A new book — Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm, out now on MCD/Farrar, Straus, Giroux — chronicles the life and legacy of James DeWitt Yancey, the influential rapper and producer from Detroit whose promising career was cut short when he died in 2006 at age 32 following a battle with a rare blood disease. In this excerpt, shared exclusively with Metro Times, Yancey and his partner T3, then two-thirds of Detroit hip-hop group Slum Village, link up with NBA player John Salley and producer R.J. Rice to get Slum Village a record deal.