Before Dilla, musicians either played straight time or swing time. "He's the only producer from the electronic music world to literally change the way musicians count and approach their instruments."Ĭharnas' book is presented as a biography but it's really an argument. "He's not a top or a best, he's an only," Dan told Okayplayer during a Zoom interview in mid-January. There is an issue here - there are hip-hop producers and then there is Dilla. Since 2006, and the mythical reputation Dilla's final release Donuts has garnered, there has been a growing movement to crown him as the greatest hip-hop producer of all time. The end result is an epic: one that blends the history of one man, a city and music.īefore Dilla's death at the age of 32, it was mainly close friend Questlove spreading the gospel of Dilla, mostly on the Boards of #ThatSite (or this site). He spent more than three years writing and reporting Dilla Time, interviewing over 200 close friends, family and collaborators. Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm (out February 1st, via Macmillan) is a rigorous examination of the life and influence of one of the most important figures in music history.Ĭharnas, who previously wrote The Big Payback (an essential history of the business of hip-hop), has a tendency to go big. In the decades that followed, Charnas would go from being an early admirer of Jay Dee to teaching an entire course at New York University about the influence of Dilla's methods to writing the definitive biography of the legendary producer. That initial meeting - which resulted in the deep album cut "Don't Say a Word" - sparked a 20-plus year journey for Charnas. "Chino has his arm around me and tells Dilla, 'Yo, you don't understand, this little kid right here, you're his favorite.' But I didn't know he was John Coltrane at that time." record executive working on Chino's sophomore album, I Told You So, said. "It was Jay Dee, Common, and me," Dan Charnas, who at the time, was a Warner Bros.
They met the young producer at his makeshift studio - aka the basement of his house - which was located in Conant Gardens, the neighborhood Jay Dee, who would later switch his moniker to J Dilla, grew up. In the summer of 1999, Dan Charnas and pugnacious rapper Chino XL traveled to Detroit to work with a burgeoning producer named Jay Dee. We spoke to Dilla Time author Dan Charnas about his extensive new book, J Dilla's complicated relationship with Q-Tip, and why he wants to recenter Slum Village and Fantastic Vol.
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