Dilla Time

By Dan Charnas,

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

Book description

It's Dilla Time. Finally. Dilla Time is the story of the invention of a new kind of time, a new kind of sound, by the most influential music producer of the last twenty-five years, someone you may never have heard of: J. Dilla. He's revered by rappers and producers from…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Dilla Time as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I think music is magic. Sometimes, it feels like reading about music deflates its inherent mystery. When I finished Dilla Time, it was like I had taken mushrooms and could see beat patterns with my mind’s eye. Although a good portion of Dilla Time is biographical, the parts I love are the chapters explaining how rhythm works, and Charnas dives deep into this topic.

The biography portion strengthens those sections because Dilla fundamentally changed the rhythm of pop music. I read this book, and my understanding of rhythm completely changed—and I am a drummer! Plus, the mixed-media, multi-formatted content is…

From Aaron's list on music books with a unique twist.

I never related to “hardcore” hip-hop when I was younger. NWA was too much for me. Even some Public Enemy hit my ears with a harshness that was hard to overcome.

It was the music of De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest that sparked my need to become a poet. J Dilla is the pulse of that music, and all 90s hip-hop, in my opinion.

This book is a music lover’s dream. It goes deep into Dilla’s process and talks about his beat machines (as an electronic musician, I can’t get enough of those pages). This book is…

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Tap Dancing on Everest By Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up…

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