386. J Dilla, "Donuts"

 


I had a bit of a journey with this album because (1) I had never heard it before, and (2) at first, I didn't really understand what it was.  Like, it's not something I would normally listen to so I started out a bit crazy, like "What box do I put this into?" and "This sounds like something played in the background at a Valencia Street restaurant in 2008."  But then I tried to put aside my preconceptions and listen to it on its own terms and it's enjoyable for a while, even if it's not something I'd normally listen to.

Here's the story: J Dilla put this together this instrumental hip hop album while hospitalized for a rare blood disorder and died three days after it came out.  It's a melange of all kinds of stuff, with samples from soul classics and 60's rock and clips from movies and fuck, I don't even know.  For me, there were some truly interesting moments, and some songs that I liked, but on the whole, I'm not gonna be listening to it a lot, I don't think.

It's not J Dilla's fault!  I really just don't like instrumental music that much.  People just love Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai and that stuff but it just doesn't do much for me.  So, sorry, J Dilla, I'm sure this stuff is great, it's just not my thing.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: I will be off tomorrow, so entries will resume on Monday.  

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