Donuts is not a drums record and it’s one of the reasons it’s so damned weird and can take so long to really get. Songs have drums, some of them have excellent drums–the way “Mash” and “Time” have like a mirror-image of the same pattern is brilliant–but there’s always something else grabbing for your ears. This is especially true on “Stepson of the Clapper” which despite being embroiled in hip-hop history (those killer Mountain drums and even Leslie West’s weird-voiced demand to “clap your hands” have ended-up on a ton of classic rap songs from any era and any coast), the drums kinda move into the background to make way for more not there but there snippets of vocals from that “clap your hands” part. This is another way that Dilla, on his way out, interacts with rap history and tweaks his own legacy, tossing in a brilliant, weird new take on a sample that’s been flipped to death.
Dilla also already freaked those drums on “Verbal Clap” off De La’s kinda slept-on The Grind Date and so, he circles around Leslie West’s downright adorable Long Island accent and turns it into something close to the squonking electronics you just heard on “Lightworks”. Once, he lets Leslie yell-out “On tempo” loud and clear and loops a longer snippet of crowd applause, but most of this is that Dilla thump and half-a-word “vocals” with the vocals taking over. It’s actually an ideal, ambient (in its own way) preface to “Twister (Huh What)” which begins with more live performance footage and an old showbiz drum roll–it’s like that Mountain thump come back in triple time–and is the first step back into weirdo soul half-loops that will be the norm until we’re back to horror-show sounds on “Geek Down”.
Are You A Serious Comic Book Reader?