Who's Diggin' J Dilla's "Donuts"?

He should've done a lot more.

my friend just sent me this email: yo, chris has an ipod playlist of originals from Donuts. It's crazy because that album is fraught with hidden messages. They're all messages from his death bed. when you go back and listen to the original songs they're all ominous like "Fruitman" by Kool & the Gang about the importance of good food (he got sick by not eating right), and "When I die" by Motherlode. Real real deep. It's really apparent when you hear the originals.

also the new qtip album kinda sux. i really liked Kamaal and this is more of the same live band funk/soul/rock type shit, but it's way jammier and just doesn't do it for me. my favorite track on the album is a jay dee produced number.

Am I the only one that likes the similiar Madlib album that came out a few months ago better than Donuts?

The Shining is sitting real well with me right now.

He should've done a lot more.

No doubt. How is the rest of the Steve Spacek album after "Dollar," and did Dilla do any more beats on it? I've been going to this club lately where they use that song as an end of the night wind-down thing, I love it more each time.

i love the first jaydee produced one. the 'jazz' one you're talking about is called Kamaal the Abstract. i think it's pretty great, and this new one is pretty similar but just not as good to me.

jay dee only produced 'dollars' on the spacek album. spacek produced most of it himself. i think it's pretty good. here's a thread i started about it. The new Steve Spacek album is really good...

deej was right: this isn't so much like the avalanches record.

i've been listening to this album a lot the past couple days, and i just can't believe how great it is. things i like about it:

1. the anti-cohesive cohesiveness, i came to really enjoy the abrupt track changes, there is definitely a flow to this album that isn't apparent at first
2. the different textures of the static in the background of the samples is a very pleasing sound to me, especially on the more relaxed tracks. that combined with off-kilter unusual melodies and sample choices, such an awesome sound.
3. the sentimental part of me hears it as a kind of nostalgic montage that was meaningful to dilla, like his life flashing before his eyes
4. the brevity of each track pulls me into listening to the whole album instead of skipping around. one track just makes me want to hear the next one because i can already hear the transition coming up, but at the same time i don't get bored of the transitions because they're still so suprising. it also just gives the album a really unique "shape" (i guess that ties into #1)
5. tracks: 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 (a good example of the static-y textures thing that i like), 15, 16... i guess listing tracks is kinda pointless, i pretty much love all of em

i've been listening to the shining and welcome 2 detroit, but neither have grabbed me as much as this one. any recommendations?

i cant believe this thread. the avalanches? dilla sounding like madlib? what were you guys smoking? Donuts is the man's masterpiece, i like much of his shit but 2 years later that album still gets mad plays from everyone i know. that shit has enchanted people i know who arent even really hiphop fans.

only the post above mine has really hit the nail on the head, and it took 2 years. when i first listened to Donuts, it was the day it came out. i skipped through the tracks on vinyl, and i wasn't feeling it. i listened to it the next day on CD and realized that this was the obviously superior method for listening to it and i bought it immediately. it's now one of my top 10 albums of all time in any genre. the ebb and flow of emotions over the record is outstanding. it is so sad, beautiful, dark, happy, sexy, dirty, and deep, all at the same time.

for me, the guy was the greatest man to rock a sampler. but i've loved him forever, been rocking Welcome 2 Detroit since that shit came out, a total classic as well. between those two records and Fantastic Vol 1 alone, the guy is the greatest hiphop producer of all time. when you throw in other singles of his like "fuck the police" and shit he did for other cats, he just cant be topped.

also, i saw someone upthread ask if he had been listening to theo parrish records before making donuts. id assume it was quite the opposite, though im sure dilla heard theo as well. if you look on youtube, there is a video of Waajeed (who was dilla's boy) going record shopping in Melodies and Memories and he talks about the classic detroit records by Moodymann and Carl Craig. those cats know about detroit shit for real.

this is a good record

the ever-emerging herbish newjackness of rap critics

-- ,,, Thursday, February 9, 2006 6:55 PM

"someone"

those cats know about detroit shit for real.

there was a really old benji b radio broadcast w/the slum village cats talking about music and they said in detroit there wasn't really a differentiation between listening to techno and listening to hip hop. it was all just good music to them.

that shit has enchanted people i know who arent even really hiphop fans.

ahh yes the sign of a great hip hop producer

i prefer reading a forum where this album's perfection is in question because the obligation im supposed to feel to call this the 'a love supreme' of hip-hop when i read soulstrut or wherever else is real obnoxious to me, even tho i do like this record

here i was thinking that alex posting old fennessey columns on the graduation thread was a landmark event :(

how did he die? that's sad...

-- M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Sunday, 12 February 2006 15:41 (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

He had his heart broken by this thread, and just faded away.

-- Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 12 February 2006 16:44 (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

^^^Classic Passantino

love love love this album

deej - if dilla praise annoys you NEVER go to okayplayer - they literally worship him there

"ahh yes the sign of a great hip hop producer"

it is the sign of making great music. when someone can do something that is within a genre but its appeal is far

"i prefer reading a forum where this album's perfection is in question because the obligation im supposed to feel to call this the 'a love supreme' of hip-hop when i read soulstrut or wherever else is real obnoxious to me, even tho i do like this record

-- deej"

i mean, if you want to question the greatness of an awesome record, that's up to you. you can think whatever you want about this album, but my guess is that this record is only going to be more revered as time goes on, and for good reason.

"there was a really old benji b radio broadcast w/the slum village cats talking about music and they said in detroit there wasn't really a differentiation between listening to techno and listening to hip hop. it was all just good music to them.

-- jaxon"

the detroit scene is insane. it really is something to experience. if you ever get a chance to hear it, Waajeed did a mix CD for 555 Soul that is all electro and non-hiphop. its a dope mix.

its not that i dont think its good, and i in fact think it is excellent - its that i think its a beat tape and getting all 'omg transcendent' about it is weird

and i love dilla

"its not that i dont think its good, and i in fact think it is excellent - its that i think its a beat tape and getting all 'omg transcendent' about it is weird

and i love dilla

-- deej"

but it isnt just a beat tape. what i like about it is that it mines some similar emotional territory to DJ Shadow's Endtroducing, but in a completely different manner. Shadow's stuff is long, epic, and structured. Dilla did it short, loopy, and choppy. i think the tracks that were on Donuts that have also been released with people rapping over them show that the beats on Donuts are certainly not bettered by being made into a song instead of a part of the big collage that is Donuts. the way the little vocal snippets change the atmosphere, the way the tracks go together, it is very impressive.

beat tape my ass; his beat tapes are good but this has so much more going on

yeah, people love this record for a reason, and i don't think its just dilla's legacy

like his life flashing before his eyes

this is pretty apt

Have folks heard this bit of awesomeness: http://www.wevegotthejazz.com/?p=10616

It's an awesome live performance of Donuts front to back.

should i listen to the avalanches?

― team jaxon (jaxon), Sunday, February 12, 2006 12:17 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

did u ever do this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qXm4nzyev8

amazing thread

lol @ pipecock's dilla changed my t-shirt essay upthread

I would like to point out that deej was otm on this thread

Guys the main reason I listened to this album is it seemed to be about my mortal enemy, the donut.

should i listen to the avalanches?
― team jaxon (jaxon), Sunday, February 12, 2006 12:17 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

did u ever do this?
― *gets the power* (deej), Thursday, January 20, 2011 9:01 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this never happened

ha
too bad. i honestly dont know if you would like it or not

Does anyone have a (preferably unmixed) copy of the Okayplayer/DJ Soul "Assorted Donuts" that used to be up for free download? U will be my friend 4 life

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=assorted+donuts+rar+mediafire&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

I love jamming this in the morning

Steppin' to the a.m.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VgOvNkqFe8

happy bday JD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek_cufWYvjE

Best motherfucking ever.

lol ethan padgett was such a shithead

nah, yung padgett was a god

J Dilla’s classic Donuts track “Workinonit” is the subject of a new copyright infringement lawsuit https://t.co/RMz9QWvolp

— Pitchfork (@pitchfork) September 1, 2020

boooooooooooo