The Shining

The Shining is the third studio album by American hip hop producer and rapper J Dilla, who died on February 10, 2006. The Shining was incomplete at the time of J Dilla's passing and was posthumously completed by producer Karriem Riggins. Discounting the instrumental album Donuts, The Shining was the first full-length solo release by J Dilla (featuring newly recorded vocals) since Welcome 2 Detroit five years earlier, and as such was highly anticipated. It was released on August 22, 2006, through BBE Records. An instrumental version of the album followed its release shortly afterward. Background In the works for many years under working titles such as the rumored Welcome 2 LA, Dilla's manager, Tim Maynor, said in November 2005 that The Shining would come out in February 2006 on BBE and that the Dilla self-titled album would follow in the same year. While J Dilla underwent treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for complications brought on by TTP and a form of lupus, he worked on two albums: Donuts and The Shining using a Boss SP-303 sampler and a small 45 record player his friends brought him. Records his mother and friends would bring were used as sample sources. She recalled it in the Crate Diggers documentary: "As the album was ultimately only 75% complete at the time of J Dilla's passing, his friend and fellow Detroit hip hop artist Karriem Riggins was entrusted by Dilla's mother and J Dilla himself for the completion and handling of the record. Riggins has indicated that there will be further future releases of Dilla's music in the coming years, stating that "all of his music needs to be heard". A few of the tracks on The Shining are vocal versions of previously heard material such as "So Far to Go" (Donuts track "Bye" revamped and extended to serve as an intended remix to Common's "Go!"). This song was originally to be released by Common during the last quarter of 2005, as part of a Be special edition package. In 2007, an alternate version of "So Far to Go" containing new verses and a new mix was released on Common's Finding Forever album.