Hear MF DOOM Light Up J Dilla's 'Donuts' on a New Mash-Up Mixtape

David Begun imagines the producer's magnum opus as a bruising collaborative album with MF DOOM.

In the 15 years since it was released, J Dilla's final album, Donuts, has mostly lived in its original entirely instrumental form. But in the months ahead of the album's arrival, both Ghostface Killah and MF DOOM were reportedly writing to the late producer's beats from Donuts, two of which eventually appeared on the album as "Anti-American Graffiti" and "Geek Down." Both tracks were later featured on the Dilla Ghost DOOM EP, Sniperlite, in 2008, as well as respective releases from the rappers in the years following.

However, there were others not included on the project, stashed for a collaborative album from Dilla and DOOM that was altogether axed in the wake of the producer's death just three days after Donuts dropped. Which means it is at least conceivable that there is a parallel dimension in which Dilla lived long enough to see Donuts flipped into a collaborative album with the mighty Metal Face. And, sure enough, a new mixtape from David Begun imagines just what that might have sounded like.

On the producer's DOOMnuts blend, Begun stitches DOOM's brooding bars into the dusty soul splices of Dilla's magnum opus, bending and looping segments of 18 selections from the 2006 masterpiece to optimize them for the rapper's jaggedly unconventional cadence. DOOMnuts is Begun's third tape to utilize Dilla's instrumentals as backdrops. The producer previously released two volumes of a project pairing soul icon Marvin Gaye with classic and obscure Dilla beats. Begun's catalog also includes mash-ups of Tupac and Nipsey Hussle, Madlib and Black Star, Childish Gambino and Outkast, along with plenty of others.

Hear David Begun's MF DOOM and J Dilla twist-up below. Head over to the producer's Bandcamp page to dive into other mixes.