Detroit record store unearths (and flogs) J Dilla's record collection

The Royal Oak, Michigan record store UHS has more than 7,000 records that they believe belonged to the personal collection of late Detroit hip-hop producer J Dilla, who died in 2006.

According to The Detroit News, the founding member of Slum Village’s records are being put on sale several at a time.

UHF’s Jeff Bubeck acquired the collection from an abandoned storage unit. When first digging through the records, he noticed a box of cassette tapes, labeled in black marker as “Jaydee Beats.” There were also lyric booklets, along with magazines and pieces of junk mail addressed to James Yancey (aka Dilla), as well as to his parents, Beverly and Maureen Yancey.

Bubeck has been buying and selling records for years and says that while many of the records in the collection are dollar-bin throwaways, there are some, including titles from 1970s Detroit jazz label Tribe Records, that have significant value.

Bubeck plans to share part of the proceeds from the sales of the records with the J Dilla Foundation, but his attempts to contact both Dilla’s mother and the foundation have been unsuccessful so far.