Living for the City

Liz Warner is an award-winning journalist and the host of Alternate Take on WDET, Detroit's NPR affiliate, where she explores music and culture in the city's most freewheeling register. This is her full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

Warner traces Detroit radio's role as a source of comfort and community, from Martha Jean The Queen calming the city during the 1967 riots to her own philosophy that the airwaves are a state of mind. She talks about building an audience during her midnight-to-5am show by thinking about who was actually listening, auto workers on the overnight shift, night owls, musicians, and why discovery, not just rotation, is what keeps a radio audience coming back.

She also breaks down Electrifying Mojo's outsized role in breaking Detroit techno to a wider audience, his relationship with Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May, and how his willingness to get fired for following his instincts set him apart from safer public radio programming. She talks about why she eventually left Detroit, her return to WDET, and what she thinks is most important to preserve about Detroit radio's sense of collective discovery.

CHAPTERS

00:24 - Mixtapes, Radio Dreams, and Finding the Station

02:37 - Martha Jean The Queen: Radio as Comfort During the 1967 Riots

06:43 - "The Airwaves Are a State of Mind"

09:32 - Late Night Radio: Building an Audience of Night Owls and Shift Workers

13:17 - Detroit as a Car City and the Power of the Commute

16:04 - Breaking Detroit Techno: From Drexciya to Electrifying Mojo

24:09 - The Responsibility of the Airwaves: Ed Love and 70 Years in Radio

27:34 - Staying Curious Over Five Hours a Night, Five Nights a Week

35:56 - The Mothership, World-Building, and Mojo's Fearless Programming

44:21 - Leaving Detroit, Coming Home, and Keeping WDET Adventurous

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

Liz Warner, Liz Warner interview, Alternate Take WDET, WDET Detroit radio, Electrifying Mojo, Martha Jean The Queen, Detroit techno history, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, Detroit radio history, Ed Love radio, Drexciya, Detroit music culture, Living for the City podcast, Hanif Abdurraqib, Detroit radio culture, Side Stage Network, Live Nation podcast
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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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