J Dilla would have been 44 years old today

James Dewitt Yancey (February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006) better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer and rapper who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan as one third of the acclaimed music group Slum Village and worked with notable acts including A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu, The Roots, The Pharcyde and Common.

Yancey died in 2006 of the blood disease thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.