Back in May, the folks at Stones Throw dropped another posthumous release from the late, great J. Dilla, an EP that features—along with the actual music—two Serato control records and two donut slipmats. Three of Donut Shop‘s six tracks are instrumentals of tunes lifted from recent releases, and the other three—including this tune, “Sycamore”—are unreleased productions hand-selected by J.Rocc from Dilla’s archives. Not much can be said about a Dilla beat that isn’t hip-hop common knowledge, even with a fresh track. The dirty shuffle of the producer’s drum-machine rhythms and thick bass-synth funk are paired with a bit of MPC noodling for another gritty classic. And as per usual with the legend’s work, “Sycamore” doesn’t need the help of an MC to keep things interesting through its two and a half minutes.

You can download all of Donut Shop for free if you sign up for Stones Throw’s newsletter, here. (via Gorilla vs. Bear)

02 Sycamore