Can it really be that J Dilla's vastly influential hiphop album Donuts came out 10 years ago this month? It appears so. Donuts remains a paragon of sampladelic production techniques, combining unexpected structural shifts, sophisticated beat science, and an unerring ear for the deepest soulful vocal snippets. For an example of the latter, check out what Dilla does with Eddie Kendricks's "My People... Hold On" on "People." Another instance of Dilla's genius surfaces in "Workinonit," in which he locates the latent funk hiding within oddball British pop group 10cc's "Worst Band in the World." As DJ Supreme La Rock said in a 2012 feature in The Stranger in which I interviewed several Seattle producers for their insights on Dilla's game-changing artistry—"[Dilla] can take the stupidest record you wouldn’t even think of using or isn’t even funky and flip it into something magical."

The power of Donuts can also be found in this anecdote from the same feature by DJAO: "Among other things, this album helped me through a bad acid trip in college, a perfect synthesis of misery and gratitude. I listened to the Recipe for Tasty Donuts compilation while staring out the passenger side of an SUV in Costa Rica, as it ascended a perilous one-lane dirt road up a mountain, massive buses rounding corners in the 'opposite lane,' aka our lane, knowing I could die in the next five minutes, ultimately reaching the wildlife preserve we were headed toward, at peace with the entire experience. I guess in some ways I rely on the album to center me during tough times, the way you might rely on a partner, parent, or close friend to speak to you honestly."