Hey everyone, it's Justin Richmond. Today on the show, we're talking to Dan Charnis.

Dan Charnis is many things. He's an author, hip-hop journalist, professor, showrunner,

former A&R person for Deaf American, and also a longtime friend of Rick Rubens. With the

handful of books under his belt and awards like the Pulitzer Fellowship for Art's Journalism,

his latest book, Dilla Time, The Life and After Life of Jay Dilla, the hip-hop producer

who reinvented rhythm, is the product of four years of exhaustive research in nearly 200

interviews. On today's episode, Rick Rubens speaks with Dan Charnis about how the roots

of his new book go all the way back to when they were working together and a trippy took

to Detroit with rapper Chino XL to work with the producer then known as JD. Rick and

Charnis also reminisce about their earliest memories together and Charnis shares what it

was like meeting Rick's mother, Mrs. Ruben, for the first time.

This is Broken Record, liner notes for the digital age. I'm Justin Richmond. Here's Rick

Ruben and Dan Charnis on the Genius of Jay Dilla, but first we'll hear a bit of background

on Dan's career and relationship with Rick all leading up to his new book.

Do you remember how we actually met? First time we met. I do. Tell me. I got a phone call.

I was sitting in the conference room at Profile Records, getting ready to call my panel

of rap record retailers when the receptionist said, Rick's on the phone. I just knew of all

the ricks I knew. I just had a premonition. It was you, even though we had never met, because

I had put it in my mind for the last, I don't know, two months that I was going to meet

you. I had not told anybody. I had not told Bill Stephanie, who I guess is the person

who connected us. I pick up the phone and there you were. You were looking for somebody

to either help you out with a deaf American in terms of hip hop stuff or Warner Brothers

...