Detroit rap city: Motown owns the coasts

No other cultural niche has had the same nostalgic dependence as hip-hop. The genre began with DJs who sampled classic funk and soul records, and as it grew, the technique became the bedrock of hip-hop's sound. The method found its home in New York City, making albums like A Tribe Called Quest's "Midnight Marauders" and Notorious B.I.G.'s "Ready To Die" reach classic status with their soulful vibes and buttery soundscapes.

But recently, mainstream hip-hop has shied away from this technique, and the Q-Tips and Camp Los are struggling to keep that sound alive. Southern rap and crunk gained momentum as NY hip-hop lost an audience that grew tired of hackneyed sampling methods. While rappers in the Big Apple fought to reclaim their throne by championing the idea that output equaled quality, a better idea appeared in a different area of the country, and the hip-hop sampling movement regained some aesthetic steam once it reached middle America.

These rappers and producers come from Detroit, but their scene is not exactly the one portrayed in "8 Mile."

The movement is a revival of the Motown sound, bringing back chopped-up versions of the classics that put the city on the cultural map. The crew's main players consist of the late J. Dilla, Frank 'N Dank, Black Milk, NameTag and Athletic Mic League, to name a few. These artists dig into tracks that have been deeply buried in the Motown catalogue to breathe life into new creations, showing that history has a relevant place in modern hip-hop.

Detroit artists produce this sound by flipping samples from songs recorded during the Berry Gordy and Holland-Dozier era or consciously rapping over those types of beats. While NY hip-hop became notorious for glossing a sheen over the dusty Motown samples, the Detroit players leave the grit in the songs, giving the classics a modern twist in a hip-hop context. East Coast hip-hop artists try to put themselves back on the mainstream radar, but Michigan rappers don't even bother. Their music is so soulful and the scene is so insulated that the musicians thrive off of each other's adulation and camaraderie, making each album a continuation of its antecedent.

Dilla, who made a sizable contribution to the hip-hop world during his lifetime, can be credited as the father of this Detroit movement. He had a knack for cherry-picking loops and slicing drum kicks that would pass by most producers' ears, blending them into an uneven groove that flowed with the crackling sound of the '60s and a gutsy hip-hop bump. His contributions to albums like Slum Village's "Fantastic Vol. 2" and Common's "Like Water For Chocolate" helped make them milestones in the conscious hip-hop timeline, and with the posthumous release of his swan song "Donuts" and the emcee-assisted "The Shining," Dilla sealed his legacy as the pioneer of Detroit-centric hip-hop.

The aforementioned Slum Village was to lyrics what Dilla was to beats. Musically, 2000's "Fantastic Vol. 2" reinvented classic soul for hip-hop heads, but rappers T3 and Baatin joined Dilla (a.k.a Jay Dee) on the mic to flow with a comforting type of relaxed affability.

"Raise It Up," a song that glitters with its electronic arpeggios, is most exemplary of the skills the group possessed before it split apart. On the track, the three emcees have self-referential verses delivered in the third person, with Jay Dee refuting his character traits, T3 confirming his and Baatin straddling the medium. The concept is beautifully executed and "Vol. 2" is packed with these rich moments, confirming the group's groundbreaking dexterity and distinguishing itself as one of the best albums to come from the Detroit scene.

But newcomers like Black Milk and Buff 1 show that the movement is hardly slowing down. The former's "Popular Demand," released this year, was greeted with magnanimous underground acclaim for its Dilla-esque sampling techniques, witty punchlines and subdued flows. The latter just released his first official solo record, "Pure," a filthy hip-hop record that oozes with syrupy Motown samples and heaps of poetic verse. Other rappers such as NameTag and Guilty Simpson also convey that channeling the music from the past can have a wonderfully powerful effect on modern hip-hop.

The Detroit scene players may never appeal to the mainstream masses in the same way T.I. and Souljah Boy do, but their music is unquestionably on a different level. The city was once home to some of the most groundbreaking and culturally expressive music, and this group of musicians is using that history to put a refreshing new spin on a deflated genre. With a city behind them, these rappers and producers show that hip-hop may not be dead after all, and though their music is based off the tunes of many artists who have already kicked the bucket, they show that Detroit may still have some blood left in its veins.

Steven J. Horowitz is the music editor. E-mail him at shorowitz@nyunews.com.