From the cover art to the samples, this album is clearly a tribute to the late J Dilla, considered by many to be one of, if not the, greatest beatmakers of all time. While this could have easily come off gimmicky or pandering, it’s instead a deft, well-rounded collection of boom bap beats.
Juicy the Emissary is clearly an adept producer, and with Komfort Food he flips the foundational samples of seminal Dilla classics into something new and fresh. Take the cleverly titled “Toucan Wing” for example, a track that builds off the vocal sample from The Sylvers “Only One Can Win” that Dilla used on “Two Can Win” to create a chopped up head nodder that’s somehow both divorced and married to the Dilla original. Or “Stakes is Hight,” which flips the Dilla-produced, De la Soul classic into a sunny, jazz-inflected number.
Komfort Food stands out as a successful tribute album, simultaneously paying homage while also moving the art of beatmaking forward. J Dilla would be proud.
