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Workinonit
Two Can Win
Don’t Cry Album: Donuts (2006) |
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J Dilla’s Donuts isn’t for everyone. It has zero commercial aspirations, and would fairly be categorized as an experimental art project. But for those of us who like to deconstruct how producers dig for and manipulate samples, Donuts abounds with creativity and originality.
Donuts is sui generis: impossible to imagine anyone else creating it, and with no apparent influences. Sure, many others have started with the same set of tools — a diverse stack of vintage vinyl (most of it rare 45s), an MPC drum machine, a turntable, and a Mac — but no one synthesized these elements quite like Dilla.
Most of the time, sample-based productions extract a few seconds of a track, loop it, and layer a beat on top of it. But Dilla can chop up a track into precise chunks, then reform it into its hipper cousin.
