It seems that Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie is living up to his Madd Rapper alter ego with claims that his catalog is better than that of the late, great James “J. Dilla” Yancey.
“I love J Dilla to death, but he can’t see my catalog,” Angelettie said on Math Hoffa’s podcast, My Expert Opinion, as reported by HipHopDX.
D-Dot was a member of The Hitmen—the in-house Bad Boy production team and he crafted hits like “Hypnotize” by The Notorious B.I.G, Diddy’s “It’s All About the Benjamins” and Jay-Z‘s “Where I’m From.”
Love Hip-Hop Wired? Get more! Join the Hip-Hop Wired Newsletter
The producer sounded like one of his old skits when he added, “Put their sh*t up against mine. My sh*t is all over the place. Sh*t I made 27 years ago.” Dilla fans took to X, formerly Twitter, to sound off about D-Dot’s claims to have a better catalog than the late Detroit legend, who produced songs for A Tribe Called Quest, Erykah Badu, Busta Rhymes, De La Soul, and his own group, Slum Village. Another commenter pointed out a misconception that Dilla was only a “backpack” producer, adding, “The best gag I think is to call Dilla ‘conscious rap’ or lofi because the n*gga rapped solely about cars, cash, hoes, beats. Slum also. N*gga shit purely. Despite making soulful, soothing joints, the drums told U what time it was.” Another chimed in, “J Dilla has to be one of the most misunderstood artists ever. He’s constantly portrayed as this conscious backpacker with a rigid idea of what hip-hop is. In reality he was super experimental, loved bounce and funk and rapped about jewelry and Range Rovers.”
Dilla died on Feb. 10, 2006. The producer was also a prolific rapper who emerged from Detroit’s Hip-Hop underground and quickly became a favorite among the Hip-Hop elite with his unique drum style.
His music has been celebrated by symphony orchestras, he has been honored with a street, “Allée Jay Dee,” named after him in Montpellier, France, and his MPC is in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
A book about his life and his musical stylings was recently published by Hip-Hop scholar and teacher, Dan Charnas called Dilla Time.
Peep more of D Dot getting schooled, and Dilla praise, in the gallery.
