J Dilla's Donuts

J Dilla's Donuts

by Jordan Ferguson
J Dilla's Donuts

J Dilla's Donuts

by Jordan Ferguson

eBook

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Overview

From a Los Angeles hospital bed, equipped with little more than a laptop and a stack of records, James “J Dilla” Yancey crafted a set of tracks that would forever change the way beatmakers viewed their artform. The songs on Donuts are not hip hop music as “hip hop music” is typically defined; they careen and crash into each other, in one moment noisy and abrasive, gorgeous and heartbreaking the next. The samples and melodies tell the story of a man coming to terms with his declining health, a final love letter to the family and friends he was leaving behind. As a prolific producer with a voracious appetite for the history and mechanics of the music he loved, J Dilla knew the records that went into constructing Donuts inside and out. He could have taken them all and made a much different, more accessible album. If the widely accepted view is that his final work is a record about dying, the question becomes why did he make this record about dying?

Drawing from philosophy, critical theory and musicology, as well as Dilla's own musical catalogue, Jordan Ferguson shows that the contradictory, irascible and confrontational music found on Donuts is as much a result of an artist's declining health as it is an example of what scholars call “late style,” placing the album in a musical tradition that stretches back centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781623567194
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date: 04/24/2014
Series: 33 1/3 Series
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 160
File size: 231 KB

About the Author

Jordan Ferguson is a freelance culture writer based in Toronto. He can be found online at poetryforgravediggers.com.
Jordan Ferguson writes about hip-hop and culture at poetryforgravediggers.com. Originally from Windsor, Ontario, he lives and works in Toronto.

Table of Contents

1. Welcome to the Show
2. The Diff'rence
3. Hi.
4. Waves
5. Stop!
6. The Twister (Huh, What)
7. Workinonit
8. Two Can Win
9. Geek Down
10. The New
11. Bye.
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