J. Dilla's Mom Launches Label

Maureen "Ma Dukes" Yancey, the mother of the late J Dilla, is launching a new label to promote Dilla and other artists' music. Ruff Draft Records will focus on releasing unreleased Dilla recordings and various other projects.

The news comes as Dilla's second posthumous album,Rebirth of Detroit, is due to be released on June 12th.

“We want to make it more feasible to interact with these children, we don’t know how many J Dilla’s we have out there,” Ma Dukes said. “Somebody has to find them...I’m not down for the count. I’m a Hip Hop head and I love it.”

J. Dilla's Record Collection Resurfaces

In Royal Oaks, Michigan, record store owner Jeff Bubeck discovered what could possibly be 7,000 records and tapes that belonged to the late J. Dilla. The famed hip hop producer had a well-documented personal collection of vinyl, and according to the Detroit News, the owner of the record store UHF found the records in a storage unit in Clifton Township.

“It was pretty shocking,” Bubeck told the Detroit News. “I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”

It is being reported that some of the albums, including titles from 1970s Detroit jazz label Tribe Records, have significant value.

Bubeck says he planning to share sales proceeds with the J Dilla Foundation, although recent contacts to Dilla's mother, "Ma Dukes" Yancey, have been “unsuccessful.”