Media

J Dilla: 'Donut Shop' (FreEP)

4:15 p.m. · August 2, 2010 · by Andrew Martin

A track from this then purchase-only vinyl EP leaked a few months ago in the form of "Safety Dance,"which flipped the Men Without Hats jam into a scuzzy beat. And now, Stones Throw has decided to release Donut Shop to the masses for free as a thank you to the J Dilla supporters, be they listeners or DJs.

The label's relationship with the late producer, who also rapped, DJed and sang, goes back to around 2003, when Stones Throw released a single and subsequent full-length from his Jaylib collaboration with like-minded, blunted mad scientist Madlib. Dilla remained close with the imprint through and after his untimely death in 2006 with the release of his classic instrumental opus, Donuts, and posthumous works including the re-release of Ruff Draft.

Donut Shop features three unreleased Dilla beats, such as "Safety Dance" and "Bars & Twists" along with previously unreleased instrumentals for tracks such as Mos Def's "History" and Q-Tip's "Move." Aside from being essentially new to listeners, these have all apparently been remastered, too. Quite a nice treat, if you ask me.

You can download Donut Shop for free here.