Cat No: STH2126LP

Released on his 32nd birthday, Donuts was the final J Dilla album released during his lifetime.

The instrumental hip hop album’s 31 tracks reflect J Dilla’s age at the time of recording, during a year spent mostly in a hospital bed at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Recorded using a bedside setup of a sampler and small record player, the album’s featured samples were sourced from the records brought into hospital by family and friends. Donuts gained a special poignancy three days after it’s release, when J Dilla passed away on February 10, 2006, following his battle with a rare blood disease.

Critically, Donuts received highly positive reviews upon its release, and gained “universal acclaim”. with praise for J Dilla’s brilliancy. This was highlighted in a Pitchfork review:

It’s Dilla’s show-and-tell method, however, that’s most effective, because it illustrates how he’s, more or less, upgrading soul music[…] This approach also allows Dilla to pay homage to the selfsame sounds he’s modernized; the drums are light, to reflect the original sound from which he’s borrowing. In that sense, Donuts is pure postmodern art– which was hip-hop’s aim in the first place.

The album’s unusual track order is notable for beginning with its outro, and ending with the intro. The final track transitions straight back into the opening track to create a Joycean infinite loop reminiscent of a donut’s ring-like form.

A1 Donuts (Outro) 0:12
A2 Workinonit 2:57
A3 Waves 1:38
A4 Light It 0:35
A5 The New 0:49
A6 Stop! 1:39
A7 People 1:24
A8 The Diff’rence 1:52
B1 Mash 1:31
B2 Time: The Donut Of The Heart 1:38
B3 Glazed 1:21
B4 Airworks 1:44
B5 Lightworks 1:55
B6 Stepson Of The Clapper 1:01
B7 The Twister (Huh, What) 1:16
C1 One Eleven 1:11
C2 Two Can Win 1:47
C3 Don’t Cry 1:59
C4 Anti-American Graffiti 1:53
C5 Geek Down 1:19
C6 Thunder 0:54
C7 Gobstopper 1:05
D1 One For Ghost 1:18
D2 Dilla Says Go 1:16
D3 Walkinonit 1:15
D4 The Factory 1:23
D5 U-Love 1:00
D6 Hi. 1:16
D7 Bye. 1:27
D8 Last Donut Of The Night 1:39
D9 Welcome To The Show 1:11