Donuts
by J Dilla
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J Dilla bestography
Donuts is ranked as the best album by J Dilla.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Donuts on YouTube
Donuts track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Donuts rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 6 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | mttr-in-plc | Top 96 Music Albums of the 2000s | 75/96 | 5 |
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Top 91 Music Albums of 2006 | 87/91 | 0 |
| 2026 | jonny5244 | Top 46 Music Albums of 2006 | 4/46 | 5 |
| 2026 |  viquel | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 63/100 | 37 |
| 2026 |  Glitterboiii | 100 Hip-Hop Essentials | 60/100 | - |
| 2026 |  pranafilms | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 13/100 | 88 |
| 2026 |  ForegroundNoise | Top 50 Music Albums of the 2000s | 39/50 | 5 |
| 2026 | jtrizzle35 | Top 69 Music Albums of the 2000s | 17/69 | 15 |
| 2026 | ThaCrookedSpoke | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 34/100 | 66 |
| 2026 |  covecove | Top 100 Music Albums of 2006 | 13/100 | 4 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 475 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 3,964 | |||
Donuts collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 142 members
Donuts ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 538 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 10/09/2026 07:52 | pharoahstune | 255 | 79/100 |
| ! | 09/06/2026 22:39 | xhitmanx | 1,604 | 75/100 |
| ! | 09/02/2026 16:28 | RemainInLight | 3,827 | 36/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 81.3/100, a mean average of 79.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 81.5/100. The standard deviation for this album is 17.9.
Donuts favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 84 members
Donuts forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 10/04/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5455): By ThaCrookedSpokeView latest topic →
BestEverAlbums 10/02/2026 08:18 in Monthly overall chart movements - September 2026View latest topic →
pedro1976 08/06/2026 22:21 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)View all forum mentions
Donuts comments
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YEEZY 11/04/2019 00:04 | #244416 | TOP COMMENT
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On the 7th of February 2006, after around 4 months of label disputes J Dilla's 'Donuts' was finally released.
3 days later he was dead.
Donuts is so much more than just a beat tape, it's the final swan-song of a dying man who felt that in his final moments he had to push himself into making something worth being remembered by. 29 out of the 31 tracks were recorded from a hospital bed in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with nothing but an Boss SP-303 small 45 record player his friends had brought him as a gift, Dilla was undergoing treatment for TPP and lupus, records that his mother would bring him were used as the sources of the sampling for the album. It's a common complaint that all of the songs here are too short and fleeting, but to me it's perfect. It's sort of hauntingly symbolic of how life itself is too short and fleeting, but personal meaning aside, every song here is so lush and beautiful, tiny little details are spread across all 31 tracks, it's impossible to listen to them and not hear something new. I wish they could go on forever. I really do.
I am not worthy of listening to this. I can't even believe this thing exists. I listen to this and I think about how terrifying death is, how scared Dilla must have been. there are no words to describe how breathtaking this music is.
fuck.
RIP. (Edited)
Incredible. In the class of Endtroducing... and one of the best albums of last decade. (Edited)
Sometype 02/01/2016 17:16 | #158410 | TOP COMMENT
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Reading up on the making of this album made it so much more personal and hardhitting. (Edited)
KingNoCrown 07/17/2015 21:35 | #145991 | TOP COMMENT
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One of the most personal and beautiful albums I have ever heard. You feel as if you are in the hospital room with him while he crafts every beat and plays it for you. Simply just beautiful.
Applerill TOP 100 COMMENTER 09/23/2011 00:36 | #27758 | TOP COMMENT
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A bit ADD for me, but I still like this kind of instrumental hiphop. Also, is it just me, or does he keep repeating the line "P-Funk" in every track?
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