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

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The moving true story of a group of young men growing up on Chicago's West side who form the first all-Black high school rowing team in the nation, and in doing so not only transform a sport, but their lives. A. with never-before-told stories about the most prolific time and iconic place in rock 'n' roll history.

A chronicling of the journey with musical players + pursuits from Motown to Funk to Techno in Detroit rounds out this chapter.

Dilla time” means that there are multiple rhythmic feels simultaneously, some straight, some swung, some on the grid, some ahead of or behind the grid.

Cohan has proven to be one of the most meticulous and intrepid journalists covering the world of Wall Street and high finance. From the New York Times-best-selling author Sloane Crosley comes Look Alive Out There - a brand-new collection of essays filled with her trademark hilarity, wit, and charm. It is also completely undocumented; I can’t find one sentence about it in Dan Charnas’ book or anywhere else.An unforgettable firsthand account of a people's response to genocide and what it tells us about humanity. Among the dreamlike experiences James Yancey had since he met Q-Tip, none was so bizarre as the time that his other great hero spent several days at his house in Conant Gardens. The other was Michael Archer, a twenty-one-year-old pianist, composer, singer, and beatmaker from Virginia whose talents evoked the specter of a young Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Prince rolled into one. The book's heart is its rich, evocative musicological analysis, complete with rhythm diagrams, of Dilla's beats ("The hyperactive kick drum raced ahead of the samba sample, which in turn seemed to be racing ahead of the snare drum—which gave the paradoxical illusion that the snare was somehow late, making the beat feel oddly relaxed, tumbling endlessly forward").

There is a persistent belief that rhythm is “less intellectual” or “more instinctive” than harmony and therefore less worthy of serious study. A white brother and sister build a record company that becomes a monument to racial harmony in 1960’s segregated south Memphis. We learn about “straight” versus “swung,” notes nailed to a grid, deceleration, shifted timing, filtered basslines, his diabolical sampling modus operandi, precisely what “non-quantized” really means, and how this concept was anything but the Dilla cheat code many people thought it to be.All carefully curated into a cohesive story that gives you insight on what made Dilla, Dilla; and what it means to be human. Together—Tip, Ali, Jay Dee, plus Saadiq and D’Angelo—they’d be able to compete with the rise of powerful production teams like the Trackmasters and the Hitmen. The music that would come to be known as hip-hop was born at a party in the Bronx in the summer of 1973. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. It’s high-level journalism for the open-minded reader, J Dilla fans, Hip Hop heads, musicians, producers, DJs, casual fans, and music scholars.

When I started hearing Dilla’s name from my musician friends, I downloaded a few of his tracks at random. Whether you are a longtime fan of Dilla, or have never heard of him before, Dan Charnas makes readers want to know more about Dilla and other hip hop artists: Who is making what, what are they making, how exactly are they creatively innovating it, and what is the legacy they are leaving behind? Rolling Stone listed the book as one of the best music books of 2022, describing it as "elegantly written and deeply sourced. Childhood” has much more harmonic interest than “Billie Jean” does, because Childhood is supposed to be an emotional/sad song, whereas “Billie Jean” has a better beat, but it’s not really meant to be emotional in the same way. He also rewinds the histories of American rhythms: from the birth of soul in Dilla’s own “Motown,” to funk, techno, and disco.I don't know if he really understood how much his genius would really affect all who love him, his work, or were inspired by his work but the author and narrator did a great job of ensuring that we all know. Their producer, J-Swift, had split from the group after their gold-certified debut album Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde. Between 1698 and 1865, close to 4,000 Black people were born into slavery under the Balls or were bought by them. Always connecting to the personal connections in Dilla’s life and Black music culture without a hitch.