"Equal parts musicology, biography, and cultural history, Dilla Time chronicles the invention of a new kind of beat by the most underappreciated musical genius of our time"-- Provided by publisher.

J Dilla wasn't known to mainstream audiences: in his lifetime he never had a pop hit. Since his death he has been revered by jazz musicians and rap icons for a new kind of musical time-feel that he created on a drum machine, which changed the way "traditional" musicians play. Charnas chronicles the life of James DeWitt Yancey, from a childhood in Detroit, to his rise as a Grammy-nominated hip-hop producer, to the rare blood disease that caused his premature death; and follows the people who kept him and his ideas alive. Along the way Charnas rewinds the histories of American rhythms, a story of Black culture in America and of what happens when human and machine times are synthesized into something new. -- adapted from jacket