Koch Records
2008
Sketches Of A Man
About This Album
The downward gaze beneath the Old English D is not the only nod to the late Jay Dee on Sketches of a Man, the third album from the low-profile supplier of hooks for Kanye West's "Flashing Lights" and Common's "The People." Just as its cover bears a likeness to Dilla's Donuts, the 78-second "Workin' on It" re-creates the beat from that album's "Workinonit" and throws in traces of several other Dilla productions, including "Nothing Like This," "Two Can Win," and "Stop." A cover of Bobby Caldwell's "Open Your Eyes," a song sampled on Common's Dilla-produced "The Light," is another evident tribute. (A few years earlier, an incognito Dwele fronted a Platinum Pied Pipers update of the same song.) Make no mistake, though -- this is a Dwele album, however justified he would have been in making a thoroughly Dilla-themed affair. Sketches of a Man is both a step back and a step forward for the singer slash songwriter slash producer slash instrumentalist. Its high percentage of one- and two-minute slivers, which hold some of the album's best ideas, are a throwback to the widely circulated Rize demo.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14 and 15)

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