If you’re a J Dilla fan, you probably know the tale of his last album. How he worked on his final album, Donuts, while in the hospital up until he died there. How eventually his health declined too much to use his fingers for very long. How he dictated to his mom, Ma Dukes, who held the sampling equipment at the side of his hospital bed.
The story of his final weeks is becoming something like oral history, and 19 years after his death, details are becoming fuzzier. What equipment were they using in the hospital room? How much instruction did Ma Dukes need? Did Dilla know where he was taking the song or was finding the sound as he went? Where did Ma Dukes sleep? Which songs did she work on? Who else came into the room at that time? Did Dilla know he was dying?
The thing that makes that story so compelling—Dilla’s fervent love of his craft and Ma Dukes’s fervent love of her son—shines through at all points in Dilla Time. The story of the hospital bed and the swollen fingers and Ma Dukes fits the weight of decades into one scene. Dan Charnas does a careful job of telling Dilla’s story without losing that essence. He makes sure we can see that spirit of devotion in each detail.
Beyond the heartbreaking, you get to meet his Detroit crew, like DJ House Shoes and Frank’n’Dank, and about the artists from the coasts that sought him out like Q Tip and Erykah Badu. You hear about his most exciting collabs, like with Madlib and the Soulquarians. You get a good amount of information about Detroit culture, Hip Hop during the birth of the web, and TTP—Dilla’s rare disease. You follow the trajectory that Donuts had after its posthumous release and the trajectory of his legacy. Yes, you will learn what “Dilla time” means too.
If you’re a J Dilla fan, you’ll appreciate the treatment Charnas gives and the bounty of Hip Hop history he offers.
And if you’re not yet a J Dilla fan… Try some Donuts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9dk_xtWpAkKXxzv_TfLWmlJj6G3quWQ2
Charnas, Dan. Dilla Time: the Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm. MCD. 2022.
