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Dilla Time
The Life and Afterlife of the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm and Changed the Way Musicians P
Dan Charnas(0)
About
It's Dilla Time. Finally. Dilla Time is the story of the invention of a new kind of time, a new kind of sound, by the most influential music producer of the last 25-years, someone you may never heard of: J. Dilla. He's revered by rappers and producers from Kanye to Kendrick Lamar, and he worked with the likes of Michael and Janet Jackson, but Dilla himself never rose to mainstream fame, despite revolutionizing the way music sounds before his untimely death at the age of 32.
In Dilla Time, Dan Charnas chronicles the life of J. Dilla, from his gifted childhood in Detroit, to the rare medical condition that caused his tragically premature death. He also records the histories of American rhythms: from the birth of funk and soul in Dilla's own Motown, to 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 totally new. With the help of analysis by musicologist Jeff Peretz, Charnas teaches us to "see" sound differently, giving time itself texture, color, pattern.
Dilla's beats, which, to the untrained ear, sound imprecise and chaotic, were born of the rigorous work ethic of a perfectionist almost spiritually devoted to his music. This is the story of the man, and the machines, that made up a new kind of time. Equal parts musicology, biography, and cultural history, Dilla Timeis a book as delightfully detail-oriented and as vibrantly original as J. Dilla's music.
In Dilla Time, Dan Charnas chronicles the life of J. Dilla, from his gifted childhood in Detroit, to the rare medical condition that caused his tragically premature death. He also records the histories of American rhythms: from the birth of funk and soul in Dilla's own Motown, to 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 totally new. With the help of analysis by musicologist Jeff Peretz, Charnas teaches us to "see" sound differently, giving time itself texture, color, pattern.
Dilla's beats, which, to the untrained ear, sound imprecise and chaotic, were born of the rigorous work ethic of a perfectionist almost spiritually devoted to his music. This is the story of the man, and the machines, that made up a new kind of time. Equal parts musicology, biography, and cultural history, Dilla Timeis a book as delightfully detail-oriented and as vibrantly original as J. Dilla's music.
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Reviews
"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
"[Dilla Time] do[es] what good music books should: send you back to the source material . . . Dilla Time is an important piece of music writing, affording its African-American subject the respect that the rock establishment has long accorded its white heroes."
The Economist
"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