Honestly, I wore it out when it first dropped but now only find myself going back to it on the occasional Sunday (it's that type of album)in favor of beat tapes. Obvious death tie-in aside, its just a sad album to listen to.

was his ability to make you forget you were essentially listening to a loop (at times.) In fact, surely I'm not alone on this point, but I tend to think emcees can get in the way of the track especially when there is no instrumental counterpart. His beats (songs IMO) were finished when he was done with them; not when an mc blessed it.

That point aside, Donuts in particular, had a recurring theme and cohesion that unmistakeably put it in the album category.

>was his ability to make you forget you were essentially
>listening to a loop (at times.) In fact, surely I'm not alone
>on this point, but I tend to think emcees can get in the way
>of the track especially when there is no instrumental
>counterpart. His beats (songs IMO) were finished when he was
>done with them; not when an mc blessed it.
>
>That point aside, Donuts in particular, had a recurring theme
>and cohesion that unmistakeably put it in the album category.

^tabernacle

..."Donuts" is a collection of beats from some of his last "BEAT TAPES", why would you get mad if someone just so happens to call it a "BEAT TAPE" especially when there is no rapping on it and no singing (other than what was sampled/looped from the original records).

It might have been magical to you but maybe others just consider it something less than magic .

it's instrumental album consisting of recognizable loops, that if you listen to the originals, re-works and re-imagines them in ways that are damn incredible. New songs from recognizable snippets. Donuts was to function as a boody of work, not just single beats. that's why they're brief, interrupted and blended into each other. it's not a colletion of beats handed out to rappers that got into the hands of "heads". but yes, the OP is over-stating the point

you jock it below as an album

so you're saying it's an album AND a beattape?

ok...

it was commercially released. It has always sounded like an extended beat tape. As I said below, I think it's mainly going to be remembered more as huge influence on the whole FlyLo/Brainfeeder scene more than a great "hip hop" album. As a result, most of those artists' album also sound like beat tapes too.

I dont see why its so hard to comprehend that Donuts its a collection of beats... and that doesn't make it a bad album...

if you can't tell the difference between an album like Avalanches - Since I Left You and Dilla's Donuts, then I don't know what to say...

going to get you a "thank you" card from Frank and/or Dank, don't you?

http://new.music.yahoo.com/j-dilla/tracks/deciding-to-release-donuts--175970089

in fact, does Egon make beats at all?

i'd be curious to hear what he can come up with

What does Egon making beats (even though he has, as well as released an album) have to do with the fact that Stones Throw bought this beat tape from Dilla to sell in the mass market, as well as get extra bread by selling the beats? I'd think Egon would be close to Wolf as far as telling how 'Donuts' came about, don't you? He's the GM for the label. If your argument is in regards to it not being a conventional beat tape where it's full of just loops for sale, Dilla has built some of his other beat tapes in the same fashion.

If 'Donuts' came out in October 2005 like it was supposed to, it wouldn't have been revered as what all these people that listened to it after he died thought it was. You remember when Stones Throw released the tagged promo in 2005, right? How did it feel to you then, when you didn't think that Dilla was going to die so soon after its release?

>What does Egon making beats (even though he has, as well as
>released an album) have to do with the fact that Stones Throw
>bought this beat tape from Dilla to sell in the mass market,
>as well as get extra bread by selling the beats?

nothing

>I'd think
>Egon would be close to Wolf as far as telling how 'Donuts'
>came about, don't you?

nah, not at all...cause Egon didn't create 'Donuts'

>If your
>argument is in regards to it not being a conventional beat
>tape where it's full of just loops for sale, Dilla has built
>some of his other beat tapes in the same fashion.
>

huh?

i've heard (some of, maybe most?) his other beattapes (and if i had to choose, i'd have a hard time between donuts and dilla beats 3 aka motown) and i don't think anything, even motown, is put together in the fashion that 'donuts' is...'donuts' is much more calculated

>If 'Donuts' came out in October 2005 like it was supposed to,
>it wouldn't have been revered as what all these people that
>listened to it after he died thought it was.

oh so you on THAT shit...word

> You remember when
>Stones Throw released the tagged promo in 2005, right?

no

>How did
>it feel to you then, when you didn't think that Dilla was
>going to die so soon after its release?

i didn't hear donuts at all until it released to retail

but i had motown for a good while and, like i said, though not as much an album (at all), the beats themselves compete w/ donuts and give it a run for it's money

like the number of songs are his age.....how the album ends with the death song.

this not just "here my hottest beats"....this is an album he had some other beat tapes but this here was a complete personal body of work as an album.

from his last beat tapes, dumbass

-------------------------
“The other dude after me didn’t help my case. It was just like…crazy nigga factory going on.”
Dre makes no apologies for his own eccentricities. “I was young, and searching, trying to find myself,” he says. “Never did.”-- Andre B

>Obvious death tie-in aside, its just a sad album to listen to.

__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

...im no dilla stan, but donuts is a beautiful album ..one of the best this decade easily

you know i still remember getting that promo {bout a month or 2 before it dropped) and just being fucking floored by how dope it was..i wore that promo out(dilladilladilladilladonuts)..then the actual version dropped and had even more to it..i love and still to this day love and play that shit on the regular. just the chops of the loops were insane if u actally make beats.u can appreciate it on a whole nother level for that alone..still great RIP the god

anybody that fronts on this album is a fucking fool to start with
it plays better from front to back than just about any record that came after it, it almost forces you to listen to the whole thing
can't say it's perfect but I will say that EVERYONE I've put on to it love that shit to this day

sweet cuz it's dope and we get to enjoy it over and over
bitter, cuz it's his last hurrah
his goodbye letter to life and his love

masterpiece until the end of the times

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++last man standing takes a seat+++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.last.fm/user/chillhood

still the GOAT at callin' out silly replies in the lesson

>still the GOAT at callin' out silly replies in the lesson

question the seriousness of my almost dropped tears


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++last man standing takes a seat+++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.last.fm/user/chillhood

who knows I might ghostwrite one day

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++last man standing takes a seat+++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.last.fm/user/chillhood

but when it comes on, I get pulled into it again.

maybe not, since you're asking this question

and it was an 'oh shit I e-know that guy' moment

but I can't remember what the album was for the life of me, it was something notable tho

I can, but can you? It does nothing when we make half-steppin comments like this. It just makes us come off like Dilla dickriders. And the pro with his LMAO cosign spent a whole post in 09 crying about an album that wore Donuts' stamp all over it... that album was The Ecstatic

As howisya has tried to point out before, go listen to portishead, massive attack, aphex twin, etc befogged you give all that love to Dilla alone

i care less about your opinion, but you just sound like such a garden tool

I'm a bitch. We both know you'd say that to me in person. You are the mighty gatekeeper of things Dillard's and Lib. I still respect some of ur ideas, but ur maniacal over reactions as of late are comedy. Have a good day

as usual

edit: and lemme go ahead and address the "you wouldn't say it to my face" issue

wouldn't have to...cause i highly doubt you walk around IRL acting like a smug know it all...that's prolly just som'n you do for ego sake on the net...IRL you prolly just listen to ppl's opinions and discuss shit rather than acting like an above-it-all-know-it-all-smug-asshole

so i wouldn't have to say shit

but if you were my friend, and you acted like you type in a music discussion we were actually having, damn right i'd say it...and you'd be a motherfucking chump if you tried to start some physical shit over a comment in a music discussion

I'm an asshole fam. Period. I do act like a know it all. Even though I don't. So stop assuming. Secondly, nothing about me asking please explain yourself, makes me smugg. Don't just say Dilla did it and it's true. That's why the lesson has an unfair rep for its Dilla stannery. We have a right to be stans, he was the man, but we also got to back it up. Lastly, in real life if you called me a bitch for no reason, which makes you the chump, I'd def get confront you, don't know what strange ass niggas you roll with that let shit like that slide.

>As howisya has tried to point out before, go listen to
>portishead, massive attack, aphex twin, etc befogged you give
>all that love to Dilla alone


NOBODY was releasing all instrumental albums until he did, yes Portishead, Massive Attack, etc are progenitors to the style, but as far as bringing it to hip hop its Dilla blood

Shadow? RJD2? Co Flows Little Johnny in the Hospital?prince paul? Or are they "more" than hip hop

I forgot cuz I never could get into those albums and artists you listed, but they clearly did it before Dilla.





I just wonder why they never had a big impact on hip hop as far other producers following suit (like they did after Donuts ya know?)

I agree. I ain't foolin myself to think this younger generation of musicians are looking at endtroducing over Donuts. Its a new "hallmark" "pillar". I just think the albums influence is also about how long tracks are now a days (a minte and a half to under 3 min songs) and inspiring diggers to go back to established crates to try and rework them, in that they are not exhausted and tired, which Dilla proved with Donuts.

Us claiming its so without evidence doesn't make it so, nahhmean

Anyways my bad for callin you a lame ass nerd. I hate when other lessonheads do it and had no warrant to say it to you

were the songs?

i say this to point out that donuts is not like those albums

those albums contain longer, more composed, pieces

donuts was revolutionary (to me) b/c it took the most basic (AND DOPEST-imo) hip-hop production template (the sample based loop) and didn't try to extend the loop into a large production, but rather did so much with the loop in a short time, it at once was a throwback to what so many of us got pulled into hip-hop music by, while being extremely forward thinking and original at the same time

it's hard to explain but i know what i mean

>were the songs?
>
>i say this to point out that donuts is not like those albums
>
>those albums contain longer, more composed, pieces
>
>donuts was revolutionary (to me) b/c it took the most basic
>(AND DOPEST-imo) hip-hop production template (the sample based
>loop) and didn't try to extend the loop into a large
>production, but rather did so much with the loop in a short
>time, it at once was a throwback to what so many of us got
>pulled into hip-hop music by, while being extremely forward
>thinking and original at the same time






>it's hard to explain but i know what i mean

^:)

__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

And I AGREE WITH YOU. If you would've read MY reply to DJ Joey up top, you'd see we said the same thing in different ways. That's what makes all ur a bitch this, dumb ass that, so unnecessary.

And even still I would try and argue that Donuts isn't solely responsible for the unnamed artist we're talking about. Shit I even hear Dilla's influence on the sound of acts like Dirty Projectors and Mount Kimbie, but Dilla is only a piece not the whole puzzle.

Either way respect

>Either way respect

>NOBODY was releasing all instrumental albums until he did,
>es Portishead, Massive Attack, etc are progenitors to the
>style, but as far as bringing it to hip hop its Dilla blood

http://www.discogs.com/artist/45+King,+The

It's also check out Dj Smash as well: http://www.discogs.com/artist/DJ+Smash

>NOBODY was releasing all instrumental albums until he did, yes
>Portishead, Massive Attack, etc are progenitors to the style,
>but as far as bringing it to hip hop its Dilla blood

HAD PETESTRUMENTALS BEFORE DILLA BRUH

AND 45 KING DID IT BACK IN THE DAY

45 KING AND LOUIE LOU RHYTHMICAL MADNESS

FAT JON TOO

because when it comes to this shit *I* personally listen to regularly, the "influence still shinin"...

Not trying to be smug or deny what youre saying, just wish ppl cited examples instead of broad statements like "Look around" or what you said.

Apollo Brown
Oddisee
Madlib


...all of them make music (not exclusively) focused on the precise chop, manipulation and arrangement of samples

donuts set precedents in this "arena"

it influences said artists' work to my ears (not that this is their ONLY influence)

i try to keep the math simple

when the record stops on "stop" JESUS, check your pulse if you don't feel that in your soul.

This album will always be associated, in my mind, as his last album.
The one that I played to help me deal with his death- the rest of his work doesn't have the same association for me, I think of good times: smoking out with friends, partying, etc.

Second to Fantastic Volume, its the Dilla related album that I slap the most

>when the record stops on "stop" JESUS, check your pulse if
>you don't feel that in your soul.

i always hold my breath/ snap my neck back when that *stop* comes up!
if you think about it.. that's magical right there..

donuts STILL gets heavy rotation in the whip..
i've even made my lady appreciate that album..

CLASSIC!

... and still is.

is that the songs didnt last long enough, I could listen to "walkinonit" for hours.

No matter how I feel I can play that album anytime.

>is that the songs didnt last long enough, I could listen to
>"walkinonit" for hours.

that was the beauty of it to me. he didn't allow a song to drag on and
become boring. it was short and wonderful

>
>No matter how I feel I can play that album anytime.

agreed and i thought it was overrated at first

Original run time of the whole album was like 20 minutes according to Egon. They extended the length so it would sound less like a beat tape.

Fantastic stuff. I think it's going to be known more as THE key album in the development/creation of the Brainfeeder scene/sound.

always will be. I love that album.

It still sounds dope and it's cohesive as hell. Just a great listen. I agree with whoever said it was a sad album though....I associate that LP with his death and I never really spun it too much once I copped (doubles of) the retail version.

And I'll say this:

I've heard some sloppy fucking bites of "Donuts-style" beats, and it's obvious that some people just don't get it. I hate that, and I think that whole sound is played out because of the imitators. I know that *I* have no desire to hear a soul chop in 2011, but damn he came through and crushed the buildings back in 06. I knew that Kanye's College Dropout-era soul beats were some bullshit, and thankfully Dilla delivered the real deal with Donuts. I might give that a spin tomorrow.

but every time "Stop!" comes up, I still get hype.
Man, it has been 5 years. Feels just like yesterday I was rockin' this in the 740.

this album made me cry when I first heard it- and this was *before* Dilla died. the slowdown on 'Time' made me shed tears of giddiness at how dope it was. I was absolutely entranced from front to back. even to this day I don't skip tracks- I have to play it in its entirety every time.

this record is eternal. I can see how it would make some sad, but I'm glad I'm not among that group.

http://www.mediafire.com/?3gk6angaa22tft6

under which it was made but not an album I feel like listening to very often (and yes, you could call this shit a 'beat tape' if you felt like it & it wouldn't be sacriledge).

Give me Fantastic Volume 2 or even Welcome 2 Detroit over this.

>(and yes, you could call this shit a
>'beat tape' if you felt like it & it wouldn't be sacriledge).

that might be your thing, it ain't mine, nor do I love many of the 'beats' on there much or the subsequent seemingly endless stream of MCs who spit on those 'songs' after dude passed either.

calling donuts a beattape is like calling the '91 Redskins "just a bunch of football players"

it's the magic that happens when it all comes together that makes it SUPREME...

or for a Redskin fan talking shit about football after the past twenty years since the team you referenced.

Thanks for the draft picks, enjoy thirty more years of Dan Snyder irrelevance unless you guys can spring the DC Sniper outta the bing to handle it.

you not loving the album has 0 to do w/ the current exchange...it has to do w/ the whole "it's just a beattape" debate

and what i'm telling you is that YOU lack the knowledge to say it's "just a beattape" b/c you lack the knowledge to hear exactly what it is that was done on the *ALBUM* which makes it an *ALBUM*

basically i'm saying that cats like you don't really know shit about chopping/flipping samples and composing/creating beats from samples, so you need to sit down somewhere before you open your mouth



>or for a Redskin fan talking shit about football after the
>past twenty years since the team you referenced.
>

at least i know where my team stands...i'll take that and these:

http://www.thehogs.net/Gallery/full-size/1356-1/super-bowl-trophies.jpg

over 10 years of getting oh-so-fucking-close and then FAILING TIME AND TIME AGAIN

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_7sYi4pFw0yc/SadTRcvR31I/AAAAAAAAAlU/nmq1uH4MEQI/s400/PHI%2BDonovan%2BMcNabb%2Bsmiling%2Bbig%2Bin%2Bdress%2Bsuit.jpg

album.

everyone's dick is hard over Bruce Springsteen. I've tried, I really really really have tried several times to get into Bruce Springsteen. Through the somber backdoor of Nebraska to the epic front door that is Born in the USA.

And I don't get it, I find just about none of his music stirring.

I appreciate it sure. He's an American music icon without question.

But I just don't get it.

At the end of the day that's nothing more than an opinion. Does that mean I lack knowledge? I don't know, that's a pretty broad stroke to be painting.

at least twice

i am not saying there's anything wrong with not LIKING the album, but calling it "just a beattape" is IGNORANT, plain and simple

panties in a bunch over semantics (because an instrumnetal rap album culled from beattapes could be called 'a beattape', nobody ever said 'just' but obviously you caught feelings).

Miss me with that bullshit the way your team misses the postseason, draft picks & a plan.

http://www.thehogs.net/Gallery/full-size/1356-1/super-bowl-trophies.jpg

http://king-tut.org/images/king-tut-tomb.jpg

If those trophies get you through nearly two decades of irrelevance, who am I to judge?

Enjoy another exciting offseason, thanks for the draft picks & the whole division-opponent-who-will-never-be-a-threat-this-millenium thing!

in my life. Real talk. Getting dumped at Christmas time during a snow storm in Santa Fe... feeling depressed and I popped in that bootleg Donuts. I was alright because I was bumping Donuts moving on with my life. Only one can win indeed. Bought it @ Best Buy when it dropped officially.

There isn't a word that can encapsulate how I feel about this album. 'Classic' seems too pedestrian. The emotion and passion he put in this album is extraordinary. I hope I give something to the world as awesome and heartfelt as Donuts.

If you don't own this album you need to, it's one of the most awesome recordings ever IMHO. I know y'all know what up...just in case we got a new lurker or two reading this. Go get it.

Dilla is my Sinatra.

not.

it's a good beat tape.

It's most certainly a shame that he passed away.

But there's several albums not just in rap but in general released over the last ten years that are considerably more well rounded.

Ask a Lessonhead though and they'll have you believe it's the new Dark Side of the Moon. And you're entitled to your opinion certainly. But don't ignore the context of it when you try to evaluate it personally.

Now that I've blasphemed I'll leave this post.

love is, like, really hypocritical when you consider how badly The Lesson hearts J Dilla

I'm too objective in my music tastes to stan anyone and I go at all stans objectively
I'm just telling you to chew hott nuts off GP

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=17&topic_id=57649&mesg_id=57649&page=13

edit: and jambone. eating da poo-poo like no one else knows how to.

it's hilarious to see ?uest typing "all that" as if this were his web site or something, and not only did someone call him out for TTP, but he responded like a man. ?uest at his peak on (t)his web site >>>>>>>>> pretty much anyone posting.

>it's hilarious to see ?uest typing "all that" as if this were
>his web site or something, and not only did someone call him
>out for TTP, but he responded like a man. ?uest at his peak on
>(t)his web site >>>>>>>>> pretty much anyone posting.

There was no other site on the net where you could get that kinda "behind the curtain" type at a lot of our favorite artists/albums....

since promoting undun and all. giving us some good info too on things beside undun.

- fire was being a poser
- wallychamp was being a dickeater

and quest dropped great knowledge

>http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=17&topic_id=57649&mesg_id=57649&page=13

at least that I know of.

No hate, but JayDee was always hit/miss with me.

if so, then you have

dumb as shit

still makes me sad in certain parts

always makes me wonder what direction his music would've gone in

a great album, beat-tape, piece of art whatever you want to call it

beautiful

few albums do tho so whatever

For me, "Donuts" is to Dilla as "In Square Circle" is to Stevie.


**************************************************
tREBLEFREE & DVS Jackson are:
The Waldorf And Statler Experience
Balcony Music (A Cinquilogy)
Volumes 1 & 2 available now at http://waldorfandstatler.bandcamp.com

Volume 3 coming REAL soon...

>For me, "Donuts" is to Dilla as "In Square Circle" is to
>Stevie.

and you know, I defend '80s Stevie harder than just about anyone here...I concede the '70s Stevie just was... BETTER. I mean that period solidified him as an all-time great.

but it ain't like the '80s stuff was wack. Stevie was just as big in the mid '80s as he was in the '70s... although I'd argue it was because of his decades of success that he was all over the place in '84-85.

as for Donuts and Dilla...

man, I'm just now remembering what it was like. the boards were flooded like shit with the sudden news of his passing.

all up until that point I had taken to finally "drinking the Kool-Aid" with reckless abandon. whenever Dilla came out with something new (legit or otherwise), I was listening. he was on trajectory to make some absolutely earth-shattering shit from my perspective.

Donuts was part of it. I thought it was weird in spots, like he was tryna do the Madlib thing, but I still wonder, from a technical perspective... how the hell he did a lot of that shit. "Stop" for example. I mean, did he have access to master tapes?

>but it ain't like the '80s stuff was wack. Stevie was just as
>big in the mid '80s as he was in the '70s...


>but I still wonder, from a technical perspective... how the hell he >did a lot of that shit.

I agree.



**************************************************
tREBLEFREE & DVS Jackson are:
The Waldorf And Statler Experience
Balcony Music (A Cinquilogy)
Volumes 1 & 2 available now at http://waldorfandstatler.bandcamp.com

Volume 3: The Ballad Of C.J. Memphis -

>shit. "Stop" for example. I mean, did he have access to master
>tapes?

is there something in particular in stop that makes you think this? after hearing the aretha track i realised, or so i thought, that it was a fairly simple chopping of various bits of the song and arranging them together. i was actually surprised at the simplicity of it, after hearing orig. not to take away from the track, he took the key elements out and sequenced them perfectly to condense the emotional resonance of the song, to me anyway. but maybe i'm missing something?

as far as the madlib comparison, it seems to be a common opinion on here, but i can only see it to a point. to me donuts seems more serious and lacks the quirkiness of madlib. sure maybe there's an influence evident there, but to me the key elements that make donuts what it is, and that make it unique, are as follows:

tempo variations, the idea of taking loads of snippets from all over a track and arranging them together intricately, which gives each track a much more organic, moving and flowing feel than a simple loop could ever have, and the use of just samples from a single track, no layering of different sounds from different sources, but rather creating a collage from different pieces of one source.

to me this is what makes the album what it is, and what marks the genius of the vision behind it. he sort of took the hiphop blueprint and completely flipped and redefined it yet without actually deviating from it, if that makes sense.

obviously i meant dionne warwick. too late to edit it seems!

>is there something in particular in stop that makes you think
>this? after hearing the aretha track i realised, or so i
>thought, that it was a fairly simple chopping of various bits
>of the song and arranging them together. i was actually
>surprised at the simplicity of it, after hearing orig. not to
>take away from the track, he took the key elements out and
>sequenced them perfectly to condense the emotional resonance
>of the song, to me anyway. but maybe i'm missing something?

it's hard to explain, but it's almost like the drums are separate from the original Warwick joint going on there...

ah i think i know what you mean. the couple of parts of the track where the timing seems funny and the drums sort of drop out?

i had guessed he'd chopped little slices out form between the kick and snare in another part of the song and edited them in there, hence the slight glitchiness in the timing but who knows, you could be right.

either way it's a great track, and the fact we're discussing little details like this testifies the skills dilla was showing on it.

,

As I continued to mature, I grew more disenchanted with the direction that hip-hop was taking, i.e. becoming more mainstream and then pop music all together. My disillusion began with the deaths of Pac and Big and continued to fester.

This was compounded by changes in my personal life which allowed me to become exposed to different cultures. I saw truth, and explored different genres of music.

And then a DJ friend handed me Donuts...

Blew me away!

Dilla passed around the same time Donuts was released (?) and there were tons of tributes

My whole life Dilla was the soundtrack to my favorite tunes, and I never knew it. Dude was so humble. The Umma? I never made the connection to Jay Dee. But as I started to collect his work post-humously I truly gained an appreciation for the genius that he was and I found a spark for my love of hip-hop again.

I was telling a friend about a moment I was having. I kept hearing this beat in my head and I couldn't place it...then I heard Let's Go...put on Donuts...and it was Waves

I listened to Donuts for what it was, with no preconceived ideas or opinions. But after hearing it was a goodbye from Dilla, it's hard to revisit, because it brought me so much joy, while it brings others pain

Dilla Changed My Life

thoughts to follow...

but i still love it.

I didnt know Dilla obvioulsy, and i find some of it hard to listen to sometimes

instrumental hip-hop album of all time imo, just topping Entroducing.

not too often. I'm hardly ever in the mood to listen to it, but every time I put it in the stereo I'm amazed by its depth.

>not too often. I'm hardly ever in the mood to listen to it,
>but every time I put it in the stereo I'm amazed by its
>depth.

The same with me.

I can understand how it might not be a lot of people's cup of tea, but it was hugely influential on my appreciation of hip-hop and sampling.

Dilla Changed My Life

Pretty much the same thing I thought about it when I first heard it, except now I have certain memories associated with certain songs.

Like, "One Eleven" was the ringtone for my ex, so that song makes me think of her.

"Time: The Donuts of the Heart" and "Last Donut of the Night" reminds me of when Dilla died and death in general.

etc., etc.

damn

i don't really think of donuts as a beat tape

beat tapes to me are ok to shuffle, and mcees can get busy with them.

i don't believe dilla created donuts with the intention of rappers to get all over it, it doesn't feel like that type of album, to me it's a presentation meant to be listened from start to finish.

I think he set the precedent for what an instrumental hip hop album should sound like, or the capabilities of what a really good one is.

stands on its own.
Meaning, I'm not too fond of what has been done to it by rappers on other albums (like Ghost, Doom, PB Wolf's Zombie B-Ball War).
It works best without any vocals.

after release

I don't get into a lot of Dilla's stuff, but I checked this out when it dropped under all the circumstances and the hype.

I instantly fell in love with it and got into a lot of the music he sampled as a result

Still listen to it all the time when I'm in a certain mood or taking a long run/drive, etc.

i'm still amazed that me made something so beautiful as he suffered though life-ending pain.

He was always one of those artists that I had heard without knowing. Prior to OKP, my only reference for music was the typical mainstream stuff and stuff and I'd randomly find. I'm from the country so it's not like I could just pop into a record store and hear stuff.

This record store opened up near my college and for some odd reason always had Stones Throw and Rhymesayers albums in it the day they dropped. That was weird because no one listened to that stuff in that area. I remember the guy saying that I was the only one buying those labels. Anyway, I picked up Donuts off the strength of Lessonheads (I think this had just become the Lesson).

I was instantly blown away. I elevated that album into the ranks of my most cherished albums in my collection (Black Saint...., Sketches of Spain, Supreme Clientele, etc.) I seriously doubt it will ever leave my all-time Top 10. When I lost all of my CDs, I searched to see if my copy of Donuts was spared. It wasn't....along with about 75% of my collection. I still have Ruff Draft and The Shining but those aren't the same. I gotta get another copy of Donuts ASAP.

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folks are getting super-heated in here.

but yeah, i still jam "donuts" occasionally. whether it's a beattape or album or one song broken up into multiple tracks or whatever the fuck, it sounds live as hell to me. i tend to interpret it as an album, but that might be just because of the real-life narrative surrounding it, who knows?. i'm sure dilla could've been contemplating his mortality in '04-'06 or whenever he was crafting "donuts".

either way, i think it still knocks.

I've always wondered about the persons in the CD insert,
anyone know anything?