J Dilla's Donuts

"Music producer J Dilla had a way of stretching a sample that wrought sorrow from joy, noise from melody and the other way around. In this entry to the “33 1/3” series, in which authors pick apart one album in one short book, Jordan Ferguson digs deep into Dilla’s beat sources for Donuts and builds resonant, biographical context for the album’s moments. Donuts, after all, would be Dilla’s last record, a 2006 masterpiece written from the producer’s hospital bed that wrangles with his imminent mortality. And Ferguson illustrates it with ache and celebration."