Living for the City

House Shoes on Detroit Radio, J Dilla, and DJ Integrity | Living for the City Full Interview

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 alo

Brenda Franklin Corbett on Growing Up With Aretha Franklin | Living for the City Full Interview

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 longtim

Mary Cobra on the Detroit Cobras and the Art of the Cover Song | Living for the City Full Interview

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

LADYMONIX on Why She Left LA and Made Detroit Home | Living for the City Full Interview

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 Ci

Carl Craig on Detroit Techno, the Art of the Alias, and the Future of Electronic Music | Living for the City Full Interview

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

Kevin Saunderson on Pioneering Detroit Techno and Its Legacy | Living for the City FULL Interview

Kevin Saunderson is one of the Belleville Three, the teenagers from suburban Michigan who invented Detroit techno, the architect behind Inner City, and one of the most in

Waajeed on Dilla, Slum Village and Detroit's Music Future | Living for the City FULL Interview

Waajeed is a Detroit producer and DJ who came up with J Dilla and Slum Village, co-founded the Underground Music Academy in the old NAACP building on the north end of Det

DJ Minx on Building Detroit's Techno Scene from the Ground Up | Living for the City FULL Interview

DJ Minx is one of the founding architects of Detroit's techno and house scene, the creator of Women on Wax, and one of the most important DJs the city has ever produced.

The Teachers and Students Carrying Detroit's Sound Forward | Living for the City Ep. 8

Detroit has never been a city that lives in its past. Its greatest tradition has always been inventing the future. In the season finale of Living for the City, host Hani

How Detroit's Crate Diggers Kept the City's Music Alive | Living for the City Ep. 7

In Detroit, records were never just records. They were history, community, memory, and proof that you cared enough to go looking. In Episode 7 of Living for the City, ho

The Artists Who Left Detroit and the Pull That Brought Them Home | Living for the City Ep. 6

Every artist Detroit has ever made has had to decide at some point whether to stay or go. The ones who left never fully left. In Episode 6 of Living for the City, host H

How Detroit Keeps Its Greatest Music Legacies Alive | Living for the City Ep. 5

Every great Detroit artist had someone who believed in them before they believed in themselves. In Episode 5 of Living for the City, host Hanif Abdurraqib traces the men

How Detroit's Women Claimed Their Place in the Music Scene | Living for the City Ep. 4

Every era of Detroit music has been shaped by women, even when history tried to leave them out of the story. In Episode 4 of Living for the City, host Hanif Abdurraqib e

How Detroit's Radio Stations Shaped a Generation | Living for the City Ep. 3

In Detroit, radio wasn't background noise. It was the whole conversation. In Episode 3 of Living for the City, host Hanif Abdurraqib traces the invisible infrastructure

The Buildings That Built Detroit's Sound Are Almost All Gone | Living For the City Ep. 2

The city’s sound was shaped by places never built to last – until the music changed everything. In Episode 2 of Living for the City, Hanif Abdurraqib asks what happens t

How Detroit's Working Class Built the Sound the Whole World Stole | Living for the City Ep. 1

Detroit’s music didn’t come from nowhere. It came from working people who carried the rhythm of the city with them long after the shift ended. In the debut episode of Li

Living for the City (Official Trailer): Premieres May 13th!

Before Detroit gave the world Motown, techno, and hip-hop, it gave the world something harder to name: a feeling that music made in basements and backrooms and borrowed s