While Eminem and Mr. Porter shared stories about good old days in the underground hip hop, others shared their stories about Eminem coming up.
During Detroit All City Day on Rock the Bells radio, the best local MCs and DJs represented the city.
Mr. Porter revealed that the guy who owned the studio in which everybody made their first record instead of giving him a family discount taught him to make beats:
The first local studio I recorded in was Mo Masters Studio. I’m pretty sure everybody from Detroit around my era said that. But here is the funny story about it. I went to Mo Masters, and I thought maybe I could get some credit because I found out that Mo Masters last name was Porter. And me, being Denaun Porter, I was like, “Man, we’ve gotta be related! Can I have a little credit?” He did give me a little break, and I learned how to make my first beat there. That’s how my production career started, at Mo Masters.
Eminem’s story was less specific but reflected the atmosphere of a creative community, both competitive and supportive:
Coming up in Detroit in the underground scene back in the day, we had a community where everybody knew each other. If you didn’t know anybody and you wanted to try to make a name for yourself, you would come up in that scene, and wherever there was an open mic, you might be able to get on the mic and rap. That’s where the Hip Hop Shop comes into play. Every Saturday, the best of the best MCs in Detroit would come, and everybody would just rhyme. They passed the mic around. And then, once a month, we had a battle. That was one of the things that were so great about our underground scene in Detroit coming up.
Producer and actor Mikey Eckstein showed how it worked using as an example one of Eminem’s early gigs, the one where he got booed but where the audience was called to order and attention by a DJ:
Initially, [Eminem] got booed, and DJ House, who was DJing for him, came out and told everybody basically to shut the fuck up. This is Detroit, this is Detroit hip hop, you need to respect that, and you need to listen to what this man is saying. After that, the crowd kind of changed its tone. That was the first time I’ve got put onto Eminem. That was dope.
And finally, Esham, who together with his brother ran the biggest selling independent hip hop label in Detroit in the 1990s, busted the myth about the animosity between him and Eminem:
Just to set the record straight, to let everybody know, there is no beef between me and Eminem. That was rap shit. Rap was a full-contact sport back in the 90s. So yeah, I might’ve do some jabs, and I might have took some. Back then, I might talk about your mama, your gran, everybody. Because that’s how rap was. But as far as I’m concerned, Eminem put the Detroit rap on the map.
Thanks to WickedWays many segments from Detroit All City Day on Rock the Bells radio are now available for the international audience.
Listen to the recording below:
