Trans Dilla Express Jay Dee In Memoriam

I suppose now is as good a time as any to review Jay Dee's last full length, Donuts. I'd been planning to write some kind of obituary or tribute, but words have failed me for a few days now. Instead, I hunkered down with Donuts, and the instrumental version of Welcome 2 Detroit. Obviously, there's a lot more to his career than those two albums. But I strongly feel that those two albums, particularly Donuts, are crystal clear glimpses into the mind of a sonic genius. They are psychedelic soul masterpieces that defy genre, time, and space. Donuts is a 21st century Electric Ladyland. It's an experimental, mashed up, stream-of-conscious, post-modern epic that destroys genre boundaries with futuristic precision, and blurs the concepts of sampling and mixtapes into a cosmic blend of electro-surrealism and mesmerizing, artistic wizardry. Jay Dee truly was the hip hop equivalent of Jimi Hendrix. He left us way too soon. Yet he left behind an inspiring, enjoyable, mind-blowing body of work that will stand the test of time. He has altered the musical landscape permanently. He will be missed, but take comfort in the notion that immortal music lives forever.