New Delhi, March 2 -- Twenty years ago, J Dilla changed the sound of hip-hop. The Detroit producer's second solo album Donuts-released on his 32nd birthday, on 7 February 2006-is a masterclass in post-modern beat-making, layering honeyed soul samples, off-kilter rhythms and fractured electro loops into a sound that bent time itself. Over 31 short tracks-only one crosses the 2-minute mark-he laid out a blueprint for how to humanise machine-made music, infusing programmed drum beats with all the warmth and soul of a drum maestro.

And then he died, three days after the record's release. His passing added a whole new layer of mystique to an already iconic record, cementing its place in musical history forever. Legends and myths proliferated ...