{"id":2209,"date":"2020-12-26T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-26T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=2209"},"modified":"2020-12-27T11:01:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T17:01:33","slug":"hof-donuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/hof-donuts\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 PostGenre Hall of Fame Inductee: J Dilla’s ‘Donuts’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Far too many of music\u2019s most innovative minds have died at a shockingly young age. Mozart, \u201cBird,\u201d Dolphy, and Hendrix are just a few of the lights extinguished before age 40. Most of these fallen artists pass suddenly or after a few weeks, not after a long illness. This abruptness often leaves the artist without a final work to express their thoughts on life and mortality. Suffering from lupus and incurable blood disease for several years, producer and multi-instrumentalist James Dewitt Yancy – better known as J Dilla or Jay Dee – had a unique opportunity to share his parting thoughts with the world. From his hospital bed, armed only with a Boss SP-303 sampler and a small 45 record player, he created his magnum opus, Donuts<\/em> (Stones Throw, 2006). His friends and family would bring in crates full of vinyl for him to parse through and piece together. Throughout, his condition only worsened as he became unable to walk, his hands swelled so much he could barely move them, and he experienced excruciating pain. While the album is in no way morose, given the context, it reflected his coming end. Sampled comments like \u201cis death real?\u201d \u201cdon\u2019t cry,\u201d \u201cI can\u2019t stand to see you cry,\u201d and \u201csave me\u201d appear throughout. The album is also circular in form with the ending of the closer “Welcome to the Shoe” feeding aesthetically into the opener “Donuts (outro)” suggestive of not just the round object for which it is named but also the circle of life. <\/p>\n\n\n

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