Detroit 2000s Hip Hop: Playlist of Reference

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We have the pleasure of continuing our awesome series featuring the stories behind some of the best playlists representing genres and subgenres of music on Whyd. Today, something that hits close to home for our Community Manager. Literally. 

Detroit is known around the world for the automobile industry. But there is something that Detroit has been producing this whole time as well, an equally international export: music. From the funky days of Motown, to the garage punk epoch, through the rise of electronic and most recently - the advent of Hip Hop, Detroit is in a constant state of creative evolution. Capturing an era that many can point to as its revival, The Backpackerz have put together their latest “Heavy Rotation” playlist around Hip Hop from the 2000s, “Detroit Hustles Harder.”  

Can you introduce yourselves? What is the idea behind The BackPackerz and when did you get started?

We are Antoine and Hugo, the two co-founders of The BackPackerz. We met at Toulouse Business School around 2012 and quickly discovered our common passion for Hip-Hop. Longtime rap addicts, we decided to create The BackPackerz while studying in Barcelona in 2013. In fact, we couldn’t find the type of content about Hip-Hop we’d like to read among the existing websites, especially in French, so we decided to create it ourselves!

The BackPackerz is a web-magazine dedicated to celebrating and educating its readers to Hip-Hop culture. Through in-depth analysis on cultural landmarks, interviews and reviews, the 12 members of our team are creating the freshest online resource for anybody interested in Hip-Hop culture. We also curate the best Hip-Hop events (concerts, festivals, exhibits) in France because HIP-HOP LIVES!

Where does your passion of Hip Hop come from?

Antoine: I was introduced to rap music very early, around my second year of middle school, by a friend’s brother who had me listening to NTM, IAM and the whole Hostile posse. At the beginning, I was on French rap mostly because I liked the rebel attitude that came along with it. Then I started to dig into the American rap from the 90s after I got struck by Cut Killer’s mixtape “Party Jam - 1989 1996, The Golden Age.” I was in high school when I first heard Nas’s “Illmatic,” A Tribe Called Quest’s “Midnight Marauders” and Wu-Tang Clan - “Enter the 36 Chambers” which are still my all-time favorite albums. At that time, I was spending hours translating lyrics and searching Urban Dictionary (a time before Rap Genius) to get a better understanding of what those cats were saying.

Later with Olivier Cachin’s books and films like “Wild Style,” I discovered Hip-Hop was not only a music genre but also a fascinating culture with other elements like graffiti and dance and tremendous impacts on our modern society. Since then, I kept reading and gathering artifacts (records, films and books) of this sublime culture. A few years ago, I realized this archiving work had to be shared so I decided to launch The BackPackerz with Hugo.

Hugo: My passion for Hip-Hop came later than Antoine’s. In High School, I began to listen to mainstream stuff such as 50 Cent or Eminem and I immediately fell in love with this music because it combined rhythms that made my head bang hard and dope lyrics spit with amazing technicality. Soon I would dig into the history of this genre and couldn’t stop, because every day I would discovered how deep and wide this culture was. At first, I was really into the producers (Preemo, Dilla, Pete Rock, Q-Tip…) and how they chopped samples etc..They were my entry door to real Hip-Hop, more than the MCs.

Tell us about the concept of your Heavy Rotation playlists?

The concept of the Heavy Rotation playlists is to bring to our readers 10 dope tracks every Monday, in order to soften the pain of this particularly hated day of the week. Most of the time you will find a selection of 10 hottest rap songs of the last couple of weeks but sometimes we build playlists around a specific subject: a genre (e.g beatmaking edition) a specific technique (e.g brass edition) or for a special occasion like this “Detroit Hustles Harder” edition for J Dilla month. There is no rule, it just depends on our mood! Now our readers are really looking forward for them to come out, because you know “Fuck it’s Monday…but at least I’m gonna hear dope music!”

What’s special about this Post 2000 Detroit Hip Hop playlist?

Originally, the idea of the post 2000 Detroit rap playlist came up while we were preparing our interview with Detroit superstars Phat Kat, Elzhi and Guilty Simpson (that we will drop in a couple of weeks). As we were deep-digging into our hard drives, we were amazed to see how prolific and brilliant the Detroit scene was in the 2K decade. From Slum Village, to Elzhi, Black Milk or the great Apollo Brown; it seems that Detroit has never stop shining since we changed millennium.

On top of that, releasing a fine selection of the dopest tracks from Detroit rappers was exactly what The BackPackerz is meant for: curate history to educate and entertain. The purpose of this playlist - along our article Detroit State Of Mind - is for our readers and followers to discover / remember the greatness of this scene over the past 20 years.

Curating the playlist, we realized this excellence would not have been the same without a man: James Dewitt Yancey a.k.a J Dilla or Jay Dee, one of the greatest producer of all time. If you look at the playlist, you’ll find Jay Dee’s legacy in almost every single track: as a producer, an influencer or in the lyrics. We decided to release this special Heavy Rotation in February since it is known among his fans as “J Dilla month” (as he was born and died during the month of February).

Track of the Weekend #122: Kendrick Lamar - “The Blacker The Berry”

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We’re only at the middle of February, on the historically superstitious day of Friday the 13th, and already one of the year’s biggest releases has reverberated around the globe propelling the single to the top of the Hot Tracks here in Paris. Kendrick Lamar just scooped up a GRAMMY for best rap performance for “i” (for which he also claimed the much more prestigious Whyd Track of the Weekend), and his newest effort “The Blacker The Berry" encapsulates the perilous state of race, spitting his signature verses with anger across reggae calls all summed up with the proud statement: "The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice.

A big thanks to Encee x Kalab’s for getting it to Whyd first! 

Track of the Weekend #103: Kendrick Lamar - “i”

Kendrick Lamar has been making music for a while, but it wasn’t until 2012’s “good kid, m.A.A.d city” that he received heaps of critical acclaim and world wide fame. Now, he’s back at it again, and is heading in a much poppier direction with "i" his new single that sounds almost too mainstream for the rapper who specialized in letting his verse take precedence to his melodies. But no one can deny the instantly catchy result, and “i” has rocketed to the top of the Whyd Hot Tracks, being played over 3 million times in less than a week on Soundcloud. Congrats to Cynthia Sirugue for getting her first track of the weekend! 

A Whyd Connection Story: Jean Vance Plays Geneva April 26th

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Here at Whyd we are motivated by the endless possibilities that come from connecting music lovers around the world. Nothing makes us prouder than to hear about a connection that comes to life in the real world. So it is with great pleasure that we can tell you about an awesome event on Saturday, April 26th in Geneva, Switzerland. 

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Track of the Weekend #70: Fixpen Sill + 20syl - “Obsession”

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A gastro/stomach flu filled week is finally coming to a close, but there has been some epic music shared across Whyd, helping to cope with the writhing stomach pain, dry heaving, and chills while wrapped up in bed. Most notably, two intriguing French forces came together for a track called “Obsession" a refreshing commentary on hip hop and rap from Fixpen Sill (a hip hop duo from Nantes/Paris) and 20syl, one of the members of Whyd favorites C2C. If you haven’t heard the track yet, you can instantly identify 20syl’s signature style, and Fixpen Sill’s lyrics are pretty entertaining, if you speak French is, but the key takeaway is the chorus: "Rap is something you do, hip hop is something you live."

Congrats to Raphael RC from TUNE X TUNE for nailing this Track of the Weekend! 

Track of the Weekend #58: Tyler The Creator - “Tamale”

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This week’s hottest track is something that spits fire directly into your face, and then cools it off with a saddening coda that leaves you feeling like the rapper abandoned you. That rapper is rising star Tyler the Creator, whose abrasive style has been creating fans around the world. That, of course, and the video, which is absurd, hilarious, and features some serious cat riding. Whatever you think of it “Tamale" will not be something that leaves your memory bank in the near future. Big congrats to Pierre Larmina for landing his first Track of the Weekend! 

Interview with Lightfoot: Hip Hop from Boston

1. Can you tell us about yourself? How does your personality show up in your music?

My name is Lightfoot, and I’m a sample-free hip hop producer out of Boston MA.  I grew up on all sorts of different music, but sometime around high school, I really fell in love with hip hop.  I’m not just talking about rap music either; I really fell in love with the whole culture. The DJs, the b-boys, the graffiti, it all took a pretty strong hold on me, and my growing appreciation for the culture made me want to be a part of it.  

I wasn’t great at drawing so Grafitti didn’t work, I didn’t have good enough equipment to DJ, and dancing was never going to happen for me, so beat making was the obvious choice.  When I first started making music, I was really influenced by artists like MF DOOM and Mad lib, so my beats were very “boom bap” and sample heavy.  I loved that traditional hip hop feel, so it was important for me to replicate that in my music.  As i continued to make beats however, I began stepping away from sampling, and really tried to force myself to make original productions.  This was due to the ever evolving legality issues with rap music as well as my own desire to feel more satisfied after making a beat.  As I shifted my methods I also departed from only listening to underground hip hop and started expanding into other genres such as electro and indie rock. I then began to mesh all of these influences together whenever i sat down to make a beat.  

I always try to make my music emotional (probably because I’m an emotional dude) and I always try and make it interesting, but ultimately I just make music and try and let things happen organically, and hope that I come up with something good as a result.

2. When did you start producing music and when did it click that you had to pursue it seriously?

I think I made my first “beat” (i use that term VERY loosely) when i was in 8th or 9th grade.  I ended up with a copy of fruity loops somehow and decided to do some exploring.  The results were pretty bad, but they were my first so they are cool in that respect.  I did this on and off for about 6 or 7 years until i finally met my mentor and good friend The Arcitype.  I started interning at his recording studio, and was able to see how a professional producer operates.  It blew my mind and gave me so much inspiration that I ended up quitting my job and focused all of my efforts on music.  It lightened the wallet tremendously, but it allowed me to really hone my craft and in doing so find what I truly love to do.  I haven’t looked back since, and have been enjoying every second of it.

3. What’s the Boston music scene like? 

The music coming out of Boston is pretty awesome.  There is a wide range of material that fits almost any palate, and a lot of it is pretty unique.  Unfortunately A LOT of it is unknown, even to people who reside in Boston.  That is the real downfall of this place.  We don’t really have an active listening community here.  People have their cliques, and their specific artists who they support, and rarely depart from that.  This makes for poorly attended shows, and hard for newer artists to break out.  

Boston is also particularly hostile to rap shows.  It seems like every day another venue closes its doors to hip hop.  This is due to a number of reasons (which may or may not be valid), but it makes it very hard to navigate and expand in the hip hop scene here.  You kind of just need to cross your fingers and hope you meet the right person who will introduce you to their scene, which may or may not be a good one.  All in all, the music itself is great.  Some of my favorite artists come from Boston, so I will always be a fan of the music this city produces.  My main beef, and quite frankly only beef, are the promoters and venues in the city.  They don’t allow for this place to breathe and evolve the way it should.  I love Boston though, and I will always be a part of this city musically.

4. What should we look forward to from you in the near future?

I’m actually currently wrapping up an EP I have been working on with my rapper homie Andrew Milicia.  Collectively we go by “Remains”, and our EP is titled “Ei8ht Se7en”.  I’m pretty excited for the drop and eager to share our work.  The project will be available as a free download on Bandcamp.  Andrew is a super talented rapper/lyricist/songwritter, and i love the beats on the record so it’s definitely something I’m proud of. I also have a bunch of other projects in the works, but everything is still in the early stages so I can’t speak on them just yet. I’m certainly staying busy though, so there will be plenty of music in the future.  In the meantime you can check out my instrumental album i put out last fall called “The Rudimentals” which is available on iTunes/Spotify/Pandora.  Cheers!

Thanks Lightfoot! Make sure you take a listen to his work on Soundcloud, like his Facebook page, follow him on Twitter, and of course subscribe to him on Whyd