In fact, I consider it required reading for any hip-hop journalist and side-eye anyone who tries to write about the business behind the music without reading it.Ĭharnas’ new book, Dilla Time, seeks to correct the egregious oversight mentioned above regarding the trailblazing producer by not only biographing Dilla’s life and career but also by breaking down the musical science behind his greatest innovation – what Charnas calls “Dilla time.” This is the distinctive time signature of Dilla’s drum programming which backed rap styles like The Pharcyde’s “ Runnin’,” A Tribe Called Quest’s “Word Play,” Q-Tip’s solo album Amplified, Common’s Like Water For Chocolate, Slum Village’s Fantastic, Vol.

A hip-hop everyman who’s worked in radio and as a label executive (he even produced my beloved Golden Age musical drama, T he Breaks, which was gone too soon), Charnas is a veteran of both the culture and the industry of hip-hop whose 2010 book The Big Payback is a vital read for any adherent of either the culture or the industry. That’s something that’s hard to countenance, let alone, contemplate as a longtime fan of not only hip-hop but of the unique, groundbreaking style that Dilla pioneered.Įnter Dan Charnas. Black Thought once called J Dilla the greatest hip-hop producer of all time but if you asked the average hip-hop fan, they might not be able to name one song the Detroit beatmaker produced.

Dilla Time by Dan Charnas