Really, we’re at a point where instrumental music doesn’t reside on the same plane as its vocal-laden siblings. We as music addicts tend to prefer music with words, be they meaningful and deep, melodic and fluffy, or some combination of other adjectives. And truth be told, it probably never will. He communicates with the subtlety that only a producer of his ilk and talent could pull off without pretension or need for overstatement.Unlike its bigger, more well-known siblings in the hip-hop subgenre hierarchy, instrumental hip-hop still hasn’t had its true breakout moment.
He knew this would be his final piece of work to offer the world a final farewell. In the aftermath of his death, Yancey's final messages are manifested on very close inspection of this work. On first listen, the scrap-book style sloppiness ends up defining what was actually laboured on for hours. Despite sourcing from quite an obvious pool of samples (Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, 10CC, ESG), J Dilla still demonstrates an incredible ear in the tiny nuances and subtleties displayed in the compositions. He later produced electronic heavy beat-tapes that were widely circulated and whose stylistic signatures still resonate today.ĭonuts however saw him coming back to some sampling equipment and a stack of vinyl. He was producing for some of hip-hop's A-listers at an early age (Busta Rhymes, Tribe Called Quest, Erykah Badu), and later moved on to live instrumentation and was widely regarded as the driving creative force behind the Soulquarians (which consisted of The Roots, D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Common and Mos Def to name a few). Yancey mastered his craft throughout his career though, not just at the end of it.
Widely received as one of his best albums, the album is an exercise in the chop, layer, and loop aesthetic that is the requisite of any self-respecting hip-hop producer. Recorded whilst in his hospital bed, heavily medicated and dealing with the pain of a rare blood disease that would eventually take his life - this album is a testament to immense emotive and positive creativity in the face of physical and emotional hardship.
Donuts was released on February 7th on James Yancey's 32nd birthday.
0 kommentar(er)
