50. J Dilla - Donuts (2006)

J Dilla, AKA Jay Dee or James Yancey was a Detroit native. He made his name as a producer, but also dabbled with rapping, somewhat less successfully.
Donuts is an instrumental hip hop record, full of 31 interesting and affecting sketches or miniatures, which cemented his importance, alongside Madlib as the hip hop alternative to the mainstream sound of Timbaland, Neptunes or Just Blaze. This is not to say J Dilla was incapable of hits and bangers, he had begun as a member of Detroit crew Slum Villiage as well as producing for A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, Common, The Pharcyde, and an unaccredited number of R&B hits.




tely J Dilla's huge influence upon the sound of modern hip hop only became widely acknowledged following his death from Lupus shortly after the completion of Donuts, his meisterwork. In fact J Dilla had actively eschewed the commercial hip hop world, so he could complete and self release this experimental project. Lupus, being a chronic autoimmune disease meant that Dilla spent a significant time in hospital, although despite all the hits, the cost of medical care in the US meant that charity was sought from hip hop sites and record releases, and to this day Dilla's family are broke in Detroit footing a large medical bill. God bless the NHS.




Donuts was completed in hospital using a sampler loaned from Stones Throw records, Madlib is a huge fan and sometime collaborator. The sound of Donuts emphasized all Dilla's previous tricks, Jazzy woozy rhythms, electro, neo-soul, booming bass and eclectic samples that would not sound out of place in a Boards of Canada track.  The legacy of Dilla can be found in Sa-Ra, Flying Lotus, Rustie and even Black Dice who all have taken the electronic melodies and lolloping blocks of sound in different directions. Even The XX and Animal Collective are admirers.


Anyhow, you should hear all of them. Most of the tracks (Donuts) were used on a posthumous LP called The Shining, fleshed out with rap cameos  from Dilla collaborators, and is worth a listen. Other tracks from Donuts were used by MC's for their own releases, Ghostface and MF Doom among them.

I am now halfway through this blog........phew!