J Dilla - Donuts

J Dilla was an american rapper who emerged in the mid 90s from Detroit, Michigan. J Dilla worked with many famed hip hop artists and collaborated to create great records, but for this post I want to focus on his album, Donuts.

Donuts was J Dilla's second studio album, released in 2006, three days before he died. This album was quite different than anyone had ever seen before in the world of hip hop. There are a total of 31 tracks on the album, all under two minutes

Della's album was one of the first times we say a DJ without a MC. Donuts is such an interesting album in that J Dilla constructed each of his tracks totally from small samples of many other songs. The interesting thing about J Dilla's samples is that they came from all different types of mediums and genres, which is what makes him a creative genius. Some of his samples included Jackson 5, Usher and even a bollywood movie soundtrack.

Although he was creating this album while in the hospital and arguably had a lot of time on his hands to find these samples, the fact that he was able to put all of these different samples into a melody that he was proud of and that people listened to is quite amazing. Also, Dilla intentionally pulled from samples with lyrics to construct a MC in the tracks on the album.

The best way to listen to the album is in one sitting back to back. Interesting about the order of the tracks, the first track on the album is called "Donuts(Outro)" and the last track is "Welcome to the Show." This is an interesting arrangement, and I leave it to ponder in your mind why he does this.

Check the album out below:

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