Donuts

Product Description

After quietly serving as a member of a Tribe Called Quest's production team and scoring hits for Busta Rhymes, de la Soul and Pharcyde, Detroit producer Jay Dee became known as a major hip hop prospect by the end of the 90s. The hip-hop community took notice of his no-frills, breakbeat-heavy hip-hop style as he helped craft albums for Common, Q Tip, and the debut for his own group Slum Village. Jay Dee went solo not long after changing his name to J Dilla, he joined the Stones Throw roster in 2003 formed jaylib wit hfellow producer Madlib and released the album CHAMPION SOUND. Althought J Dilla is repsected mainly for his instrumetnal work, he has never crafted an entired albums meatn to be released instrumetnal until now. DONUTS is accessible without being typical or easily defined: it's hip hop without MCs, eelctronic music that at times sounds like a 70s soul mixtape. It's J Dilla doing what he does best, crafting hip hop soul and electronic music into his own sound.

Amazon.com

Tragically, Donuts was released just three days before J Dilla (aka Jay Dee) passed away from complications arising from lupus--he was only 32. As one of his last projects, though, Donuts is a fitting reflection of Dilla's creativity and an apt tribute (however unintentional) to a career spent as the quintissential producer's producer. Unlike some of Dilla's previous instrumental albums, such as Welcome To Detroit, the songs here are less finished and polished pieces and more caught up in mid-creative motion. Unlike the soft, filtered sound he was known for in the mid-1990s, for Donuts he leaves a variety of soul and jazz loops in plain view but splices and reworks them as a set of sonic jigsaw puzzles. Spontaneous but not sloppy, the capture the late producer at his best--in the throes of his own imagination, each song poised with endless possibilities. --Oliver Wang