detroit | Musicosity

detroit

Derrick May

Derrick May, also known as Mayday and Rhythim Is Rhythim, is an electronic musician from Belleville, Michigan U.S.A. He was born an only child in Detroit in 1963 and began to explore electronic music early in his life. Along with his Belleville, Michigan high school friends Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson, commonly known as the Belleville Three, May is credited with developing the futuristic variation on house music that would be dubbed "techno" by Atkins.

Artist Type: 

Seth Troxler

As a comparable youth on the scene, Seth Troxler's achievements far outweigh his tender age of 22. His Detroit roots are unmistakable and his recent relocation to Berlin has already earned him a place in the elite of the European techno scene. Seth's musical influences include the chirping of crickets, the whirring of space ships, and the sweet sounds of whistling voodoo magic. With much-hyped and played releases on revered labels such as Spectral, Wagon Repair and M_nus, each join the dots of his distinctive sexy techno sound.

Black Milk

There are multiple artists with this name: Black Milk, is a hip hop producer and MC Curtis Cross from Detroit, Michigan. In 2004 he formed B.R. Gunna with Young RJ, and Fat Ray, and together they released Dirty District: Vol. 2, a follow up to a compilation released in 2001 by Slum Village, which he had contributed production to. Black Milk released a solo album, Sound of the City, the following year and in 2006 he signed a record contract with Fat Beats Records. In the fall of 2006, he released an EP, entitled Broken Wax. March 13, 2007 he released a second album, Popular Demand.

Artist Type: 

Kenny Larkin

Profile: With the deluge of techno artists from all over the world making headlines, it's easy (although very wrong) to forget that techno was created in Detroit, Michigan by African-American visionaries like Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins and Derrick May. From there Kenny Larkin began his music career in 1990 after serving two years in the U.S. Air Force, where he was repairing computers. Hanging out at local Detroit clubs like The Music Institute and The Shelter, he soon hooked up with Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva records under a variety of monikers, including Dark Comedy, Pod and Yennek.

Artist Type: 

Theo Parrish

Theo Parrish grew up on Chicago house parties. He went to art school in Kansas City, and then moved to Detroit. His eclectic DJ sets in Detroit in the late '90s and early in this millennium are legendary. "Love of the music should be the driving force of any producer, performer or DJ. Everything else stems from that core, that love. With that love, sampling can become a tribute; An expansion on ideas long forgotten, reconstruction, collage.

Artist Type: 

Underground Resistance

Underground Resistance is the most militantly political outcropping of modern urban American techno. Combining a grubby, four-track aesthetic, an almost strictly DIY business philosophy, and an oppositional, militaristic ethos similar to Public Enemy without the drama (or the familiarity; the members refuse to be photographed without bandanas obscuring their identities), UR have redirected their portion of the Detroit techno legacy to social activist ends, trading mainstream popularity and financial success for independence and self-determination.

Phat Kat

Phat Kat (a.k.a. Ronnie Cash), (b. Ronnie Watts) is a rapper from the east side of Detroit. His career began in the mid 90's as part of 1st Down, which consisted of Phat Kat on vocals and Jay Dee on production. The group was short lived however, possibly because of insufficient support/promotion from their label, Payday, but the two continued to collaborate on many occasions afterwards, starting with an appearance on "Fat Cat Song" and it's remix, from Slum Village's Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol. 1). He also appeared on Jay Dee's Welcome 2 Detroit on the song "Featuring Phat Kat".

Artist Type: 

Waajeed

Waajeed (b. Robert O'Bryant) is a Detroit-born music producer, and one half of the hip hop and R&B group Platinum Pied Pipers. He formed the Bling47 record label & coinciding website/online store, Bling47.com [1] in 2002 and released an instrumental album called B.P.M.. Bling47 has also released projects by J Dilla and the vocalist Tiombe Lockhart. Before producing records, Waajeed was a DJ in and around the Detroit music circuit. As a producer Waajeed began comparatively late (2000), but before long had landed a handful of tracks on Slum Village's Trinity (Past, Present and Future) album.

Artist Type: 

Moodymann

Moodymann is the moniker under which Kenny Dixon Jr produces and DJs. He is a techno/house musician based in Detroit. He has created a thoroughly hybrid form of techno/house dance music via his innovative use of reworked riffs, samples and grooves taken from that city's historically influential jazz, soul, funk and disco scene. Some call it cut-up Detroit house. He offers a friendly wink backwards at the innovative early 1990s rave scene musicians through his extensive use of old movie sound track samples, mainly culled from the old blaxploitation and b-movie genres.

Artist Type: 

Kyle Hall

1) Kyle Julian Hall is a musician from Detroit, Michigan. 2) Kyle Hall is a singer songwriter from New Lennox, IL. 1) Kyle was Born July 17th 1991 on the West side of Detroit Michigan. Since birth Kyle Hall has always been attached and surrounded by music. He had no choice, ever since he was in his mothers stomach (i.e. her womb/ uterus) his ears were in tune to the sounds of his mother (Penny Wells) singing.