DONUTS 20 is a web-based installation celebrating the 20th anniversary of the legendary hip-hop producer and musician J. Dilla’s final album Donuts (released in 2006).
The interactive experience allows you to listen to his magnum opus track-by-track, alongside the sample source material, giving insight into Dilla’s process of sampling and crafting a new narrative via creative re-use, deconstruction, and recontextualization. By spinning the 3-D donut left and right, users navigate through the album audio, while a pull-out drawer displays the structural, surface, and lyrical samples used for each track. Visitors use headphones to listen, seamlessly comparing and cross-referencing the original samples with Dilla’s flips. The project combines aspects of interactive media art, music journalism, storytelling, and cultural archivism.
DONUTS 20 was exhibited as an installation on the 4th floor of NYU’s 370 Jay Street location for the Interactive Telecommunications Program in February 2026.
Technical Details
DONUTS 20 was built in React using Typescript, Three.js, Tone.js, Framer Motion, and Next.js. Research was compiled via publicly available sources including WhoSampled, Wikipedia, DillaData, Sampling Donuts, and Dilla Time.
Credits
Concept, design, development, & audio engineering: Jesse Fischer
3-D modeling: Dora Do
References & Prior Art
Dan Charnas, Dilla Time