>I consider a genius to create a *new* way to organize music or
>a new way to contextualize music. I don't get the sense that
>either artist is like Dre or RZA or Q-Tip or Bomb Squad in
>that they created something so new and iconoclastic that I
>can't unhear it and I don't look at music the same way again.

Let's look at "Neo Soul" in movements:

1ST MOVEMENT / Late 80s, Early 90s
- Soul II Soul
- Omar
- Loose Ends
- Me'Shell Ndegéocello

2ND MOVEMENT / Mid 90s
- D'Angelo
- Erykah Badu
- Maxwell

Now JAY DEE comes in being heavily influenced by Pete Rock & CL Smooth's
The Main Ingredient and Tribe's Midnight Marauders and then makes beats for
The Pharcyde, De La Soul, Brand New Heavies, and Tribe's new album Beats Rhymes & Life.
And although they haven't been released yet, has already made Slum Village Vol. 1 and parts of Vol. 2.

All of this ^^^ changed what's below.

3RD MOVEMENT / 2000
- D'Angelo's Voodoo
- Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun
- Commong LWFC
- Hi-Tek's entire style (see: The Blast)

I say all that to say that Jay Dee WAS the 3rd movement to Neo Soul all by himself.
He alone changed how R&B/Soul and Hip Hop were made. Those albums above don't sound like they do without Jay Dee.
Specifically the drumming, HOW samples are used and flipped, the type of samples used.
Giving everything a feel of a live drummer.

So I read these comments about how Jay Dee wasn't a genius or all that influential,
or that he's not up there with Dre or RZA and I'm confused because LIKE them, his sound influenced an entire era and had people trying to copy him.
There was a time where most of the music coming out underground and on the radio was either BY him or a producer trying their best to BE him.

What's that interlude on Pete Rock's Soul Survivor album?
"This cat was literally changing groups."

And if I may continue, Jay Dee's early sound has a ton of children:

- Nicolay (FE's Connected is a love letter to Jay Dee)
- Tall Black Guy
- Georgia Anne Muldrow
- Waajeed
- Dwele
- A Touch Of Jazz
- Stuart Zender
- Potatohead People
- Owusu & Hannibal
- Early Zo!
- Electric Wire Hustle
- Gwen Bunn

I TOTALLY understand not LIKING the music.
But I feel like there's a lack of understanding of where Jay Dee fits
and the larger concept of the music he made.