DONUTS

I thought my very first blog post should cover something special, so I decided to talk about something very dear to my heart, J Dilla’s final album ‘Donuts’. Being a producer myself, this is the album that got me into the idea of sampling music as being more than just stealing or copying. I learned the ways in which someone can channel a message through a sample. Even though he may be using other artist’s original work, he uses it with his own artistic twist. I like to think about Donuts as something like a collage.

J Dilla is regarded as one of the best producers in Hip Hop history, known for his ability to sample and program drums unlike any other. His last project ‘Donuts’ is considered to be his opus, being released only 3 days before his death. In this album, Dilla takes us through a series of emotions many of which have to do with his death. He was very ill in the years leading up to his passing, having been diagnosed with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (a rare blood disease) as well as possibly having lupus. Producing some of the songs on his hospital bed, he was well aware that he was going to die soon, and his goal with this album in a lot of ways, was to leave his mark in music, solidifying his place in Hip Hop, and music history.

The album is 31 tracks long, each track being roughly between 1 and 2 minutes in length, with a few exceptions. It would be ridiculously long to analyze every last song in detail (even though it would be fun), so I’m just going to talk about the songs that hold the most sentimental value to me.

Time: The Donut of the Heart

In this song Dilla chooses The Jackson 5’s “All I Do Is Think Of You” to sample . I think a soul sample like this is a very fitting since it invokes a very warm nostalgic feeling. Dilla’s ‘Time’ does the same, in that it takes the listener on a trip through their life, or at least Dilla’s reflection of his own life, as well time and how it passes. It almost sounds as though the vocal samples that are only cuts of words or phrases invoke a yearning feeling. A feeling that he himself must have had. I hear that guitar sample loop, and the vocal samples sprinkled throughout as almost way of him – Dilla – trying to cut through the mix, cutting through time itself, looking at time from an outsider’s perspective, even though he still in fact is bound to it. Even though some of the vocal samples aren’t entirely clear in what words they are saying, the ones that are clear are saying phrases like “I love you”, “day and night”, etc. Even without any words being said, the sentiment of his sadness still persists. Its his last reflection on time and nostalgia itself.

Jackson 5: All I Do Is Think Of You

The next three tracks I’m going to look at follow each other back to back to back. It’s one of my favorite ending three song stretches to an album that I’ve ever heard. It’s starts with Bye, followed by Last Donut of The Night, and ending with Welcome to the Show.

Bye

In this song J Dilla wants us to know that the ride is ending soon, for him as well as the album. Sampling the Isley Brother’s “Don’t say Goodnight (It’s Time for Love) (Parts 1 and 2)” was also very deliberate I believe. Flipping a song titled “Don’t say Goodnight” to use as his farewell song is as poetic as one can get while chopping records. This song is similar but a bit simpler than “Time the Donut of the Heart” in sampling style, in that there is one foundational sample running through the whole thing (very similar to time) but the vocal samples are very predictable. “I really.”, “I wanna f-” and of course that tear jerking “Ahhhhh”, are all sounds of yearning, of sadness – of a man that knows that it’s his time to go.

Last Donut of The Night 

It is widely interpreted that “Last Donut of the Night” is supposed to be Dilla’s death itself within the context of the album. The intensity of the sample right from the beginning instills in us a sense of grandeur, a sense of being in the presence of something bigger and more powerful than you. It’s a humbling experience from the jump. Dilla plays a sample of a man introducing a performer to an audience. It is Dilla putting himself in front of us on center-stage. As we get engrossed in the menacing sample from The Moments’ “To You With Love”, we hear a vocal sample saying “I Give to you” “And give to you”. Could this be Dilla talking to the audience, or even life directly? I think of it as him expressing his commitment to his craft, not necessarily for himself, but for another, whether that be the listener, or God, or the muse. In many ways, this whole album is full of many goodbyes, and in this final goodbye, I think Dilla is identifying himself very firmly as the artist he is before leaving this plane.

The Moments- To You With Love 

Welcome to The Show

Closing out the project with a straight banger, Dilla takes us to a new dimension with “Welcome to the Show”. Going with the theory that “Last Donut of The Night” is Dilla’s death, “Welcome to the Show” is his resurrection, or his ascent into heaven. This song also starts with an introduction of an artist, but this place is of a completely different nature. Hypnotized by the groove of the vocal chops: “eeeh” and “ahhhh” we’re put into a an ethereal, euphoric place. This outro (Welcome to the Show) contrasted with the album’s intro: “Donuts (Outro)”, brings the album into full circle.

I think this goes without saying but I highly recommend a listen to the entire album to get the full experience. That being said, I think we can all see how J Dilla’s choice of samples has influenced me and many others to listen to the samples they choose with a new ear. To use samples as an artist, and not as a thief, is what I took out of Donuts and J Dilla in general.