J Dilla: Donuts

Label: Stones Throw

It’s impossible to assess J Dilla’s brilliant Donuts without reflecting on the enormous loss of this gifted 32-year-old MC impresario, who fell victim to his long fight against Lupus days after this album’s release. The producer of such famed hip-hop acts as a Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Common, Dilla came into his own as a solo artist on Donuts, a sprawling, ambitious all-instrumental affair of loops, beats and snippets featuring the likes of Kool & the Gang, the Beastie Boys, Raymond Scott, The Temptations and Mobb Deep among many many others. Instrumental hip-hop may not be necessarily new (DJ Shadow, RJD2, and Prefuse 73 have chartered these waters before), but Dilla’s segues and flow of sounds are so flawless, he has created something fresh altogether. With an amazing musical palette stretching from classic soul to funk to soft rock to minimalism, Donuts ranks among the finest hip-hop records of recent years.