Very strange, listening to this when it came out. Didn't know about Dilla's condition, it just sounded like a major leap forward. This is hip hop from 2020. Listen and listen again. And then listen to all the people now coming up with similar sounds.

Basically, if you've ever liked hip-hop there is something here for you! From sampling the Beastie Boys on "The New" to chopping Mountain's "Big Red" for the 1000th time on "The Clapper", to the Raymond Scott sampling "Lightworks" and the pure sci-fi weirdness of "Airworks", this is a beautiful smorgasbord of beats!

(I'm not mentioning "Two Can Win" - it's the secret amazing track that you're just not ready for!)

I've been a fan of Jay Dee since he was making beats for the Pharcyde and Tribe back in the 90's. I picked up his first solo album "Welcome 2 Detroit" when it came out, and it is undeniably a classic. However, nothing before Donuts led me to believe that the man would come through with something like this. Donuts is remarkable in many ways. The idea of a beat tape with many short tracks doesn't seem immediately listenable, yet the cohesiveness of this album is superb. While it is hiphop, it is also psychedelic and very melancholic as well. The range of emotion expressed with some records and a sampler is completely insane. This is inarguably his masterwork, something that will be inspiring beat heads and hiphop fans for years, but it will also be accessible to the every day music fan as well because of it's great emotional power. One of the classic albums from the '00s.....

Donuts is a 31 track long soul drenched hiphop collage that might appear fragmented upon first listen, but turns into a really coherent album when played more often. Catchy hooks and psychedelic noises follow eachother in a high pace, without the album losing it's flow.
Dilla takes hiphop to a higher level. A great legacy of an extremely talented producer, that unfortunately died on a very young age.
Well recommended for anyone into (instrumental) hiphop, but also a must have for lovers of Detroit house in the Andres or Moodymann style.

Oh my God- This is a friggin Masterpiece! What a tragedy for Dilla not to be able to see how his fans are going to dig this work. This contribution to hip hop beat making is on par to what DJ Shadow did with his ground breaking Endtroducing... As the genius was the simplicity with Shadow, such genius is in the complexity with Jay Dee - A sonic mural which unfolds with calculated precision. Those 2 releases can't be farther apart in musical similarity, but it's how society will accept Dilla's piece which draws the comparison. In passing, he's unwittingly ushered in a new era for beat conductors. The bar is very high.