Royce 5’9″ honors J Dilla’s legacy with Detroit Pistons new merch

Detroit Pistons honor one of their hometown heroes for the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. On February 7, 2024, what would have been J Dilla’s 50th birthday, Pistons’ announced the Dilla-inspired merchandise collection, paying homage to the late Slum Village production member. The capsule will be available for purchase on March 13 on Pistons313Shop.com.

The Pistons tapped Royce 5’9″, who developed a friendship with Dilla in the early 2000s while Royce was finding his footing in the Detroit rap scene, to serve as the project’s art director overseeing the capsule.

In an interview with Billboard, Royce said: “What better reason to come together in unification than Dilla. I’m honored to even have the job. Quality control, that’s what Dilla was all about. Have you heard a bad Dilla beat? I haven’t. My thing was ‘Let’s not redo the same thing over and over that’s been done. Be as original as you could possibly be… I would define him as the GOAT. I don’t really know any other way I could look at it. You had beatmakers and you had producers. I think J Dilla was both, but in the beatmaking category, I don’t think there’s anybody better.”