... a 400-page biography out Feb. 1 that thoroughly examines the hip-hop producer’s unique approach.

If all of this seems extremely technical, trust that as Charnas offers examples and invitations to clap-along, you’ll soon hear—or rather feel—the beats landing slightly off-time.

... a detailed, well-researched, and passionate analysis of the music and life of the influential hip-hop composer, producer, and musician James Dewitt Yancey, aka Jay Dee or J Dilla. Charnas has written not simply a biography but, rather, an unconventional, journalistic documentation of musical sounds and their progressions in history and culture, whether originating in Africa, Europe, or elsewhere..

... exceptional.

... a music book that’s actually about the stuff of music.

... the sort of biography that makes you reconsider the body of work of an artist who you long knew was a genius. Charnas writes with an enthusiasm that shows a profound appreciation for his subject, but his deep dive into the history and place that made Dilla is what makes the book so engrossing. Charnas’s book is about Dilla as much as it is about Detroit, and the sounds and music icons his native city produced while, before, and after Dilla’s lifetime.

... is in large part a straightforward biography, whose subject doesn’t come out of it altogether sympathetically.

... engrossing.

Set against the atmospheric panorama of Detroit’s rap scene, Charnas’s probing narrative follows Dilla’s ascent through the hip-hop ranks.

... an ambitious, dynamic biography of J Dilla.