Donuts (album)
| Donuts | ||||
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| Studio album by J Dilla | ||||
| Released | February 7, 2006 | |||
| Recorded | Summer 2005 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 43:25 | |||
| Label | Stones Throw | |||
| Producer | J Dilla | |||
| J Dilla chronology | ||||
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| Alternative cover | ||||
Vinyl version
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 84/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| The A.V. Club | B+ |
| Clash | 10/10 |
| The Irish Times |  |
| Now | 4/5 |
| Pitchfork Media | 7.9/10 (2006) 10/10 (2012) |
| PopMatters | 9/10 |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| URB | |
Donuts is the second studio album by the American hip hop producer J Dilla, released on February 7, 2006 by Stones Throw Records. It was released on the day of his 32nd birthday and three days before his death, thus making it the final album released during J Dilla's lifetime. The album itself is an instrumental hip hop album, composed of mostly remixed sampled content.
On Metacritic, Donuts has received "universal acclaim" from critics, based on an aggregate score of 84/100 from 15 reviews.Pitchfork placed the album at number 38 on their list of the top 50 albums of 2006 and at number 66 on their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s.
J Dilla had been diagnosed with an incurable blood disease named TTP in 2002, and he had also been diagnosed with lupus previously. According to close friend and fellow producer Karriem Riggins the impetus for Donuts came during an extended hospital stay in the summer of 2005. Dilla's friends from the L.A.-based indie label Stones Throw came to visit and brought him a Boss SP-303 sampler and a small 45 record player so he could make music while in the hospital. Dilla completed 29 of the 31 songs on Donuts while still in the hospital.
In the December 2006 issue of The Fader magazine, J Dilla's mother, Maureen Yancey, a former opera singer, spoke of watching her son's daily routine during the making of Donuts:
I knew he was working on a series of beat CDs before he came to Los Angeles. Donuts was a special project that he hadn't named yet. This was the tail end of his "Dill Withers" phase, while he was living in Clinton Township, Michigan. You see, musically he went into different phases. He'd start on a project, go back, go buy more records and then go back to working on the project again.
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Wikipedia