We interviewed Charnas from his Harlem, New York, apartment about the book and Dilla's legacy. Worthy of your time: The author created J Dilla playlists on Spotify and Tidal. His synthesizer resides at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.īetween the lines: Charnas spent more than four years on the project and interviewed more than 190 people, including Dilla's family members, close associates and artists such as D'Angelo, Questlove and Q-Tip.Dilla died at 32 in 2006 from a rare blood disease.Although he barely broke through to mainstream audiences during his life, Dilla's innovative use of drum machines have not just endured, but have elevated him to genius status.He changed all genres."Ĭatch up quick: A solo artist, producer and member of the group Slum Village, J Dilla (real name James Dewitt Yancey, aka Jay Dee) was born and raised in Detroit. "That's the tiny bit - literally changed the way musicians all over the world think about musical time and play their instruments. "He didn't just influence hip-hop," Charnas says of his subject.Why it matters: The Library of Michigan recently named Charnas' book, " Dilla Time," among 2023's notable books.
"Even though I loved Jay Dee, I didn't realize that there was a whole new kind of history taking place in that basement," Charnas tells Axios.It sparked Charnas' immersion into Dilla's techniques and global impact that eventually led to a biography on the Detroit legend.As a music executive in the late 1990s, Dan Charnas' first visit to J Dilla's basement in Conant Gardens showed him much more than just where the Detroit legend made music.
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