About

— The Analog Vault // Essential Listening —

Questlove once referred to J Dilla as “the music god that music gods and music experts and music lovers worship.” If you want to know why the Detroit producer is so revered, one only has to point to Donuts, his unparalleled magnum opus. 

Recorded while he was hospitalised due to a blood disorder and lupus, and released in 2006 via Stones Throw, just three days before his death, this album is a swan song of epic proportions. Wielding his 45-rpm record player and Boss SP-303 sampler like a wizard with ADD, Dilla conjures sonic strains from disparate realms, only to atomise and transmute them into swirling new forms at breakneck speeds. Through 31 compact yet wildly inventive tracks - all instrumentals with zero rapping - Donuts serves as the ultimate testament to Dilla’s beat-making genius. — The Analog Vault
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The Donuts Audiophile Edition is lacquer cut at Bernie Grundman and manufactured at Fidelity Record Pressing - 2LP 180g vinyl at 45rpm. Deluxe art printed Stoughton jacket. 

Donuts began simply enough - an idea to turn a good demo tape into a full-length album. It would end up being one of the defining works of J Dilla's life. Completed during the year Dilla spent in and out of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and released on his birthday - February 7, 2006, Donuts gained particular poignancy when he died three days later on February 10th. — (via Label)

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Jay Dee continues to update soul music by paying homage to the selfsame sounds he's modernizing.

J Dilla's eagerly awaited Donuts, the follow-up to 2001's Welcome 2 Detroit (released as Jay Dee), is, like its predecessor, a stark departure from the cozy-socks-and-Xbox feel of his former group, Slum Village. In fact, Dilla, if anything, is imposing a meta-rap bent on neo-soul, assaulting the senses in ways unseemly for a guy who used to work with Q-Tip. The drums, though remarkably fluid, are lighter, domineered by dense, abrasive samples that are sequenced with a sense of swing. Percussive end pieces are shorn cheese-grater sharp, then appended to sickly spliced moans. The end result is akin to Norman Smith and DJ Shadow sitting in on a RZA-produced session-- spry, voiceless prog-hop by any other name.

Opener "Workinonit" comes on like a Rubin-produced take on Schoolhouse Rock. Clang-y guitars give way to doubled-up groans and what sounds like a back-masked Zulu chant. The sample, supplied by '60s soulsters Them, is diced with manic precision, and around the 2:00 mark, the melody builds to a climax, fading, with echo-y vocal bits, into bodiless abyss. Equally engaging is "Anti-American Graffiti", which combines lighters-up, love-not-war humility with a track both wistful and world-weary: A crazed voice spouts end-of-the-world admonishments like some disenfranchised apparition, colliding with somber guitars.

Not that Donuts deals with only obvious sample sources-- "The Twister (Huh, What)" is the sound of flu-sick flutes chiming in time to a busted weathervane; "Waves", a hiccuping Hare Krishna class. It's Dilla's show-and-tell method, however, that's most effective, because it illustrates how he's, more or less, upgrading soul music-- we get to see how he unpacked its bag, what spots he told it it missed. This approach also allows Dilla to pay homage to the selfsame sounds he's modernized; the drums are light, to reflect the original sound from which he's borrowing. In that sense, Donuts is pure postmodern art-- which was hip-hop's aim in the first place. — (via Pitchfork)

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20th anniversary audiophile edition
Reissued on 2LP 180g vinyl at 45RPM

The Donuts Audiophile Edition is lacquer cut at Bernie Grundman and manufactured at Fidelity Record Pressing.

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Label: Stones Throw Records
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, 45 RPM, Album, Reissue, Stereo, 20th Anniversary Audiophile Edition
Reissued: 2025 / Originally Released: 2005
Genre: Hip Hop
Style: Boom Bap, Cut-up/DJ, Instrumental

File under: TAV Essential Listening
File under: Stones Throw Records
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