Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm

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The book’s heart is its rich, evocative musicological analysis, complete with rhythm diagrams, of Dilla’s beats. . . Charnas’s engrossing work is one of the few hip-hop sagas to take the music as seriously as its maker.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) This program contains examples of J Dilla's music performed in the story by drummer Nate Smith and is accompanied by a bonus PDF of maps, photos, guides, and more. It’s no ordinary book. . . equal parts biography, musical analysis and cultural history delving deep not only into Dilla’s history and music but also into the histories of rhythm and his hometown of Detroit.” — Variety An ambitious, dynamic biography of J Dilla, who may be the most influential hip-hop artist known by the least number of people. . . A wide-ranging biography that fully captures the subject’s ingenuity, originality, and musical genius.” It is not true that harmony lends itself to interpretation better. You may not have the vocabulary for interpreting it, but that does not mean that the vocabulary doesn’t exist. When you say that rhythm is “more bodily and less intellectual”, you are repeating a white supremacist axiom that has no basis in reality. If it’s the same brain structures processing the different dimensions of music, then how is one dimension more or less “bodily”?

Charnas, Dan (2022). Dilla time: the life and afterlife of J Dilla, the hip-hop producer who reinvented rhythm. New York: MCD, Farrar, Straus and Giroux . Retrieved 7 September 2023.

Dilla Time

By no means is Dilla Time an easy read. There are nightmarish tales of his rugged bout with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and lupus, detailing excruciating hospital experiences, a possible misdiagnosis, and Dilla’s own fears foreshadowing his eventual demise. After his death, the author confronts some painful realities with regard to the estate, leftover tax debt, and in-fighting between the heirs, some folks talking out of turn, plus lawyers, lengthy lawsuits, lost albums, and all the bullsh*t that has dogged Dilla’s legacy since he passed away in February 2006. Charnas’s book isn’t only, or even chiefly, about the complexities of the man, though it makes room for them. It is mostly about the complexities of his music’– Francis Gooding, London Review of Books a b c Lentini, Liza (1 February 2022). "Dan Charnas's Dilla Time: The Life And Afterlife Of J Dilla, The Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm". Spin . Retrieved 5 March 2023.

One of the most extraordinary music books I’ve ever read … If you care about music and want to experience it more deeply … this book is full of revelations’– Craig Morgan Teicher, The Paris ReviewThis book is a must for everyone interested in illuminating the idea of unexplainable genius.” —QUESTLOVE Stunning portrait of the short life and fast times of James Dewitt Yancey. . . sad, funny and unfailingly humane, it’s not only one of the best books this writer has ever read about hip-hop but also sets a new gold standard for writing about music full stop."— Ben Johnson, Mojo Magazine An updated new edition of Ted Gioia's universally acclaimed history of jazz, with a wealth of new insight on this music's past, present, and future. By the way, here’s another great Herbie sample flip by Dilla, and a more subtle usage of Herbie’s vocoded singing.)

One of the best music books ever made and an instant hip-hop classic. Dan Charnas demystifies the iconic producer (and underrated emcee) J Dilla who has sometimes been posthumously deified as a virtuous underground beatmaker when his reality was much more complicated and unstable. A portrait of a complex genius taken too young, as well as a glorious study of the music and culture he created’ – Spin The book’s heart is its rich, evocative musicological analysis, complete with rhythm diagrams, of Dilla’s beats. . . Charnas’s engrossing work is one of the few hip-hop sagas to take the music as seriously as its maker.”After they left Q-Tip’s crib with the beat tape in hand, Tre got suspicious. Q-Tip is pushing us onto some mysterious, new producer that nobody’s ever heard of, from a city that hardly any hip-hop has come out of, but the beats are banging and sound just like Q-Tip’s stuff? I recently finished reading Dan Charnas’ book Dilla Time. It’s a good one! If you are interested in how hip-hop works, you should read it. The book’s major musicological insight is elegantly summed up by this image:

An uneven biography that could've been edited down in the biography portions and more fleshed out in the theory portions. Dilla Time is a portrait of a complex genius taken too young, as well as a glorious study of the music and culture he created.” — Spin There's this feeling you get when you read something by someone who really cares, like realllllllllly cares about what they're sharing. His foundational understandings of music were also a notable theme through these chapters. In addition, Charnas details a deep history on the incorporation of machines into music. From metronomic machines to synthesizers to beat machines, each evolution in machine was complimented by a new musical development: Techno in Detroit forming alongside House (Chicago) and Electro (NYC). For the rap nerds and Dillaphiles, Charnas takes readers inside a plethora of the producer’s most crucial collaborations. Dilla’s embryonic lair in the Yancey family’s basement in Conant Gardens. Primordial Slum Village studio sessions at RJ Rice’s in Detroit. Inter-band fistfights recording The Pharcyde’s “Runnin’” on Delicious Vinyl. Production squad The Ummah’s inception, explosion, and dissolution, and how it affected Dilla’s relationship with Q-Tip moving forward.

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