É-town Concrète (@goaliefight.bsky.social)

I'm publishing this article on the 20th anniversary of the release of Donuts, by J Dilla. If you want to read a piece celebrating the legacy that James Dewitt Yancey left behind in its entirety, go elsewhere, but here's an abridged version of Dilla's story: Detroit rapper-producer mastered the AKAI MPC sampler, collaborated with the greatest artists on the edge of the Black underground music scene in the late 90s and early 00s, died young of autoimmune disease. Legend says that he produced at least some of these tracks while fighting lupus in a Los Angeles hospital. The more boring truth is that he was probably using Pro Tools and the album was sequenced, the tracks named, and possibly some of the beats were produced by Peanut Butter Wolf and Jeff Jank. Again, there's some really good, click-supported journalists who've written better pieces than I ever could, so let's just knuckle down and taste some pastries. https://doublebinary.neocities.org/blog/2026/j-dilla-donuts