Detroit hip-hop producer J Dilla (aka James Yancey) passed away February 10, 2006, just three days after he turned 32 and Stones Throw released his solo album Donuts. Dilla had been suffering from a rare blood disorder called TTP as well as lupus, and he famously made most of Donuts while confined to a bed in LA’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. A sample-based rap album without any rapping, some at first described Donuts as merely a novel effort. It’s since been romanticized as a beautiful swan song, though both interpretations undercut the album’s continued vitality.
Half the production duo Odd Couple; has worked with rappers including Skyzoo, Mikkey Halsted, and Smoke DZA
Favorite doughnut: I’m gonna have to go with maple Long Johns. I think they’ve probably been my favorite since I was like a little kid. They’d always have doughnuts after church. It seems like such a fat kid thing to say, but people would go—a mad dash—to go get the doughnuts after church.
In-house producer for local clothing brand and record label City of Win
On Donuts: I love it. It’s like one of the best. I consider it more of a mixtape than I do an album. It’s very heavily sampled. He used like huge loops and then just kinda threw his drums behind it. It plays like a mixtape because a lot of those songs are like classic songs that a lot of people know, and I feel like he just kinda took all the music he loved and just kind of paid tribute to everyone.
Donuts (45 BOX SET) $39.50
