

Ruff Draft
Studio album / EP by
Jay Dee
ReleasedFebruary 25, 2003 (2003-02-25) (Original)
March 20, 2007 (Re-issue)
Genres
Length18:16 (Original EP)
53:46 (Stones Throw Re-release)
Labels
ProducerJay Dee
Jay Dee chronology
Vol. 2: Vintage
(2003)		 Ruff Draft
(2003)		 Champion Sound
(2003)
Reissue album jacket
The front cover of the Stones Throw re-release
Jay Dee chronology
The Shining
(2006)		 Ruff Draft
(Reissue)
(2007)		 Jay Love Japan
(2007)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic81/100
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusicStarStarStarStar
The A.V. ClubA−
HipHopDX4/5
MusicOMHStarStarStar
Pitchfork6.8/10
RapReviews8/10
The SkinnyStarStarStarStar
Slant MagazineStarStarStarHalf star
UncutStarStarStarStar
URBStarStarStarStarHalf star

Ruff Draft is an EP reissued as a studio album by American hip hop producer and rapper J Dilla released under the moniker "Jay Dee". It was originally released in February 2003 as an EP, by his then-newly founded label, Mummy Records, and distributed by Groove Attack, a German record label. In 2007, Ruff Draft was extended, remastered, and posthumously re-released as a "solo album" by Stones Throw Records. The re-release sold 8,049 copies in its first week, J Dilla's largest first-week sales as a solo artist.

Overview

The original vinyl release of Ruff Draft is now out-of-print. Although the album is one of Jay Dee's lesser known works, it includes some of his most abstract and experimental work, all self-produced, and recorded in under a week. As stated in the introduction of the album, it is a noncommercial sounding lo-fi hip-hop album, which sees the producer playfully toying with different styles, such as on "Nothing Like This," where his vocals are distorted and skewered over an equally eccentric production featuring a sample played backwards. The result mirrors the more off-center moments on Common's Electric Circus, which Dilla also worked on. In regards to the project's name and creation, Dilla has stated:

″That was a quickie. I did it in four or five days, turned it in and had wax in ten days. If I'm not doing beats for somebody, I make stuff for me to drive around and listen to, and that was one of those projects. I was just doing me. That's why it was called the 'Ruff Draft' EP.″

Stones Throw Records re-issued the album on CD and vinyl on March 20, 2007. The re-release is remastered from the original master tapes, with sound engineers taking steps to maintain the original release's integrity, along with additional songs, as well as an instrumental CD.

Notes

Track listing

Original 2003 EP Release
No.TitleLength
1."Intro"0:17
2."Let's Take It Back"2:10
3."Reckless Driving"2:41
4."Nothing Like This"2:33
5."The $"2:43
6."Interlude"0:49
7."Make'em NV"2:25
8."Interlude"0:45
9."Crushin' (Yeeeeaah!)"3:43
10."Shouts"0:51
Total length:18:57
2007 Reissue - Disc 1
No.TitleLength
1."Intro"0:17
2."Let's Take It Back"2:10
3."Reckless Driving"2:41
4."Nothing Like This"2:33
5."The $"2:43
6."Interlude"0:49
7."Make'em NV"2:25
8."Interlude"0:45
9."Crushin' (Yeeeeaah!)"3:43
10."Shouts"0:51
11."Intro (Alt.)"0:48
12."Wild"2:19
13."Take Notice" (Feat. Guilty Simpson)4:25
14."Shouts (Alt.)"1:47
Total length:28:16
2007 Reissue - Disc 2
No.TitleLength
1."Let's Take It Back (Instrumental)"2:06
2."Reckless Driving (Instrumental)"2:41
3."Nothing Like This (Instrumental)"2:33
4."The $ (Instrumental)"2:45
5."Make'em NV (Instrumental)"2:24
6."Crushin' (Instrumental)"3:41
7."Intro (Alt. Instrumental)"0:46
8."Wild (Instrumental)"2:21
9."Take Notice (Instrumental)"4:26
10."Shouts (Alt. Instrumental)"1:47
Total length:25:30

Samples Used

References

  1. ↑ "Ruff Draft Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
  2. ↑ AllMusic review
  3. ↑ Rabin, Nathan (May 1, 2007). "Music In Brief". The A.V. Club. Retrieved May 4, 2025.
  4. ↑ Honigman, Daniel (March 24, 2007). "J Dilla - Ruff Draft". HipHopDX. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
  5. ↑ Lee, Darren (March 19, 2007). "J Dilla - Ruff Draft". musicOMH. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
  6. ↑ Patrin, Nate (March 27, 2007). "J Dilla: Ruff Draft". Pitchfork. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
  7. ↑ Juon, Steve 'Flash' (April 10, 2007). "J Dilla (Jay Dee) :: Ruff Draft". RapReviews. Retrieved May 4, 2025.
  8. ↑ Gieben, Bram (April 11, 2007). "J Dilla - Ruff Draft". The Skinny. Retrieved May 4, 2025.
  9. ↑ Newlin, Jimmy (March 18, 2007). "J Dilla: Ruff Draft". Slant Magazine. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
  10. ↑ This is raw, inventive stuff. [May 2007, p.88]
  11. ↑ A must-have for true J Dilla fans. [Apr 2007, p.104]
  12. ↑ "UC - Top Album Sales ANALYSIS - 28 March 2007". Urbanconnects.com. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved February 20, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Do The Math | Stones Throw Records".