Review: J Dilla: Donuts

If you think of hip–hop producers, every legend is going to name a legend of their own starting up, and I’m going to bet James Yancy, a.k.a. Jay Dee, a.k.a. J Dilla, will be dropped a number of times. Seeing something a while back about the evolution of hip–hop, I think it was Busta that said it best, “You go out there and ask any hip–hop producer in the game who their favorite producer is, and they’re gonna tell you J Dilla. He was a producer’s producer.” That was the first time I ever heard Dilla referenced like that, but it definitely wouldn’t be my last.

When Dilla was just starting out, a lot of people thought his beats were just sloppy. Chopping up samples on his MPC, his sound triggers were just a little off, delayed a bit, and that didn’t make sense in a world where it didn’t take much to line everything up on the beat — MPC’s do that now for you, you just have to hit the right button! The real producers though… they knew what was going on. They couldn’t believe it at first, but they understood for sure. Dilla wasn’t sloppy, he was just adding mistakes on purpose. On purpose because real music isn’t perfect, people aren’t computers. Sometimes, a beat slips. All Dilla was doing was making the beats more realistic. When word got out, people went crazy. Dilla changed the game just like that. His beats were analyzed as an entire track instead of individual notes and placements, and the puzzle finally made sense. It was there all along, and everyone just woke up to the magic. No one was doing it better, either. Dilla was on top and ahead of the game.

Donuts was Dilla’s last album, put out on his 32nd birthday — 3 days before he passed away from an incurable blood disease, TTP. It was also considered his breakout album, the one that brought him up out of the underground. Donuts is an album of beats made by the late great; powerful in the right parts and finesse everywhere. To be honest, you’ve probably heard parts of Donuts already, cut–up and sampled on hip–hop songs from artists like Talib Kweli, The Roots, and Ghostface Killah.

I can honestly say that Dilla really shines on this album, and if there were ever a class about Being a Producer 101, or chopping beats, this would be required listening without a doubt. The tracks are tight, and the sound progression makes the whole thing just emotional. Dilla is no joke, a producer’s producer.

Find More Information: Stones Throw Records, The Fader, Wikipedia: Donuts, Wikipedia: J Dilla