Unsung Podcast

Episode 125 - Donuts by J Dilla (Side B)

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Episode notes

Finally, after the extensive preamble, we’re now down to talking about J Dilla’s third album Donuts. Because of the nature of this record, we didn’t break it down track by track as the whole thing flows as a kind of suite, so we do a little bit of track analysis and talk more extensively about the composition of the album, the techniques and technology used to create it, the samples used, the message of the record and a whole lot more. Is this an unsung classic? Vote on our facebook page.

Black lives matter. J Dilla may not have been obviously political in his music very often, but he certainly had things to say about the black experience in America when he was on the mic. Indeed, his song “Fuck the Police” explicitly deals with his own negative experiences with the police, something Ma Dukes would later say often came down to the fact he was a “clean young man” that wasn’t selling drugs and the Detroit PD just couldn’t believe it. J Dilla’s story is, as we are all well aware, not an outlier. It’s time for this to stop. We all have a part to play, and a good place to start is to amplify black voices. So go do it.