This whole post could be about J Dilla's immortal greatness as a producer. But instead I will focus on one just one of his works.
The song E=mc² comes from a posthumous Jay Dee album called The Shining, released in August 2006, half a year after Dilla passed away. The album isn't purely J Dilla's since it was remastered, mixed, cut and sliced by other people... but it it is a great place to start for anyone unfamiliar with Dilla's work.
The song itself was produced by Jay Dee, but cut by J.Rocc of the Beat Junkies, and mixed by Dave Cooley. That's why it doesn't sound like a traditional Dilla beat. It was reported that in late 2005 Dilla started to experiment with all sorts of samples. Which is shown here by his sampling of Hansjörg Moroder's song E=mc², known for it's innovative use of synthesizers in creating space-age sounds.
This instrumental itself is powerful enough to capture your ears for the mere three minutes it plays. A great beat like this can overpower the oldest of veterans, and it takes a good 15 bars for Common to settle in and become comfortable over this instrumental. And he never really feels at home either, all the verses seem a little bit forced. That's what happens when you mix a mellow voice over a deep bass tinged instrumental, with a synth vocal sample.
Don't confuse a misguided flow for a weak song, because this shit still bangs. In fact, I'd be willing to argue that the instrumental itself is superior to the version featuring Common.
And that's saying a lot considering Common's lyricism on this track. Give it a listen, I promise it won't disappoint.

Common Version:



Instrumental Version: