(serene music) ♪ My face, so new Detroit.

♪So I can't be your shoulder ♪ I can't help - [Piper] You look at a Motown, right?

Which is where I would say Detroit hip hop starts.

- [Announcer] This is Piper Carter, a Detroit artist and culture curator.

She co-founded We Found Hip Hop, an organization that empowers women in the performing and visual arts.

Carter says to understand Detroit hip hop, you've gotta first understand the impact of Berry Gordy in Motown records.

- [Piper] He looked at all of these very talented people who came from historic black bottom in the historic north end of Detroit and was like, "Hey, we can figure out a way to um, organize this so that we are, you know, creating these avenues for people".

Right?

This then becomes a successful formula.

- [Announcer] The formula was so successful that Gordy took Motown out west of California in 1972, but by the early eighties, a new culture was emerging, one that Detroiters were more than ready for.

- [Bryce] Take me back to the beginning of your experience with Detroit rap music.

What was the first song or first artist you can remember hearing?

- Well, the thing is, um, before it was actually a rap artist, the dance actually led um, in the eighties.

So, um because hip hop, um, or hip hop culture at that time was actually a mixture of like, the music of the times, which was, you know, could be classified as like R&B like, you know, um, or like funk and soul and then, and then like rap kind of like it came in, you know what I mean?

But it was like, it was all a part of, it was like a, an amalgamation, right?

I think what um hip hop culture kind of provided um, folks is, I would, I'm, I'm a dare say, maybe more like a safer space to be an artist, to be creative, to be innovative, um, that was something that was very important in hip hop in general, but definitely in Detroit it was very important.

There's also techno emerging.

Right?

Which is a very, um, I I'd say it's a close kin in Detroit to Detroit hip hop, because the same people who were going to all the hip hop things were also going to techno.

So, you'll notice in Detroit, people are very like techno and hip hop, hip hop and techno.

Cause those things grew both out of like the underground, um, the lack of music and arts education in schools, you know, the whole post urban renewal, you know, the destruction of neighborhoods and things like that, where, you know, independent arts culture emerged through the young people, through the youth.

- [Announcer] In the nineties, a Detroit fashion designer named Maurice Malone opened a clothing store that became more famous for the open mic it held at nights.

This was a space where artists could invent themselves on the mic, the Hip Hop Shop.

- [Piper] You've probably heard a lot of the stories about the Hip Hop Shop, which is where, yeah, a lot of the, what we know of as Detroit hip hop culture.

Your J Dilla, your Eminem, your Proof, all that comes out of that.

- [Announcer] Through the nineties and two thousands, Detroit established its own signature sound for rap music, up tempo, drums, dark and simple piano chords.

These are the building blocks of producer Helluva in rap groups like the Street Lord'z and the eastside Chedda Boyz.

At Capitol Studio in Oak Park, just half a mile north of Detroit is Travis Pittman.

He's a Detroit producer who goes by the name 4:00 AM Juno.

He's working on a song with Detroit rapper, Lelo.

He says the Detroit production style fits perfectly with what the city is all about.

- It's a city where people want to get money and hustle.

So I think that fast paceness kind of just is in the culture, like moving fast, um, and just trying to get to what's next.

Like whatever next level or what's next in the day.

Like, just get some money and do what's next, have fun.

Even having fun is still fast paced, like really turnt up and stuff like that.

- [Announcer] This sound, however, was confined to Detroit and a few other cities in the Midwest for decades.

But recently, rappers like 42 Dugg, Tee Grizzley, BabyFace Ray, Sada Baby, and Icewear Vezzo have been getting praised from folks beyond Detroit's borders, all while keeping the Detroit sound alive.

- [Travis] Like you were saying, it's been really regional.

So I think that the fact that everyone's hearing it now, it's like something new.

Something new and exciting.

- [Announcer] Juno has been recording music in Detroit for the past seven years.

- [Bryce] There's been a whole conversation about other rappers from other cities kind of taking Detroit sound and style.

What kind of pride does that give you as a Detroit artist?

You know, someone who's really from here and is really in the scene.

- [Travis] I think it, it means that we're doing something right.

If other people wanna emulate it or make stuff similar to it, or they must be somewhat a fan of it, or they're influenced by it.

- [Announcer] The more recent Detroit rappers are able to get their music to bigger audiences than ever before.

Thanks to the internet.

Lelo, whose real name is Khalil Jewell believes Detroit style is the new standard for what's hot in hip hop.

- We have like different artists embracing Detroiters in the Detroit style, and it's kind of allowed it to breach places that it didn't breach before.

It's hand in hand with the art scene.

It's hand in hand with the sports scene or everything, it's touched by the rap scene.

Everything is touched by the every part, every aspect of Detroit is kind of this conglomerate and you just gotta look deep enough to see it.

So I feel like being passionate about any part of Detroit's art world is gonna lead you to the music.

- [Announcer] Lelo says he wants his music to bring awareness to the everyday struggles of Detroiters, though struggles, he says include crime and poverty.

- [Khalil] So instead of me providing ways of necessarily being able to stop these problems, instead I am a voice that people can empathize with and maybe see themselves in, or if they have no clue about what's going on in my city.

- [Announcer] Lelo is still in the infancy of his career, but he knows he has a lot of opportunities ahead of him.

He says seeing some of the biggest Detroit rappers finally getting shine after years of grinding gives him all the confidence he needs.

- With those kind of success stories in front of me, it's kind of like, how, how can you fail?

- [Announcer] With more eyes on the scene than ever before, Detroiters like Carter, 4:00 AM Juno, and Lelo are proud to be a part of the city's deep hip hop scene.

Like Lelo, 4:00 AM Juno is looking forward to what comes next in his career, especially bringing in artists from other cities who are fans of the Detroit sound.

- I want to eventually get some of those people in New York that I like their music on some songs with people from Detroit and just bring people together for real.

- [Announcer] And you can watch part two of the PBS documentary Fight the Power,