Living for the City

Don Was is a Detroit native who went from playing bar gigs and gypsy weddings around the city to producing the Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt, and Bob Dylan, and eventually running Blue Note Records. This is his full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

Was traces the raw, unpretentious sound of Detroit back to the city's one-industry economy and the immigrant communities, Mexican, Arabic, Eastern European, Southern, who brought their music with them after World War II. He talks about coming up broke in the 1970s, working bar gigs for ten dollars a night, and the strange turning point that came from an involuntary Dale Carnegie sales course after he took a job repairing copy machines. He also explains why Detroit's lack of a mentorship culture in engineering and production, unlike the scene around players like Marcus Belgrave, forced him and his peers to invent their own methods, and why that isolation became a creative advantage rather than a handicap.

He also breaks down the Detroit radio landscape that shaped him, from the Grande Ballroom and the Amboy Dukes to Electrifying Mojo, the DJ whose genre-blind playlists reshaped how Warner Brothers marketed Black and white artists and helped give rise to Detroit techno. He talks about producing Bonnie Raitt's Nick of Time as a turning point for women in rock, the studio access that only a broke city like Detroit could offer him, and why he eventually moved back home to record his own album with Don Was & The Pan Detroit Ensemble.

CHAPTERS

00:21 - Detroit's Blue Collar DNA and the Rawness of Its Music

03:26 - The Musical Jambalaya: How Immigrant Communities Shaped Detroit's Sound

04:40 - Broke in Detroit: Bar Gigs, Debt, and the Dale Carnegie Course That Changed Everything

08:51 - No Mentorship, No Cliches: How Isolation Forced a New Sound

13:29 - The Grande Ballroom, the Mump, and Teenage Freedom

17:45 - George Clinton's Sock Hop, Bob Seger's Voice, and the Golden Age of Detroit Radio

21:14 - Electrifying Mojo: The DJ Who Changed Music Globally

26:11 - Bonnie Raitt's Nick of Time and a Turning Point for Women in Rock

28:51 - Leaving Detroit and the Advantage of Learning in Isolation

31:28 - Coming Home: Don Was & The Pan Detroit Ensemble, and Why You Should Never Give Up

LINKS

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@LivingfortheCityPod

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5KYTveuTY4nydCKG8yTxjJ?si=c184740e2d9f43b5

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/living-for-the-city/id1895831267

Stay connected!

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/livingforthecitypod/

TAGS / KEYWORDS

Don Was, Don Was interview, Rolling Stones producer, Blue Note Records, Was Not Was, Bonnie Raitt Nick of Time, Electrifying Mojo, Detroit techno history, Grande Ballroom, Detroit radio history, Detroit music history, Marcus Belgrave, Pan Detroit Ensemble, Detroit hip hop history, Living for the City podcast, Hanif Abdurraqib, Detroit music culture, Side Stage Network, Live Nation podcast

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Guilty Simpson is a Detroit MC and one of the few artists J Dilla chose to build an entire album around, a rapper whose commitment to craft and storytelling represents the city's hip hop underground at its most rigorous. This conversation was recorded in Detroit on what would have been J Dilla's birthday. This is his full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

Simpson talks about being in the studio with Dilla, who made beats in headphones while casually holding a conversation, cycling through three or four sequences at once. He explains how he was the last artist Dilla worked with before he passed, how Stones Throw later found lost songs like Take Notice and Stress on his hard drives, and how meeting Dilla at an open mic at Lush Lounge in Hamtramck, through DJ Tony Tone, changed the course of his life within days.

He also breaks down the fierce open mic scene that shaped him, where you couldn't rap like anybody else and keep the mic the next week, and how House Shoes' Wednesday nights at St. Andrew's Hall worked like a history class. He talks about building a Detroit sound out of Scarface and G Rap influences, why he stayed in the city through his mother's cancer diagnosis even as friends like House Shoes and Black Milk moved away, and pays tribute to Nasaan, the son of his late friend Proof.

CHAPTERS

00:19 - Meeting on Dilla's Birthday: An Introduction

00:45 - In the Studio With Dilla: Multitasking, Headphones, and Beats in Sequence

02:24 - The Last Artist Dilla Worked With, and the Songs Stones Throw Found After He Passed

05:04 - Dilla the Ghost: House Shoes, St. Andrew's Hall, and Learning Detroit's History

09:47 - The Open Mic Scene: Fierce Competition and Finding Your Own Style

11:56 - Meeting Dilla at Lush Lounge and the Phone Call That Changed Everything

15:14 - Building a Detroit Sound: Scarface, G Rap, and World-Building Through Rap

19:04 - Mentorship, Risk, and Staying Protective of the Craft

28:42 - Why Hip Hop's Storytelling Outlasts Trends

30:31 - Staying in Detroit, His Mother's Cancer, and a Tribute to Nasaan

LINKS

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@LivingfortheCityPod

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5KYTveuTY4nydCKG8yTxjJ?si=c184740e2d9f43b5

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/living-for-the-city/id1895831267

Stay connected!

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/livingforthecitypod/

TAGS / KEYWORDS

Guilty Simpson, Guilty Simpson interview, J Dilla, Dilla, Ode to the Ghetto, Stones Throw Records, Detroit hip hop, St. Andrews Hall, House Shoes, Lush Lounge Hamtramck, Detroit rap history, Detroit hip hop underground, Proof D12, Nasaan, Living for the City podcast, Hanif Abdurraqib, Detroit music culture, Side Stage Network, Live Nation podcast

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Bill Blackwell has been Bob Seger's tour manager for 50 years, a career that puts him at the center of Detroit's rock and roll story from the sock hops of the late 1960s through stadium tours decades later. This is his full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

Blackwell traces Seger's regional grind, driving through the night to play shows in Florida for a broken record. He recounts the electric night Live Bullet was recorded at Cobo Hall, and the Pontiac Silverdome show that turned 80 people in Chicago into 80,000 fans almost overnight. He talks about the vanished Detroit venues that shaped the city's live music scene, and his own start as a college entertainment director booking Ted Nugent and the Pretty Things. And he explains why Seger always closed the show, even when Peter Frampton's team pushed for top billing weeks before Frampton Comes Alive turned Frampton into a superstar.

He also tells the story of the Canadian customs officer who pulled him and Seger off a routine border crossing just to get his Live Bullet album autographed. He remembers caddying for Seger's celebrity golf round with Tiger Woods at the Buick Open. And he explains how a 90-minute soundcheck before every single show became the standard, one that never changed no matter how big the tours got.

CHAPTERS

00:25 - First Time Seeing Bob Seger: The 1969 Sock Hop and the Regional Grind

03:33 - Recording Live Bullet at Cobo Hall and the Night That Changed Everything

06:41 - The Work Ethic: 90-Minute Soundchecks and "Making It Right for the Fans"

10:09 - Detroit's Lost Venues and the College Booking Days

13:56 - Staying Rooted in Detroit: Auto Worker Paydays and "The Fans Own 80 to 85% of the Setlist"

18:31 - Golfing With Tiger Woods at the Buick Open

23:11 - The Frampton Negotiation and a Drummer's Emergency Flight

25:33 - December 1975: The Month Everything Changed

28:00 - Punch, Coral Gables, and 50 Years on the Road With Bob

30:06 - Crossing the Canadian Border and Night Moves Blowing Up

LINKS

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@LivingfortheCityPod

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5KYTveuTY4nydCKG8yTxjJ?si=c184740e2d9f43b5

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/living-for-the-city/id1895831267

Stay connected!

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/livingforthecitypod/

TAGS / KEYWORDS

Bill Blackwell, Bob Seger, Bob Seger tour manager, Live Bullet, Detroit rock history, Cobo Hall, Pontiac Silverdome, Bob Seger Tiger Woods, Peter Frampton, Frampton Comes Alive, Detroit music history, Night Moves, Stranger in Town, Ramblin Gamblin Man, Detroit venues, Living for the City podcast, Hanif Abdurraqib, Side Stage Network, Live Nation podcast

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Isiah Thomas is a Basketball Hall of Famer and the captain of the Detroit Pistons' "Bad Boys," the back-to-back champions who played the game their own way and never apologized for it. This conversation goes far beyond basketball. This is his full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

Thomas walks through the sound of the Bad Boys locker room, the shift from funk to hip hop, "Freaks Come Out at Night" as the team's entrance music, and the season MTV and Downtown Julie Brown followed the team around Detroit. He talks about the crowd erupting to Hava Nagila one quarter and Prince the next, the third jersey that started as pure Detroit innovation, and why the team's national reputation as villains never matched how the city actually saw them. He gets specific about Kid Rock and Eminem sharing the arena, MC Hammer bringing TLC to the Palace, and the Dietrich furs that became part of a swagger the team built by actually being in the neighborhoods.

He also opens up about his decades-long friendship with Aretha Franklin, from the day her family reached out to a young player who didn't know how to pay his bills, to the night he escorted her to her final performance at the Kennedy Center, and the eulogy he gave from the heart at her funeral. He talks about the vets who raised him, Phil Hubbard and Greg Kelser, what he thinks sports mentorship has lost, and why Detroit felt like home from day one.

CHAPTERS

00:15 - The Bad Boys Locker Room: From Funk to Hip Hop

01:13 - MTV, Downtown Julie Brown, and Breaking Mariah Carey

03:07 - Villains Nationally, Motown at Home: The Real Detroit Story

06:04 - "Freaks Come Out at Night" and the Sound of the Bad Boys

10:10 - The Third Jersey and the Birth of Bad Boys Marketing

13:20 - Kid Rock, Eminem, MC Hammer, and a City That Never Got Credit

16:57 - Dietrich Furs and Building Real Swagger

19:30 - Aretha Franklin: Friendship, Community, and a Eulogy From the Heart

26:09 - Phil Hubbard, Greg Kelser, and the Lost Art of Veteran Mentorship

31:44 - Home From Day One: Diversity, the Current Pistons, and What It Means to Win in Detroit

LINKS

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@LivingfortheCityPod

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5KYTveuTY4nydCKG8yTxjJ?si=c184740e2d9f43b5

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/living-for-the-city/id1895831267

Stay connected!

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/livingforthecitypod/

TAGS / KEYWORDS

Isiah Thomas, Isiah Thomas interview, Detroit Pistons Bad Boys, Isiah Thomas Aretha Franklin, Bad Boys Pistons, Detroit basketball history, Isiah Thomas Hall of Fame, Aretha Franklin friendship, Detroit sports culture, Detroit music history, Living for the City podcast, Hanif Abdurraqib, Detroit Pistons history, MC Hammer Detroit, Kid Rock Eminem Detroit, Detroit culture, Side Stage Network, Live Nation podcast

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Nasaan is a Detroit rapper, director, editor, and world-builder who signed to Atlantic Records off the first video he ever made, and whose ERA 404 project — part album, part short film, part visual universe — is one of the most ambitious pieces of work to come out of Detroit hip hop in years. He is also the son of Proof, D12's beloved rapper and Eminem's closest collaborator, who was shot and killed in 2006. This is his full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

In this interview, Nasaan talks about growing up between Detroit and Atlanta, how two cities shaped a sound that doesn't belong entirely to either, and why he spent years running from his father's legacy before he finally decided to embrace it. He breaks down ERA 404 — the Severance-inspired concept, the cardigan-wearing intern character, the 404 as both Atlanta's area code and an internet error — and talks about his next project, Method Acting, and what it means to get so deep inside a world you become the character. He talks about Big Sean as a mentor and older brother, what Royce da 5'9" has meant to him, and why he thinks it just takes one artist to kick the door down for a new era of Detroit rap.

This one is about carrying something forward without letting it define you.

CHAPTERS

00:24 - The Renaissance Man: Rapping, Directing, Editing, Producing

01:44 - Necessity as the Mother of Invention: Learning to Do It Himself

02:51 - Born in Detroit, Raised in Atlanta: Two Cultures, One Sound

05:35 - The Pressure of Legacy and Learning to Stop Running from It

09:42 - Royce da 5'9", Big Sean, and the Mentors Who Held Him Down

12:10 - Goated, Severance, and the World of ERA 404

15:52 - Big Sean and What Detroit Owes Him

18:40 - Where Detroit Rap Is Going and Who's Going to Kick the Door Down

22:14 - Atlanta vs Detroit: Infrastructure, Cliques, and What's Missing Here

26:30 - Method Acting and What Comes Next

LINKS

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@LivingfortheCityPod

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5KYTveuTY4nydCKG8yTxjJ?si=c184740e2d9f43b5

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/living-for-the-city/id1895831267

Stay connected!

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/livingforthecitypod/

TAGS / KEYWORDS

Nasaan, Nasaan interview, Nasaan Detroit rapper, ERA 404, Method Acting album, Proof D12 son, Detroit hip hop, Big Sean, Royce da 5'9", Atlantic Records Detroit, Detroit rap next generation, world building rap, Detroit music future, Eminem D12, Proof rapper, Living for the City podcast, Hanif Abdurraqib, Detroit music culture, Side Stage Network, Live Nation podcast

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House Shoes is a Detroit DJ and producer who spent a decade as the resident DJ at St. Andrew's Hall, ran Street Corner Music as a label for over a decade, and came up alongside J Dilla and Proof before relocating to Los Angeles. This is his full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

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Brenda Franklin Corbett is Aretha Franklin's cousin, raised in the Franklin family home in Detroit alongside Aretha, Carolyn, Erma, and Cecil, and one of Aretha's longtime background singers as part of the trio Aretha named the Prima Donnas. This is her full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

Brenda talks about singing with the grown folks in the choir at New Bethel Baptist Church by age six, in her own robe and her own chair, and the parade of legends who passed through the Franklin house on Oakland and East Grand Boulevard, from B.B. King and Cab Calloway to Mahalia Jackson. She gets into what it took to hold a note behind an artist who wanted the sound, the routines, and the look all perfect.

She also gets into the move to Los Angeles to help raise Aretha's children, her role advising the film Respect, and the day of Aretha's funeral, when she turned off the broadcast to catch a flight and landed three hours later to find it was still going.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Born Into the Franklin House

06:41 - Learning Her Voice

09:27 - Chasing the Dream to New York

12:17 - Singing Behind Aretha

17:49 - Los Angeles and Raising the Kids

22:33 - The Future of Gospel

25:15 - Guarding the Legacy

30:06 - What She's Most Proud Of

LINKS

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@LivingfortheCityPod

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5KYTveuTY4nydCKG8yTxjJ?si=c184740e2d9f43b5

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/living-for-the-city/id1895831267

Stay connected!

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/livingforthecitypod/

TAGS / KEYWORDS

Living for the City, Living for the City podcast, Hanif Abdurraqib, Brenda Franklin Corbett, Aretha Franklin, Detroit gospel, Detroit music history, New Bethel Baptist Church, C.L. Franklin, Prima Donnas, background singers, Respect movie, Detroit soul music, gospel music Detroit, Detroit church music, Side Stage Network, Live Nation podcast, music podcast, Detroit culture, music history podcast

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Mary Cobra is the founding guitarist of The Detroit Cobras, the band she started with singer Rachel Nagy that became one of the defining sounds of Detroit garage rock in the late '90s and early 2000s. This is her full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

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LADYMONIX is a Detroit DJ who drove across the country from LA in 2016, spent her first year just going out and dancing, and has held a Sunday night residency at Motor City Wine for nine years. This is her full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

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Carl Craig is one of Detroit techno's most important architects, the producer behind Bug in the Bassbin, Landcruising, More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art, and a body of work released under so many aliases — Paperclip People, 69, Innerzone Orchestra — that the full scope of his influence is almost impossible to map. This is his full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

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