Dominic Umile has a feature on the bright spots of Detroit Hip Hop’s underground in the latest issue of Metro Times.
Phat Kat, Black Milk and Guilty Simpson all chime in with the state of commercial radio and hip hop in general.
“When people start supporting those records like they should, then the integrity of the rap game will officially be back in effect. There’s no (radio) support. It’s basically all payola. We have a few DJs here in the city who are trying to rep Detroit hip hop, but when you have payola, and you’ve got a program director that’s telling you to play this record eight times today, no questions asked, you’re controlling a DJ’s freedom to play good music. I think the creative people should be the ones eating off rap music. The playing field is leveled, because the cookie-cutter rap ain’t even necessarily guaranteed platinum now, so I think it’s time for the real shit to resurface. I think it’s well on its way, and Black is a big part of that.”
- Guilty Simpson
“I hate to say it, man,” Kat says. “I love my city. I was born and raised here. But radio never, ever supported anything that we did. Detroit is a city of followers. Whatever is on BET right now, that’s what the radio stations are playing. We’re from here. We created the whole hip-hop culture in this city. And people never want to acknowledge it.”
- Phat Kat
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Fungus | 28-Mar-07 at 2:04 pm | Permalink
Word up. I grew up there, but never understood why the D never really repped what gems came out of it. Hopefully things will start to change soon… R.I.P. J Dilla.