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The Midwest · Michigan · since 1995

1995
Midwest
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Detroit

Michigan
Off-kilter drums · battle rap · Dilla swing
Ride the roster1:40
Story, bloodline and 8 names

A battle-rap city that produced both the best-selling rapper alive and the most revered producer in the music. J Dilla's deliberately unquantised drums changed how a rhythm section plays — jazz and R&B musicians study him now — and Eminem came out of the same Hip Hop Shop open mics.

Bloodline · 2 stops from The Bronx
  1. 1973The Bronx
  2. 1982Queens
  3. 1995Detroit

TransferLong Island·The Bronx

Dilla studied Pete Rock and Premier bar for bar and then deliberately un-straightened the drums. The Hip Hop Shop's open mic ran on New York battle rules, which is where Eminem learned to win.

Slum VillageShady/D12Bruiser Brigade
Roster
1989
Eshamdeep cut

Coined "acid rap" as a teenager — Detroit's horrorcore original.

YTW
1996
J Dilla

Un-quantised swing. Musicians outside rap now teach it as technique.

YTW
1997
Slum Village

Dilla, Baatin and T3 — Fantastic Vol. 2, the Detroit rosetta stone.

YTW
1999
Eminem

The Slim Shady LP; the best-selling rapper in history, out of 8 Mile.

YTW
1999
Royce da 5'9"

Detroit's purest technician; twenty-five years of no drop-off.

YTW
2008
Elzhideep cut

Slum Village's successor; a rapper's rapper by unanimous consent.

YTW
2011
Danny Brown

XXX — a voice and a subject matter nobody else was attempting.

YTW
2011
Big Sean

Detroit's biggest pop-rap success, and its loudest booster.

YTW

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