― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 18:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― deej.. (deej..), Thursday, 9 February 2006 18:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 18:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 18:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 9 February 2006 18:59 (eighteen years ago) link
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v226/casualt/More%20Fun%20Bags/racist.gif
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 18:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― ETHAN FAGGETT, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― ETHAN FAGGETT, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― ETHAN FAGGETT, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― ETHAN FAGGETT, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― ETHAN FAGGETT, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:24 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
"Don't Cry" finds Dilla taking sprightly, blu-lite soul crooning and flipping it counter-cockeyed: "If Blue Magic or Whoever could see me now!" First he plays the original, then throws in the "Now, you play it and I'll show you how my voice would have made it unbelievable!" bit, before gently lifting its face off. It's chest thumping, to be sure, like the Copa shot in Goodfellas or Bigger and Deffer. And it's courteous. Similarly cordial is "Time: The Donut of the Heart", where he turns the Jackson 5's "All I Do Is Think of You" into a lucid dream-- the song's intro is now with the chorus it always coveted. Says ?uestlove: "[J Dilla] time compresses Michael and Jermaine's ad-libs with the uneasy ease of a tightrope-walker, with oil shoes on, crossing one 90-story building to another, after eight shots of [Patrone]." I'm sayin'.
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.
-Will Dukes, February 9, 2006
― ETHAN FAGGETT, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:26 (eighteen years ago) link
patrin alert
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:27 (eighteen years ago) link
You know the old dystopian prediction that cities of the future would be these huge ramshackle constructions, piled on the buildings of years past? Well, the reason that hasn't happened is that the "new" world would rather throw out the "old" unless they're too poor not to use it. Really the only old shit you see around now is preserved up all untouchable, museum-style. Practical application of existing structures just isn't viable in this modern urban landscape of ours.
Look at the cover of Mike Ladd's Welcome to the Afterfuture. It's an awful electrical mess, superimposed onto old building walls. Ladd's music reflects the artwork with chunky, pharmaceutical beats that sneak past dim strings. It's nasty New Orleans bounce with lyrics about listening to bootlegs of the Fall. And even though it looks kinda like a Marlboro ad, it's still a dope cover.
The record starts with "5000 Miles West of the Future," violently switching up from an analog keyboard assault to a sweeping ambient flow and back again, all while jazzy horn progressions seep through the background and make like Sun Ra handwriting. Ladd's rhymes on Afterfuture are at their most conversational, especially in breaks where he casually explains, "I'm gonna steal from the foreign merchant.../ For the cinnamon peeler's wife.../ Like I was bedding down with Isis."
As the buzzing keyboard stabs fade out, "Airwave Hysteria" begins, and the rest is swapped for rising strings and faux-Hindu chants, drifting yet again into some funky, bugged-out Casio shit over which Ladd first hits his lyrical stride, MCing with self-assured flow and coming with dense rhyme content to match ("Breakbeats from Thailand down over by the Ku Klux Klan chapter in Croatia/ We've come a long way from migrating crustaceans/ Generations of relations, history of violence/ I talked along in Babylon, next time I'll try silence"). Unlike many poet-turned-MCs, Ladd manages to go off like a motherfucker, and it all ends with a classic scratch breakdown, cut open with more of those damned trilling strings of his.
"Planet 10" breaks from these jams to bust on the simple beauty of a simple song, an intricate nautilus of synth tones and deep-space vocals stretching over junkyard ambience to some kind of nappy-haired slow-grind trajectory. Fuck neo-soul, this is post-soul, only somehow better than something called that should ever be.
Nothing else here really touches these first three tracks, but the rest comes close-- the lilting rush of the mostly instrumental "Takes More than 41," and the slow-to-start "To the Moon's Contractor," a song more summery than its interstellar title might lead you to believe. "I Feel Like $100" sounds like Warp Records unfavorites Red Snapper with actual forward drive and rhythmic interest, even with its dodgy "Strawberry Fields" reference.
Amazingly, Ladd goes for delf on every cut except the Company Flow-assisted "Bladeruners," a violent fucking storm of next-level racial and sexual articulation, wide string samples criss-crossing like frozen rivers, and a plodding organic bassline. It's perhaps the closest to rap traditionalism the album ever flirts with-- something for BET to sneak in on that lazy Thursday afternoon to give you a Videodrome-style brain tumor.
"It's all confused and beautiful" are the lines Ladd chooses to open "Feb. 4 '99 (For All Those Killed by Cops)," and it's exactly that. Besides Ladd's waxen imagery of childhood memories, the lyrics are mostly befuddling and his delivery is unconvincingly wide-eyed enough to fuel a thousand Björk videos. I know good and well that Ladd's trying to make this closing track a "Strange Fruit" for a future of money, women and computers, and I'll be damned if he doesn't actually come shockingly close. It's a stunning end to the album.
For all the obvious influences ("Starship Nigga" is pretty much just Björk's "Pluto" instilled with spaced-out black rage), the album still manages to sound pleasantly new, taking all the bits from the past that demand to be resurrected, and recontextualizing them into Ladd's own brainspace. Of course, this sort of thing has been done before, but I can't think of anything that's ever sounded as genuinely beautiful at the same time. It's all the wires from the liner notes covering children while they spread Christ-like onto antique brownstones. It's the genius of Ezra Pound and Greg Nice over tinny, rolling drums, and the awkwardness of my first paragraph over beautiful dimethicone symphonies. It's Mike Ladd assembling his personal afterfuture over the ramshackle remains of a distant past. Fresh!
-Ethan P.
― ETHAN FAGGETT, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― ETHAN FAGGETT, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:37 (eighteen years ago) link
xpost shoulda figured youre down w/ the only other dudes in the universe who still get hard-ons from obsessively dissing nerd rap in 2006
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― ETHAN FAGGETT, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― ETHAN FAGGETT, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:52 (eighteen years ago) link
we need to fight the real newjack enemy here
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― ETHAN FAGGETT, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― ,,, Thursday, 9 February 2006 19:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 9 February 2006 20:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― ETHAN FAGGETT, Thursday, 9 February 2006 20:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Thursday, 9 February 2006 23:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― hold tight the private caller (mwah), Friday, 10 February 2006 22:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― that's so taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 10 February 2006 22:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Sean F (Sean F), Saturday, 11 February 2006 04:52 (eighteen years ago) link
1) this sounds like major force west megamixes circa 1990 (see: return of the original artform, "prop master's party))
2) was he listening to lots of theo parrish mixes or something?
3) where are the shuffly drums?
4) did he sequence it like this on purpose? is it supposed to flow?
5) he sampled the beastie boys???? (see #1)
― vahid (vahid), Saturday, 11 February 2006 06:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― sad, Saturday, 11 February 2006 20:58 (eighteen years ago) link
and its ILM Rap Wars rerun number 193
what a shame
anyway, great fucking record. the key is he cuts all the songs after a minute. but he think he does some real clever juxtapositions too... check the way People starts out with bongoes and clarion calls (Last Poets) then falls into the abyss (some other sample I don't know)
― bugged out, Saturday, 11 February 2006 21:27 (eighteen years ago) link
this came as no small surprise, even as someone unfamiliar with his previous work. i've listened to it twice now.
― blackmail (blackmail.is.my.life), Saturday, 11 February 2006 21:33 (eighteen years ago) link
very sad thing that has happened tho, RIP
― J. Lamphere (WatchMeJumpStart), Saturday, 11 February 2006 21:34 (eighteen years ago) link
i've got a few old beat cdrs of his and he's always sampled them. the most recent one has some tracks that made it to donuts, the dollar track from the spacek album and supposedly some stuff that's gonna be on q-tip's new one.
the thing with jay dee that i've seen happen over the years is that he sorta see's what's going on in mainstream rap and tries to turn it into his own and one up them. for the q-tip album he went puffy upbeat party rap. for the frank-n-dank album he did synthy neptunes beats (especially on "Take Dem Clothes Off"). and then on donuts he's trying to do a kanye/justblaze/heatmakers soul vocal snippet thing. i think on the beat cd he even has a few sped up vocal samples. i think this is the least jay dee sounding thing i've heard from him. there's hardly any of the non-quantized off beat thump. it completely shows how much he's been hanging out with madlib.
― team jaxon (jaxon), Saturday, 11 February 2006 22:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― deej.. (deej..), Saturday, 11 February 2006 22:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― deej.. (deej..), Saturday, 11 February 2006 22:59 (eighteen years ago) link
for some reason I only have that shitty sounding version on here, I'll see if i can find the CD i burned with the LP on it that has better quality.
― deej.. (deej..), Sunday, 12 February 2006 01:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― deej.. (deej..), Sunday, 12 February 2006 01:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Sunday, 12 February 2006 02:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Sunday, 12 February 2006 02:16 (eighteen years ago) link
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, 20 January 2011 21:01 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qXm4nzyev8
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Thursday, 20 January 2011 21:03 (thirteen years ago) link
amazing thread
― fruit of the goon (k3vin k.), Thursday, 20 January 2011 21:09 (thirteen years ago) link
lol @ pipecock's dilla changed my t-shirt essay upthread
― *gets the power* (deej), Thursday, 20 January 2011 21:17 (thirteen years ago) link
I would like to point out that deej was otm on this thread
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Thursday, 20 January 2011 21:29 (thirteen years ago) link
Guys the main reason I listened to this album is it seemed to be about my mortal enemy, the donut.
― Stop Non-Erotic Cabaret (Abbbottt), Thursday, 20 January 2011 22:17 (thirteen years ago) link
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
― jaxon, Thursday, 20 January 2011 23:49 (thirteen years ago) link
hatoo bad. i honestly dont know if you would like it or not
― *gets the power* (deej), Friday, 21 January 2011 01:05 (thirteen years ago) link
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
― Pompoussin (admrl), Friday, 27 May 2011 16:38 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=assorted+donuts+rar+mediafire&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=
― just sayin, Friday, 27 May 2011 18:55 (twelve years ago) link
I love jamming this in the morning
― love, light, and walkabout-thinking (admrl), Wednesday, 29 February 2012 17:34 (twelve years ago) link
Steppin' to the a.m.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VgOvNkqFe8
― Andy K, Wednesday, 29 February 2012 18:45 (twelve years ago) link
happy bday JD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek_cufWYvjE
― flappy bird, Thursday, 7 February 2019 18:09 (five years ago) link
Best motherfucking ever.
― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Friday, 8 February 2019 00:12 (five years ago) link
lol ethan padgett was such a shithead
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Friday, 8 February 2019 18:02 (five years ago) link
nah, yung padgett was a god
― the late great, Friday, 8 February 2019 19:12 (five years ago) link
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
― whiney on the moon (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 1 September 2020 23:37 (three years ago) link