Dan Charnas

Biography

Daniel Louis Charnas (born August 30, 1967) is an American author, radio host and record company executive. He is considered to have played a role in the creation of hip-hop journalism. A native of New York City, Charnas graduated with honors from Boston University in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in communications. In 2007, Charnas earned a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. His master's thesis was titled Shocked: Birthright Unplugged challenges Birthright Israel in an epic battle for the hearts and minds of American Jews. As a radio personality, Charnas hosted a segment on KPWR in Los Angeles. As a journalist he was a writer for the hip-hop magazine The Source. He became a talent scout for Profile Records and later ran the rap division of American Recordings in a joint venture with Warner Bros. Records. In 2010 he wrote the book The Big Payback about the history of the hip-hop business. In 2022 his book Dilla Time, on the life and works of hip-hop producer J Dilla, was published. Charnas is an associate professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and has been a thesis advisor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Charnas received the Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism from the ASCAP Foundation in 2025.

Bio from Wikipedia