WINNER OF THE PEN JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"This book is a must for everyone interested in illuminating the idea of unexplainable genius."
-QUESTLOVE Equal parts biography musicology and cultural history Dilla Time chronicles
the life and legacy of J Dilla a musical genius who transformed the sound of popular music for
the twenty-first century. He wasn't known to mainstream audiences even though he worked with
renowned acts like D'Angelo and Erykah Badu and influenced the music of superstars like Michael
Jackson and Janet Jackson. He died at the age of thirty-two and in his lifetime he never had a
pop hit. Yet since his death J Dilla has become a demigod: revered by jazz musicians and rap
icons from Robert Glasper to Kendrick Lamar memorialized in symphonies and taught at
universities. And at the core of this adulation is innovation: a new kind of musical time-feel
that he created on a drum machine but one that changed the way "traditional" musicians play.
In Dilla Time Dan Charnas chronicles the life of James DeWitt Yancey from his gifted
childhood in Detroit to his rise as a Grammy-nominated hip-hop producer to the rare blood
disease that caused his premature death and follows the people who kept him and his ideas
alive. He also rewinds the histories of American rhythms: from the birth of soul in Dilla's own
"Motown " to funk techno and disco. Here music is a story of Black culture in America and of
what happens when human and machine times are synthesized into something new. Dilla Time is a
different kind of book about music a visual experience with graphics that build those concepts
step by step for fans and novices alike teaching us to "see" and feel rhythm in a unique and
enjoyable way. Dilla's beats startling some people with their seeming "sloppiness " were
actually the work of a perfectionist almost spiritually devoted to his music. This is the story
of the man and his machines his family friends partners and celebrity collaborators. Culled
from more than 150 interviews about one of the most important and influential musical figures
of the past hundred years Dilla Time is a book as delightfully detail-oriented and unique as J
Dilla's music itself.
