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Is Donuts By J. Dilla Overrated?

Swiffness! said:
Illmatic is overrated. good kid, m.A.A.d city is overrated. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is overrated.

etc

Show me a great hip-hop album and i'll show you a gaggle of niggas sayin its gassed up.

Donuts is a beat tape.

By that standard, what is Donuts ACTUAL competition again? DJ Shadow - Entroducing... is the only other instrumental hip-hop album to EVER achieve this level of acclaim, so yeah. There's nothing on Donuts better than Building Grain With A Steam of Salt, but I think most listeners would take Donuts over Entroducing overall.

"Oh but its only rated that high because he died" but you can't separate his death from the album when he was making tracks like "Don't Cry" for his mama to listen to after he was gone.....its like sayin '7 Day Theory only hit that way because Pac died' foh. We mighta never heard that album if Pac lived. Some artists deaths are tied to an album, the difference is Dilla did it intentionally because he 100% knew he was gonna die. Dude turned his hospital room into a makeshift studio, made one track for each year of his life, named the album after his favorite food, dropped it on his birthday, and then died 3 days later. That counts for something in my book.

Its also one of those rare albums where the last track transitions into the intro, so it can be listened to on a infinite loop. That's pretty rare. Pink Floyd - The Wall probably the only other album I can think of to pull it off that seamlessly.

Personally, I always thought "Glazed" was the weakest beat of the bunch to my hip-hop production ear - that horn loop is ehhhh to me. "The Factory" is some goofy experimental shit. But they're better within the context of the album because the album sequencing is so good.

Considering that Stones Throw considers this the greatest jewel in their catalog, rivaled only by fucking MADVILLAINY, and damn near every other beat on it went on to be either a classic song or freestyle.........I'd say this album deserves its rep.

Click to expand...

I appreciate this man

Dilla’s swan song was incredibly impactful and inspiring and influential
 
I fuck wit’ Dilla’s beats I just never got into tha whole “beat tape” albums…

Last time I just sat back and listened to straight beats I still wanted to be a rapper lol
 
"Quincy Jones is still the goat"


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I don’t know anyone under 35 out here reppin Donuts like that but I get it. I’ve always thought it was a solid album for what it was. Classic no.

Ima give his brother a pass cuz if I was in his position I’d put my bro I lost above all others my damn self.
 
I don’t think its fair to listen to Donuts and constitute it as Dilla’s only modern work…his 05 beat tapes were cutting edge and “Da Installment” series is really good too

Considering Kanye hired Hudson Mohawke and never let him outta his basement i figured Dilla wouldve had an amazing run if he stayed alive. RIP
 
LOL Kanye has virtually abandoned that sped up soul samples vibes he initiated on The Blueprint... and them early to mid 2000s .. it's all minimalistic stadium sounds with bass now with other producers


Dilla to my knowledge did all his shit himself ... Produced for the some of the biggest names (uncredited for Janet Jackson's 'Got Til It's Gone')


Illa J is neither here nor there with his comments but RZA (IMO) birthed all these niggaz swag even Dilla ... You could also include MadLIB who was more of a West Coast alternative to what RZA was doing but less popular
 
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