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, and when he died at age
thirty-two, he had never had a pop hit. Yet since his death, J Dilla has
become a demigod, revered as one of the most important musical figures
of the past hundred years.
At the core of this adulation is
innovation: as the producer behind some of the most influential rap and
R&B acts of his day, Dilla created a new kind of musical time-feel,
an accomplishment on a par with the revolutions wrought by Louis
Armstrong and James Brown. Dilla and his drum machine reinvented the way
musicians play. In Dilla Time, Dan Charnas chronicles the life of
James DeWitt Yancey, from his gifted Detroit childhood to his rise as a
sought-after hip-hop producer to the rare blood disease that caused his
premature death.
He follows the people who kept Dilla and his
ideas alive. And he rewinds the histories of American rhythms: from the
birth of Motown soul to funk, techno, and disco. Here, music is a story
of what happens when human and machine times are synthesized into
something new.
This is the story of a complicated man and his
machines; his family, friends, partners, and celebrity collaborators;
and his undeniable legacy. Based on nearly two hundred original
interviews, and filled with graphics that teach us to feel and "see" the
rhythm of Dilla's beats, Dilla Time is a book as defining and unique as
J Dilla's music itself.
Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm - Dan Charnas
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£11.99