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Living for the City: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Side Stage
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 spaces could become the soundtrack to an entire generation's life. That is the story Living for the City is here to tell, and nobody alive is better equipped to tell it than Hanif Abdurraqib. MacArthur Fellow. New York Times bestselling author. The most gifted writer working at the intersection of music, memory, and American identity today. Hanif brings his singular voice to a new video podcast series that goes inside the streets, venues, and neighborhoods where iconic sounds are born, talking with the artists, DJs, producers, and community architects who built these movements from the ground up. Season One is Detroit. Eight episodes. The full arc of how one city became the unlikely origin point for some of the most influential music ever made, told by the people who were actually there, and the writer who understands better than anyone what it meant. This is not a music history lesson. This is a front-row seat to the moments that mattered.
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- 4 days ago41 min
Don Was on Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, and His Own Voice | Living for the City Full Interview
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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 1 weeks ago35 min
Guilty Simpson on J Dilla and Detroit's Open Mic Scene | Living for the City Full Interview
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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 2 weeks ago35 min
Bill Blackwell on 50 Years as Bob Seger's Tour Manager | Living for the City Full Interview
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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 3 weeks ago45 min
Isiah Thomas on the Bad Boys and Why Detroit Never Got Credit | Living for the City Full Interview
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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- Sep 2, 202630 min
Nasaan on Proof's Legacy, Detroit Rap, and Kicking Down the Door | Living for the City Full Interview
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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- Aug 26, 202648 min
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 alongside J Dilla and Proof before relocating to Los Angeles. This is his full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib. House Shoes talks about coming up on Detroit radio with Electrifying Mojo and The Wizard, breaking into the St. Andrew's Hall scene as a teenager, forming his crew 31 Flavors, and learning to make beats in J Dilla's basement. He gets into what it took to hold onto his integrity as a DJ once Detroit's hip hop scene started chasing hits after 1996. He also gets into the year he lost both Dilla and Proof and left Detroit for Los Angeles, building Street Corner Music into a label that gave dozens of artists their first record, and the lesson Dilla taught him about finishing a beat before he ever played it for anyone. CHAPTERS 00:00 - Growing Up on Detroit Radio and Discovering the Scene 10:11 - Forming 31 Flavors and a Decade Behind the Decks at St. Andrew's Hall 12:20 - Meeting J Dilla and Learning the Discipline of Curation 19:53 - Losing Dilla and Proof and Leaving Detroit 25:53 - Rebuilding Life and Community in Los Angeles 32:24 - The Future of Detroit Rap and Mentorship Across Generations 37:49 - Street Corner Music and Giving Artists Their First Record 42:10 - Dilla's Mentorship and Staying True to the Work 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, House Shoes, Detroit hip hop, Detroit DJ, St. Andrew's Hall, Street Corner Music, J Dilla, Proof, Detroit rap history, 31 Flavors, Detroit music history, Detroit hip hop history, Detroit culture, hip hop podcast, music history podcast, Danny Brown, Denmark Vesey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- Aug 19, 202640 min
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 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- Aug 19, 202646 min
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 the late '90s and early 2000s. This is her full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib. Mary talks about growing up on bad Detroit radio, and how the silence pushed a generation of musicians to make the music nobody else would play for them. She traces the Cobras' sound back to crate digging through dollar bin soul 45s, and explains why the goal was never to imitate a singer's voice but to find the feeling underneath it. She breaks down her advice for young bands on why every act should cover a song at least once, and what it means if that cover ends up better than anything else in the set. She also gets into the cheap rent and cheap bars that made Detroit's scene possible, the night Jack White told her at a bar that she should see what was happening and get on the road, and why the Cobras never set out to get signed but got picked up almost immediately once they did. CHAPTERS 00:00 - Meeting Mary Cobra: Founding Guitarist of the Detroit Cobras 00:54 - Detroit's Bad Radio and Growing Up on Motown, MC5, and The Stooges 03:22 - Digging Through Record Stores in a City With Nothing Else to Do 04:38 - Playing for Friends, Not for a Record Deal 07:16 - Cheap Rent, No Fear, and the Freedom to Tour 10:19 - Crate Digging Soul Records and Why a Cover Isn't About the Notes 22:13 - From Playing for Fun to Getting Signed 25:54 - What Success Changed and Why Every Young Band Should Play a Cover 33:17 - The Gold Dollar, Cutting 45s, and Becoming a Band's Band 40:01 - Bars as Detroit's Ecosystem and Where the Grit Came From 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, Mary Cobra, Mary Cobra interview, The Detroit Cobras, Rachel Nagy, Detroit garage rock, Detroit rock history, Detroit music history, garage rock revival, Gold Dollar Detroit, Cass Corridor Detroit, Fortune Records Detroit, Detroit 45s, Detroit vinyl culture, Jack White, The White Stripes, Detroit crate digging, soul music covers, Detroit bars, Detroit DIY music scene, Detroit rock and roll, MC5, The Stooges, Motown, Side Stage Network, Live Nation podcast, music podcast, Detroit culture, music history podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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About Living for the City
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 spaces could become the soundtrack to an entire generation's life. That is the story Living for the City is here to tell, and nobody alive is better equipped to tell it than Hanif Abdurraqib. MacArthur Fellow. New York Times bestselling author. The most gifted writer working at the intersection of music, memory, and American identity today. Hanif brings his singular voice to a new video podcast series that goes inside the streets, venues, and neighborhoods where iconic sounds are born, talking with the artists, DJs, producers, and community architects who built these movements from the ground up. Season One is Detroit. Eight episodes. The full arc of how one city became the unlikely origin point for some of the most influential music ever made, told by the people who were actually there, and the writer who understands better than anyone what it meant. This is not a music history lesson. This is a front-row seat to the moments that mattered.
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