Tag: Detroit music

Don Was comes home

OK, Don Was, we get it. We understand your full-time day gig as president of Blue Note Records since 2011 keeps you fairly tied to its L.A. headquarters. But between assembling your Detroit All-Star Revue and performing with it at the Concert of Colors every summer for the past 15 years, co-hosting the Don Was Motor City Playlist with Ann Delisi on WDET-FM every Friday night, and saying nice things about Detroit at every opportunity (apologies to Emily Gail), this is still the age of remote employment. If you miss the place so much, why don’t you just move back?

Well, in a sense, he has.

“I just got a place in Detroit,” Was says in a Zoom conversation. “Yeah, I’ve been trying to spend more time there, but it’s hard.”

Was is returning home for a performance by his new band, Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble. Set for Saturday, Oct. 11 at the Majestic Theatre, the concert is a hometown release show for the band’s debut album, Groove in the Face of Adversity, which drops that Friday on Detroit’s Mack Avenue record label.

“It’s tough to get everyone together,” he explains. “But I sure love this band.”

The nine-piece Ensemble features scintillating saxophonist Dave McMurray, Don’s trusted woodwind accomplice even before the ’80s days of Was (Not Was), and the Oscar-winning keyboard genius Luis Resto. Trumpeter John Douglas, trombonist Vincent Chandler, guitarist Wayne Gerard, drummer Jeff Canaday, percussionist Mahindi Masai, and vocalist Stefanie Christi’an round out the nonet, and they all share one thing in common.

They’re Detroiters.

In the press release, Don is quoted as saying, “I’ve been chasing a sound in my head for the past 30 years. It’s jazzy and improvisational, but also glued together with a sinewy R&B groove. It’s not slick or smooth — it’s a very raw, honest, Detroit kind of thing.” And after all these decades of pursuit, he believes he’s finally found the sound with the Pan-Detroit Ensemble.

“There’s a real, tangible, audible Detroit thing we know resonates globally,” the six-time Grammy winner declares, citing hometown influences from John Lee Hooker, Motown, and Mitch Ryder (for whom he just produced a new album, due out this fall) to George Clinton, Donald Byrd, and The Electrifying Mojo. “We know this because even on Blue Note Records, Detroit has had more musicians on the roster than any other city. There isn’t even a close second.”

While he says he’s played with each member of the band at one point in his All-Star Revues, they came together as the Pan-Detroit Ensemble organically — and out of desperation. “What happened was, my buddy Terence Blanchard is creative director for the Paradise Jazz Series at the DSO, and he asked me if I’d like to do a night. I said sure, but they book these things so far in advance I forgot about it. Then about six months out I thought, ‘Fuck! I don’t have a band! I haven’t had one in decades. What am I going to do?’

“I thought, ‘Don’t try to be Robert Glasper or Wayne Shorter: be you.’ So I got together with some like-minded people, went into Rustbelt Studios, and I just pulled four songs I played on the radio with Ann Delisi that week. And from the first note we played together it was like, ‘This band clicks.’ It felt like we’ve been together all our lives. But we’re all people who grew up listening to The Electrifying Mojo. They’re steeped in the history and sound of the city, and they all live here. You can try and throw folks together, but there’s nothing like having that kind of history. We’re just about [to release] an album, we’ll be out playing next year, we’re going to tour Asia. I’m planning to stick with this band till I drop.”

The Pan-Detroit Ensemble has performed a mix of new, original tracks, interpretations of songs written by artists like Yusef Lateef, Olu Dara, and Henry Threadgill, and modernized cuts from albums Don recorded with his groups Orquestra Was and Was (Not Was). The Majestic Theatre concert will feature songs from the band’s debut album alongside a full performance of the Grateful Dead’s Blues For Allah, in celebration of its 50th anniversary.

And hey, Don, speaking of “till I drop:” when you’re not running Blue Note you’re producing albums, composing, playing with the Ensemble or Bob Weir and the Wolf Brothers, creating documentaries, and hangin’ out on Detroit radio. Do you have more hours in a day than the rest of us?

“I read this interview Frank Sinatra gave in the ’60s that really had an effect on me,” he reflects. “At the time he’d get up at like five, go to a movie set, and after he was done filming he’d go into a studio and try to cut just one song for the next album. Then he’d jump on a plane and fly to Las Vegas to do a midnight show with the Rat Pack. Next day, repeat. They asked him, ‘How do you do it?’ He said, ‘The most important thing is that whatever you’re doing, be 100% present for it. When I’m in the studio I’m not thinking about what I screwed up on the movie or the show coming up in two hours. I’m completely absorbed in that song.’ Which is an interesting way to restate, ‘be here now.’

“So that’s what I try to do. Just be absorbed in whatever you’re doing. Don’t be staring at your phone or regretting what happened earlier. Just do the best you can in the moment.”

And in the future, more of those moments may be spent in Detroit. “I actually think the quality of life is really great in Detroit,” Was says. “The traffic in Los Angeles is crippling, but I get back to Detroit and I can go 10 miles in 12 minutes.

“Also, I think as you get older, you crave home. I get off the plane, I smell the plants. They smell different. The air smells different. It makes me feel at home. I feel relaxed.”

Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble perform at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 11; The Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit; majesticdetroit.com. Tickets start at $46.86.

An earlier version of this article was published in our Feb. 19, 2025 issue.

This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2025.

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Jim McFarlin

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September 30, 2025
89X returned to Windsor-Detroit airwaves with a nostalgic alt-rock playlist

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89X announced its return with a cheeky social media ad campaign encouraging listeners to “GET BACK WITH YOUR X.”

In 2020, “Stop” by Jane’s Addiction closed out what was believed to be the final broadcast of Windsor-based 89X, once one of metro Detroit’s most iconic radio stations. But at 8 a.m. on Thursday morning, 89X returned — once again playing Jane’s Addiction and resurrecting “Windsor-Detroit’s only new rock alternative.” The station announced its return with a cheeky social media ad campaign, encouraging listeners to “GET BACK WITH YOUR X.”

After five years as a bland pop-country station, 88.7 FM surprised the Detroit area by switching back to its former format, even featuring some of the original station IDs that many listeners will remember and a nostalgic playlist spanning from darker alternative rock of the ’80s and ’90s to the cheery “stomp-clap” millennial hipster sound of the 2010s and beyond.

89X was officially born in 1991, expanding from an alt-rock segment called “The Cutting Edge” for CIMX. The station soon solidified its place in the local media landscape as a haven for the alternative kids, adapting to its audience and keeping pace with the evolving scene, playing a mix of grunge, punk, goth, and hip-hop (notably Eminem) through the ’90s.

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The author rocking an 89X temporary tattoo circa 2016.

By the mid-2000s, the station began playing emo acts like My Chemical Romance and bringing in a younger crowd. (Around this time I called the station when I was 11 years old and asked them to play “Jesus of Suburbia” by Green Day. They said no, and then told me I was way too young to know that song.)

While the Canadian-based station infiltrated U.S. radio waves with plenty of legally mandated “CanCon” with foreign (to us) artists like the Tragically Hip and Our Lady Peace, it also prided itself on playing local Detroit acts, such as the White Stripes and We Came as Romans. Its “The Homeboy Show” segment showcased local talent from Detroit and Windsor, giving listeners the chance to vote on their favorite tracks and instilling the importance of underground scenes and a music-based community through the use of street teams, events, and its popular morning show, Dave and Chuck the Freak (who eventually moved to Detroit’s WRIF, which also shifted from a classic rock identity to an alt-rock direction).

On its first day back as 89X, the station played hits from its late-’90s and early 2000s heyday, with a playlist focused on the alternative rock era with tracks by Beastie Boys, Oasis, Linkin Park, the Strokes, Green Day, No Doubt, and Weezer, as well as older acts like the Cure and Depeche Mode and newer ones like Royal Blood and the Beaches. While the format may have seemed to be going out of style when 89X went away back in 2020, its return seemed to be well-received in 2025 with the nostalgia machine in full force.

For once, we’re excited to see our “X.”

Konstantina Buhalis

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August 28, 2025
Mac Saturn resurfaces following controversy

“Mac is back.”

That’s the message posted Tuesday on the Instagram account of Mac Saturn, a rising Detroit-area rock band whose future seemed uncertain after its keyboard player was arrested earlier this year, announcing its return from a brief hiatus.

In January, Evan Mercer was arrested on charges related to posession of child sexual abuse images — just hours before the band was supposed to kick off its tour in support of its latest record, Hard to Sell, with a big hometown show at the Fillmore.

Following the negative publicity and backlash from fans, the band scrapped the rest of the tour, with the exception of a Sept. 22 appearance at Louisville’s Boubon & Beyond festival. At the time, the band said that it “made the difficult decision to end our tour effective immediately.”

But now the band says it’s back on the road without Mercer, announcing two new tour dates:

With gratitude and supreme humility, we look ahead toward the next chapter of our musical journey. It has been a year of healing, reflecting and intense growth that the strength of our focus as a group has mirrored.

We thank deeply those who came forward to rid our lives of an unknown evil, and our loyal fans for the encouragement and love they’ve shared over these past months. We’re as hungry and excited as we’ve ever been to get back onstage and start writing this next chapter with you all.

See you on out there.

With love,

Carson, Mike, Angelo, and Nick

The new shows are scheduled for Oct. 9 at Brighton Music Hall in Boston and Oct. 10 at Empire Underground in Albany, New York. Tickets go on sale at noon on Friday at macsaturn.com.

Following news of the arrest, allegations surfaced on social media disputing the band’s claims that it was unaware of the charges against Mercer before they were made public. Metro Times interviewed former fans who accused the band’s frontman Carson Macc of other bad behavior, including a penchant for approaching teenagers and young women on Instagram and lying about his age. The band’s representation denied the allegations.

The band’s team, and Mercer’s attorneys, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Lee DeVito

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September 17, 2024
SiriusXM announces new show ‘Live from Motown Museum’

The Motown Museum’s big expansion now includes SiriusXM’s satellite radio waves.

The broadcast company has announced a new weekly radio show, “Live from Motown Museum,” set for SiriusXM’s Smokey’s Soul Town on channel 74.

The show will be hosted by John Mason (a radio personality from WJLB and perhaps more famously known as the announcer for the Detroit Pistons, coining the famous chant “Deeeeee-troit basketball!”) and Levi Stubbs III, whose father Levi Stubbs was a founding member of the Four Tops.

It launches at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7.

“As we embark on this exciting journey with our own radio show on SiriusXM, we see it as more than just a national broadcast opportunity — it’s a powerful platform to connect with Motown fans across the country on a deeper level,” said Robin Terry, Motown Museum Chairwoman and CEO, in a statement. “This venture symbolizes a unique opportunity in music storytelling unlike anything else on the platform. For our institution to have a place on Smokey’s Soul Town on SiriusXM, for Detroit to be represented in such a meaningful way and for Motown stories to be told and shared is something that is transcendent as we continue our mission to amplify stories from Motown alumni and foster meaningful conversations to showcase Motown’s enduring impact.”

The deal includes exclusive content for subscribers on the SiriusXM app, including interviews with “Motown alumni, contemporary artists inspired by Motown, and key players in the Motown constellation.”

SiriusXM’s Smokey’s Soul Town is curated by Motown’s Smokey Robinson, playing a mix of classic soul, R&B, and Motown from the 1960s and ’70s.

The new show is just one of many good things going on at Hitsville, U.S.A. In 2016, the Motown Museum announced a massive $65 million expansion with a planned 50,000-square-foot world-class entertainment and education tourist destination featuring interactive exhibits, a performance space, recording studios, and more, though an opening date has not yet been announced.

Lee DeVito

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September 5, 2024
How Passenger Recovery normalizes sobriety through music and art

When Christopher Tait first entered recovery for drugs and alcohol, creating and experiencing music and art made the journey feel like a reward rather than a punishment.

For him, creativity became an essential avenue for growth and enrichment.

When the local musician and Electric Six band member was first getting sober in 2011, he says finding help in the Midwest was extra difficult. For touring artists especially, the drives are long, the free time is minimal, and finding places for support is few and far between.

So, in 2016, he founded Passenger Recovery, a nonprofit organization with the mission of helping touring artists in recovery stay sober.

“There was a point in 2013 where I was on tour… There was nowhere to go for coffee. There weren’t any support groups. I didn’t have service at the time. My two options were to sit in the bar or I could sit in a freezing cold van in the middle of winter, so the inception came from that,” Tait says. “We just started telling local promoters that we would take people to meetings, or take them to coffee or to go do laundry or anything if they were trying to stay sober.”

Since then, the initial vision for Passenger has significantly expanded.

The organization created an online meeting-finder for touring musicians called Passenger Compass, which includes over 30,000 support groups in the United States and United Kingdom.

In 2022, the nonprofit was accredited by Faces and Voices of Recovery as a Recovery Community Organization (RCO), serving as a community anchor for people seeking recovery or transitioning from treatment.

“We were originally running this out of our house,” Tait says. “We would have people come stay on the futons or hang out in the backyard if they just needed to get out of the bar venue atmosphere, and then when we started doing advocacy events which transitioned into what we have now.”

With support from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Passenger opened a physical space in Hamtramck in early 2024.

The location, situated between music venues in Detroit and Ferndale, is a full-circle moment for Tait, who played his first show in Hamtramck with his high school band in the mid-’90s.

Hamtramck, once thought to have the most bars per capita than any other U.S. city, used to be limited in recovery support. Now, Passenger offers eight weekly support groups, as well as music and art advocacy events, recovery coaching, translation services, and more.

“We just have a lot more freedom to do different types of more exciting programming, and beyond doing advocacy events in the community, we actually have a place now where we can provide enrichment,” Tait says. “If people are interested in recovery but they don’t want to go to a specific type of group, we can point them in a different direction or we can give them information or they can hang out there.”

He adds, “It’s really an attempt to normalize recovery in people’s everyday life. Instead of you going to treatment or you go to a support group and then you’re back out in everyday life, what if everyday life is something that’s motivational and positive overall and there’s someplace that you can go where you can feel safe to do that, to just exist as somebody who’s interested in making a change?”

At Passenger’s space, one half is dedicated to recovery resources, while the other focuses on the arts, featuring rock biographies, instruments, and board games. Visitors can attend a 12-step meeting one day and an open mic or yoga class the next — in a space covered in local and global art, much of which is made by recovering artists. Passenger also collaborates with organizations like MusiCares and the Phoenix to extend its reach into the broader metro Detroit community.

“If I’m in recovery, I can’t assume that the world is going to shape itself around my changes, and so I think it’s really important to still have books about the struggles and the demons and the reality of being somebody in the music industry, so that we can learn from it,” Tait says. “Our goal was to try and make it as well rounded as possible, and I really feel like people have felt comfortable. We’ve gotten a great reaction from it.”

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Passenger Recovery recently hosted a Ukrainian music event. Director Christopher Tait is pictured on the far right.

Cultural representation is also important to Passenger, especially in Hamtramck, sometimes called “the world in two square miles.”

“If we’re looking to assist people with well-being beyond just recovery from drugs and alcohol, we have to listen to the community,” Tait says.

Recently, Passenger hosted a Ukrainian music event and a hip-hop mental health panel. Plus, the organization met with Hamtramck’s new Chief of Police, Jamiel Altaheri, to discuss SUD (Substance Use Disorder) support for the Muslim community.

Passenger also does outreach in local food banks and schools, partnering with the Detroit Friendship House and connecting with the Hamtramck Drug Free Community Coalition to introduce SUD education through music programs in schools. The nonprofit also runs a virtual youth series called “If You Can See It, You Can Be It,” where music professionals discuss recovery and health in the entertainment industry, helping underserved youth who envision creative careers make positive decisions.

“When I was first in recovery, I knew I needed to make changes,” Tait says. “Music has been such a positive force in my life, and I know it’s beneficial for people to find ways to express themselves.”

He adds, “I can’t imagine life without music and the arts. They’ve made everything in my life more vibrant.”

More information on Passenger Recovery’s team and upcoming events is available online at passengerrecovery.com and on Instagram @passengerrecovery.

Layla McMurtrie

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August 14, 2024
Detroit female rock duo We Are Scorpio to release debut self-titled album

We Are Scorpio is electric and empowering.

The Detroit rock ’n’ roll duo, composed of the city’s poet laureate jessica Care moore and longtime rocker Steffanie Christi’an, is preparing to release its debut self-titled album on August 16.

The “punk rock poetry record” is more than just an album; it’s an experience. The project exudes intense Scorpio energy through headbanging anthems that center Black women with political yet uplifting lyrics, offering modern rock with a Black femme edge.

Singles “Supa Dupa Star” and “Scorpio” give listeners just a taste of what’s to come.

The nine-track album, produced by rapper Talib Kweli, features rockers Divinity Roxx and Militia Voxx, Detroit rapper Sada Baby, guitar player Wayne Gerard, and award-winning trumpet player Maurice “Mobetta” Brown, among others.

Although Christi’an and moore only began working on this project a few years ago, the pair have been friends and collaborators for almost two decades. In conversation and in music, the duo’s powerful synergy and unapologetic presence is evident.

Rock ’n’ roll is not new to them either, as both have been lifelong lovers of the genre, largely thanks to their mothers.

“My mom was a punk rocker,” Christi’an says. “She had me at 15 and she used to wear a mohawk and safety pins in her ears, and I was right there with her. She’s taking me to all of the Depeche Mode concerts and the Cure and for me, it was innate, it was the only thing that I knew, it’s not a gimmick to me. It wasn’t like I got older and I was like, ‘Oh, let me see if I can take over this genre.’ That’s just how I grew up. Rock ’n’ roll has always been in my life.”

moore adds, “My mom’s older and she loved Janis Joplin. My mother’s a hippie too, she has long brunette hair… and then I went to predominantly white Catholic schools and so I grew up listening to AC/DC, Metallica, Van Halen. Those people were what those girls listened to and I listened to them too.”

When moore moved back to Detroit from New York, she was looking for a rock singer to perform with, and her boyfriend at the time said, “Yo, my cousin is the one.” Christi’an already knew who moore was and immediately went over to her place to sing for her.

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The cover of We Are Scorpio’s debut album.

“I met her and I heard her singing. I was like, ‘Oh my God. Steffanie is the one,’ like she’s one of my favorite singers in the whole world,” moore says. “I met her and I just fell in love with her in every way. I love her personality, her spirit, she’s really smart … Stefannie has been singing with me in Detroit longer than anybody else.”

“It was a combination of two storms and we’ve been a hurricane ever since,” Christi’an adds.

moore began writing the upcoming record during the COVID-19 pandemic and immediately knew Christi’an would be the perfect collaborator. Although the two had worked together musically for years, they had never officially released any music together. So when moore ran into Christi’an one day, they decided it was finally time to make it happen.

“I couldn’t have done this record without her, it would be impossible,” moore says. “She can help me figure out those melodies and that sound that Steffanie has and she’s just a powerful ass performer on stage, like I’m not gonna get close to every woman like that. I just grab her, I’ll just get on her back, wrap my body around her. She’s my sister, I feel so comfortable around her on stage. I know she’s got me.”

Aside from showcasing their own talent, one significant mission of We Are Scorpio is to spotlight Black women in rock music as a whole.

“I feel like it’s my duty to push back and say, ‘You’re not gonna silence us’,” moore says. “Me and Steffanie’s record deserves spins. Black radio should play it … I think that we have a record that can get plays. There’s some lyrics on there that can get with any rap record that’s out right now. I got bars.”

The first track on the LP, titled “I’m From Detroit,” is an anthem for the city, fittingly featuring rapper Sada Baby.

“Sada Baby is Detroit and he brings in a different audience that we want,” moore says. “He’s a rock ’n’ roll energy, we like him.”

While the duo has love for many musically talented men, We Are Scorpio hopes male artists who degrade women hear this album, as some tracks, such as “Quarterback,” respond to misogynistic language in music.

“I’m exhausted from male artists talking about their little dicks getting sucked. I’m sick of it,” moore says. “I’m sick of them talking about women as if we’re these subservient kinds of objects in songs. I’m sick of the ‘bitches.’ I don’t want to be called a bitch. I’m not on my knees sucking your little penis. So, this album is the opposite of that. It’s saying, ‘Fuck you, I’m the shit, I got bars, I’m a Black woman.’”

“And I don’t have to degrade you either,” Christi’an adds.

moore emphasizes that this record is important to show that “Black women have something to say,” but the lyrics are empowering for all women and girls.

“The music industry is so male-dominated, still, in a ridiculous kind of way, so we’re taking our mics back,” moore says. “Everytime I listen to a song it’s like, ‘Why I gotta always be a bitch and why do I gotta be on my knees?’ So this record is saying ‘I’m off my knees.’”

Coming up on August 7, We Are Scorpio is playing a free concert at Dequindre Cut as part of the Black Bottom Live Music Series, and the duo urges Detroiters to show up and support.

“Rock ’n’ roll artists are so hot,” moore says. “So me and Steffanie are also sex symbols, we know that and so we want to make sure everyone comes out to our Dequindre Cut show … We want people to come out and gush all over us on the 7th and then on the 31st it’s gonna be like a super sexy event in general. Rock ’n’ roll, there’s some energy inside that music that’s just visceral.”

On August 31, We Are Scorpio will be playing at the Fillmore during Black Women Rock!’s 20th anniversary show – their biggest stage as a duo yet.

“We’re relying on people actually showing up for us. It should be an easy sell, the show should be sold out because just Steffanie alone should sell it out, just me alone should sell it out, but I’m bringing like 20 women to the stage,” moore says. “It’s gonna be phenomenal. If I can’t get people to buy a $50 ticket, or a $75 ticket, to see the baddest rock ’n’ roll show they’ve never seen, then I don’t need to be in Detroit anymore.”

After their upcoming live shows, We Are Scorpio’s biggest goal is to win the spoken word Grammy.

“We’re coming for heads, we’re confident,” moore says. “We’re going to push for the nomination and we want some Black girls from Detroit to go bring home a spoken word Grammy.”

“That would be amazing,” Christi’an adds.

Until then, when the project comes out, the duo encourages everyone to “get the record, play the record, share the record… put it in your playlist.”

We Are Scorpio, the album, will be available on all streaming platforms on August 16. For updates on shows and music releases, you can follow @wearescorpio on Instagram.

Layla McMurtrie

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July 25, 2024
Detroit’s annual African World Festival is back at Hart Plaza to celebrate the African diaspora

Nearly 20,000 people are expected to gather from July 12-14 at Detroit’s Hart Plaza to celebrate the beauty, strength, and spirit of the African diaspora at the 41st Annual African World Festival.

Presented by The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the festival will feature Afro-centric performances, vendors, food, clothing, health products, visual arts, live demonstrations, community resources, and more.

This year’s music headliners include internationally-recognized talent such as Jamaican reggae-fusion band Third World, American hip-hop lyricist Rapsody, South African singer Thandiswa Mazwai, and New Orleans funk band Dumpstaphunk.

Other performers include Fyütch, Mokoomba, Larry Lee, Vox Sambou, and Detroit talent Charity, Drey Skonie, Allen Dennard, and the Mosaic Youth Theatre. The TeMaTe Institute for Black Dance and Culture, an organization dedicated to dance justice and cultural equity, will also perform.

While the entire festival is family-friendly, performances by Fyütch, Mosaic Youth Theatre, and TeMaTe are specifically tailored for children.

Members of the Wright Museum receive free admission to the African World Festival. For non-members, tickets are available for purchase now, with daily passes priced at $10-15 and weekend passes at $20-35.

For more information on all featured artists, a schedule of performances, and tickets, see thewright.org/africanworldfestival.

Layla McMurtrie

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July 2, 2024
Rising Detroit R&B singer Niko Noir aims to give listeners ‘the space to feel’

Niko Noir’s music journey is one of passion, soul, and forging her own path.

The 25-year-old Detroiter has been singing for as long as she can remember, but it wasn’t until high school that she fully immersed herself in her talent, first releasing music at the start of college. After her freshman year at Bethune-Cookman University in Florida, Niko dropped out to focus on her music career. She later attended the former Detroit Institute of Music Education to pursue music industry studies, but says she still wasn’t happy.

“I felt like I was following my Plan B, before I even attempted my Plan A,” Niko says. “It was helpful in some ways, but I just felt like I was learning a lot of things that I already knew.”

Now, the artist is back in school pursuing an esthetics license, and getting ready to release two new EPs this year. Her future goals include merging her passions, with hopes to do work in the beauty industry as well as grow her music career.

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Courtesy of Niko Noir

Niko Noir.

Niko describes her music as “melodic,” “poetic,” and “authentic,” with a sound heavily reminiscent of 2000s R&B, infused with elements of soul and jazz. Her influences include Brandy, Jasmine Sullivan, and James Fauntleroy.

“The 2000s R&B just had something to it, there was something in the air,” she says. “I like using descriptive words. I like using words that you don’t really hear other people use in songs. I try to not only expand my vocabulary, but the listeners as well… You’re in for a treat, you’re in for storytelling, some poetry with a beat behind it.”

She released her first EP, Blame Niko, in 2021, with its five tracks already showcasing poise and professionalism. On songs like “Needed You” and “Jefferson Ave,” the artist explores themes of relationships, love, and self-discovery, which are common threads throughout all her music.

Growing up on the eastside of Detroit, the city has also influenced Niko musically in unique ways.

“It’s definitely forced me to step into a more professional bag, very much. ‘Don’t play with me,’” she says. “People will try to get one over on you, people will try to dumb you down, gaslight you out of knowing your worth, so it’s definitely forced me to just put my business girl hat on.”

Attending high school at the Detroit School of Arts, Niko says that being a part of the vocal jazz choir was her favorite experience, playing a role in shaping her unique lyrical and sonic style.

“I feel like I can approach music in a grittier way,” she says. “There’s a lot of creatives in Detroit, but you have those creatives that are different and then you have those creatives who are kind of doing the same thing — there’s nothing wrong with it, if it works for you, then it works for you – but it’s kind of forced me to just step outside of the box, try to do things that everybody else in my vicinity isn’t doing because I just like to stand out. Some people might say it’s extra, but I don’t want to blend in.”

Throughout her musical journey thus far, Niko has learned to be more open-minded about opportunities to perform and collaborate.

“I’ve learned to just stop being so comfortable… sometimes when you step out on faith and you take on those opportunities or those chances that aren’t so comfortable they really put you in even bigger rooms or it just exposes you to a different audience, a different crowd,” she says. “Collaboration has started to become one of my favorite things in music. That’s something what I really prioritize nowadays. It’s super fun.”

In 2023, Niko released the fun and sexy single “Hummer” with local rapper Ink.

Recently, she has been working closely with producer Cardo, who she plans to release an EP with later this year.

First, though, she’s releasing the sequel to Blame Niko, her second EP titled Who Can Blame Niko?, which she plans to share with the world in late June or early July. The project’s name, and overall content, cleverly showcases her growth from self-doubt to greater confidence in her decisions.

“It’s me just embracing me and my choices, not feeling bad. The first one was just like, ‘I did this’ and being more so ashamed of it in a sense,” she says. “But this one is just like, ‘Well, this is a choice I made and that’s what I’m doing.’ I’m more free. I’m kind of just ridding myself of any guilt, any shame, like ‘I’m grown.’”

The artist just released the first single, “Personal,” for the upcoming project.

“‘Personal’ is one of my babies,” Niko says. “That actually wasn’t even going to be on the project, but I had been performing it so often and people would ask me, like, ‘When are you dropping that?’ I kind of just forced it on the project and it actually fits very well. I sat on that song for about a year and had no plan for it. I’m just glad it’s out and people can enjoy it.”

Through her music, Niko aims to convey the importance of embracing your emotions.

“I really want my music to allow people the space to feel and not shy away from feelings because I really feel like we are going through an emotion deficit right now,” she says. “This generation is just so afraid to feel out loud. We may feel behind closed doors by ourselves but it’s also okay to showcase that, it’s also okay to share that with your friends, with people you love. If somebody makes you angry, let them know. Don’t hurt them, but like emotions are emotions, we’re all human. I don’t feel like we should shy away from that.”

Music is not the only way Niko hopes to make others feel good. In the future, she hopes to launch her own skincare line and fragrance alongside growing her music career.

“I have a love for making things beautiful and building people’s confidence,” Niko says. “I definitely want to mix them both. I just don’t know how. I know artists nowadays, they’re stepping out in different ventures like we got Rihanna she literally just announced a hair [care brand]. I don’t even know what she’s doing. At some point, it’s going to have to integrate. I feel like the music is going to kick start that skincare line and the fragrances.”

Looking forward, Niko hopes to move out of Detroit, possibly to North Carolina or San Francisco.

“I definitely want to get into a whole different music scene,” she says. “I love Detroit, I really do, but I just feel like I’ve seen what I needed to see. I’m done; I feel like I’m doing side missions. There’s just a constant waiting game here, and I don’t ever know what I’m waiting for.”

Niko has previously performed in Detroit, opening for Grammy-nominated R&B artist Kenyon Dixon at El Club, participating in shows for So Far Sounds, and appearing on Live in the D. On June 15, the singer is set to headline a show titled Non Stop at The Photo House at 4036 Vinewood St. in Detroit, with plans for additional performances in the near future, ideally with a live band.

Ultimately, she says she just wants people to remember to have fun while making music.

More information about Niko Noir is available on Instagram @niko.noir. Her music is available on all streaming platforms.

Layla McMurtrie

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June 14, 2024
Interest in Michigan Central grand opening crashes website

There was so much interest in the grand reopening festivities for Detroit’s long-abandoned Michigan Central that it caused the website to crash, officials said Tuesday.

Registration for a free concert and guided tours at the newly renovated former train station opened to the public at noon, but Michigan Central said it had to put it all on pause due to overwhelming demand.

“We appreciate the community’s incredible excitement to take part in the Michigan Central OPEN celebration, however, the demand for tickets exceeded even our highest expectations and stress tests for website capacity,” Michigan Central said in a statement. “For that reason, and to ensure fairness for all, we immediately paused ticketing for both the opening concert and the open house. We will set a new date for ticket availability and open registration again at that time. We sincerely apologize.”

Organizers say they will make an announcement on when more tickets will become available at michigancentral.com.

“We thank everyone for your patience and understanding,” officials added.

The surge in interest came even as the concert’s musical acts haven’t even been announced yet, though organizers promised they will be “legendary” artists from Detroit, causing our imaginations to run wild.

The hulking train station had been abandoned for nearly 40 years and had long been considered a symbol of Detroit’s decline. In 2018, Ford Motor Co. announced it would renovate the building to build a mixed-use campus that would include its own laboratories as well as retail and restaurant options for the public, reportedly spending nearly $1 billion dollars on the project.

We’ll let our readers know as soon as more information on the grand re-opening festivities become available.

Lee DeVito

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May 21, 2024
Michigan Central teases grand opening with help of ‘legendary’ Detroit acts

Abandoned for nearly 40 years, Detroit’s former Michigan Central Station will soon reopen its doors following an extensive renovation by Ford Motor Co. — and its grand opening celebration is set to include a free concert by local artists.

While organizers are being coy regarding the lineup, they promise that the June 6 event “Live from Detroit: The Concert” will feature “some of Detroit’s biggest stars.”

At this point, we can only guess who that might be. In 2018, rapper Big Sean performed a short set at a press conference celebrating Ford’s transformation of the former train station into a new mixed-use campus.

We’re told full details will be announced soon, but the general public can register for tickets to the concert starting at noon on Tuesday, May 21 at michigancentral.com. The tickets are free, but registration is required.

The 90-minute outdoor event is also set to include appearances by local leaders and short films. Gates open at 6 p.m., and the show starts at 8:30 p.m.

The concert will be followed by a 10-day open house for the public to see the first floor of the building. Guests can also reserve tours starting at noon on Tuesday.

“There’s no place like Detroit, and we couldn’t be more excited to showcase the city through its own incredible artists,” said Jesse Collins, founder and CEO Jesse Collins Entertainment, which is producing the event. “We’re going to create an unforgettable welcome party for Michigan Central with this new chapter in Detroit history that celebrates the visions of these unique performers who are bound together by a shared love of their city.”

“We can’t wait to bring the city of Detroit, and its legendary performers, together at Michigan Central to show the nation how incredibly powerful [the] Motor City is,” Jesse Collins Entertainment’s Jeannae Rouzan-Clay added. “The city’s rich history will shine throughout the production and we promise a memorable evening full of vibrant performances and entertaining surprises.”

Food, drinks, and commemorative souvenirs will also be available for purchase.

Michigan Central has also been hiring locals to serve as “ambassadors” to welcome guests.

Beyond Ford Motor Co., other tenants are set to include restaurant, retail, and other organizations.

“After a six-year restoration by Ford and so many others, Michigan Central Station will re-open, reimagined as a place of innovation and culture open to all,” Mary Culler, chair of Michigan Central, said in a statement. “This is a historic moment not just for Michigan Central but for those near and far who love Detroit, and that’s why we’re creating an opening worthy of this achievement that invites everyone to join us for the station’s next chapter, no matter where they are located in the world.”

First opened in 1913, the last train departed the towering train station in 1988. It then became a symbol of Detroit’s ruin, so it’s certainly good to see new life breathed into the beautiful building.

Lee DeVito

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May 20, 2024
Palmer Park celebrates Earth Day with Art in the Trees

To celebrate Earth Day, Detroit’s Palmer Park is hosting its inaugural “Art in the Trees” event, which will feature large art installations and solo musicians throughout the park’s 70-acre Witherell Woods. Some of the art to be showcased was made out of recycled trash and natural elements, created by local artists including Donald Calloway, Tim Burke, Dale Teachout, Dick Druger, Cheryl English, and Kelly O’Neill. Most of the pieces will be for sale at the upcoming Palmer Park Art Fair from June 1-2. Along with the one-day-only art and music show, a big piece of the Earth Day celebration will be a spring clean-up. Community members will have the opportunity to help by picking up trash, weeding, sweeping, and raking. For volunteers, the nonprofit People for Palmer Park will provide gloves, trash bags, tools, and hand sanitizer. Since the event is family-friendly, there will also be many activities for children to enjoy, including the Aziza Fairy Forest Trash and Treasure Hunt. For this, local youth can sign up to search for prizes around the park while helping with trash pick-up. The day-long community celebration will also include face painting, flower giveaways, recycling education, refreshments, and more. Neighborhood groups and community members can sign up to volunteer at palmerparkearthday2024.eventbrite.com.

Layla McMurtrie

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April 22, 2024
Big Sean, Detroit Youth Choir to perform at Detroit’s NFL Draft

Detroit will be the center of the sports universe when it hosts the NFL Draft downtown next week, and guests will be able to enjoy some of its rich music culture, too.

Organizers announced Thursday that a NFL Draft Concert Series will feature performances from homegrown acts like rapper Big Sean, the Detroit Youth Choir, the singer Bazzi, and more.

“With the Draft coming to Detroit, we knew the importance of representing the rich cultural history and music legacy of this city as part of our NFL Draft Concert Series,” said Tim Tubito, director of event presentation and content at the NFL. “With an incredible lineup of headliners who all hail from the region, we’re excited for these great artists to help us create an amazing on-site experience for our fans and prospects.”

Big Sean will perform at 6:15 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, followed by the Detroit Youth Choir at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 26.

A post-Draft fireworks show is is planned for Friday, April 26, which will include a tribute to Detroit music. The festival wraps up on Saturday, April 27 with a performance by Bazzi, a Lebanese-American singer who grew up in Canton and blew up on social media in 2018 with his hit “Mine.”

The concert series is sponsored by Bud Light.

“Bud Light is committed to making great football moments even easier to enjoy, and the NFL Draft is one of the most celebrated and most defining events for fans, players and teams alike,” said Todd Allen, Vice President of Marketing for Bud Light. “We couldn’t be prouder to be presenting sponsor of the NFL Draft and to bring easy enjoyment to NFL fans all weekend long in Motor City.”

Other acts set to perform during the NFL Draft include artist Angela Davis, who will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and Caleb Carroll, a Detroit-area native and regular performer at Detroit Lions games who will sing the national anthem to kick off the event.

The performances will take place at the Draft Theater near Campus Martius Park. Admission is free and standing room only, but fans must register ahead of time by using the NFL OnePass app or on the web at NFL.com/DraftAccess.

Lee DeVito

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April 18, 2024
Detroit Jazz Festival announces initial 2024 lineup
The Detroit Jazz Festival, dubbed the “world’s largest (and best) free jazz festival,” is returning to downtown Detroit from Aug. 30-Sept 2. The renowned Labor Day weekend celebration just announced a partial lineup for this year during a recent livestream event.

“This year’s lineup reflects a very dynamic and eclectic combination of next-generation and legacy jazz musicians who reflect the diverse tapestry of jazz and its evolutions,” Chris Collins, president and artistic director of the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation, said in a press release. “We look forward to their energy and craftsmanship on our stages and seeing our faithful jazz fans in downtown Detroit on Labor Day weekend.”

The festival will take place in person at Hart Plaza and Campus Martius Park. A livestream option will also be available via live.detroitjazzfest.org.

You can check out the initial 2024 lineup below:
- 2024 Artist-In-Residence Brian Blade
- Billy Childs Quartet, Special Guest Sean Jones
- Cameron Graves
- Carmen Lundy
- Charlie Sepulveda & The Turnaround Plus Special Guest
- Chief Adjuah (formerly Christian Scott)
- Christian McBride
- Ghost-Note
- Isaiah J. Thompson Quartet
- James “Blood” Ulmer Music Revelation Ensemble
- Joshua Redman Group featuring Gabrielle Cavassa ‘Where Are We’ Tour
- Kyle Eastwood – Eastwood Symphonic
- Marquis Hill: Composers Collective
- Melanie Charles
- Mimi Fox Organ Trio
- Monty Alexander D-Day
- Nate Smith
- Pablo Ziegler Quintet Featuring Roberta Gambarini
- The Bad Plus
- The Vibraphone Summit: Warren Wolf – Joe Locke – Jason Marsalis & Chien Chien Lu
- TRANSLINEAR LIGHT: The Music of Alice Coltrane featuring Ravi Coltrane with Special Guest Brandee Younger
- Zig Zag Power Trio: Vernon Reid – Melvin Gibbs – Will Calhoun
A day-by-day schedule of the lineup and more performers will be announced closer to the date of the festival. Information on VIP passes, artist submissions, sponsorship opportunities, and more can be found at detroitjazzfest.org.

The livestream event preview included performances from 2024 Artist-In-Residence Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band, as well as the One-World Jazz Orchestra, a collaboration between the Berklee Global Jazz Institute and Wayne State University’s Jazz Program. The evening also featured a sneak peek at the new Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center, scheduled to open to the public at Wayne State’s campus in the fall.

Valade has been a major sponsor of the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation since 2005, supporting the organization’s year-long programming that highlights Detroit’s rich history of jazz music, anchored by the annual festival.
Layla McMurtrie

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April 11, 2024
‘Professional Love’ showcases Detroit jazz artists during a past era of creative camaraderie

Multifaceted artist Evan Haywood has just debuted Professional Love, and while the album’s release date is April 1, with its first track titled “April Fools,” the talent displayed on the project is no joke. The eight-track LP fuses funk, soul, and jazz, embodying a nostalgic era of creativity and camaraderie among Detroit musicians.

Professional Love was mostly recorded in 2013 in Haywood’s first studio “The Lands,” located in the basement of a large Ann Arbor home nicknamed “Le Dog House.” The spot served as an incubator of creativity for young musicians, merging Ann Arbor’s experimental music scene with Detroit jazz and funk. Much of the talent that spent time in the space and is featured on the album has grown to be some of the city’s hottest contemporary jazz musicians including Marcus Elliot, Michael Malis, Ahya Simone, Ian Finkelstein, Josef Deas, and Ingrid Racine, among others.

Over a decade later, these artists have continued to grow together and separately in their music careers, now taking time to reflect on a past period of growth and creative collaboration.

“I think the real story is how a bunch of broke young musicians in Ann Arbor were able to manifest and progress so many styles of music which have historical origins in Detroit, from psychedelic soul and funk to free jazz to hip hop… all using a ramshackle DIY studio,” Haywood says. “The Le Dog House was a place of much chaos and debauchery, but also a sacred space where great art was created amongst a circle of very well-informed and music-obsessed individuals, all pursuing their own forms of greatness.”

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Courtesy photo

Marcus Elliot.

Detroit saxophonist Marcus Elliot met Haywood at the Le Dog house around 2010 and has since led a successful career in jazz music including, but certainly not limited to, directing the Creative Arts Orchestra at the University of Michigan, leading bands, and releasing numerous projects.

“That house was filled with some very extremely creative people and Evan was one of them. I wasn’t sure what he was exactly. A musician, rapper, recording engineer, DJ, film enthusiast, visual artist??? Come to find out he was all of these things, but even more so, he was a good friend,” Elliot said in a statement. “It is great to hear these recordings and it is great that Evan captured such a special time in our lives.”

Some musicians who lived in the house, including Michael Malis and Ben Rolston, describe the time and place as a “creative wonderland” for everyone involved.

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Ben Rolston.

“A huge gift Le Dog gave to me, and to others I’m sure, was a way to deepen and strengthen musical connections and the personal relationships framing those connections. As a student in jazz school, most of my relationships were through that specific musical lens,” Rolston says. “I felt able to actualize other musical interests and break out of the relatively narrow lane jazz education provides. My musical life after leaving Le Dog has included a wide variety of genres (hip-hop, folk, bluegrass, Balkan, New Orleans funk, etc.) and it’s interesting to reflect back on Le Dog being a large catalyst for following through on such wide-ranging interests.”

“Within a couple weeks of arriving at University of Michigan, I found myself rehearsing at Le Dog with musicians that would become lifelong inspirations and collaborators,” another jazz musician James Cornelison adds. “I learned so much from my older peers in that basement.”

While many musical spaces can be intimidating, The Lands served as a place for young talent to explore their artistry with an intimate, non-judgemental crowd. Ingrid Racine, who is also a U-M jazz alumnus, says that hearing the music from this period was “a joyful surprise and a dose of nostalgia.”

“These recordings are definitely the product of a synergetic time in Ann Arbor, and the Le Dog house was a hub of music-making and community building,” she says. “A good reminder that big rental houses full of young musicians are vital to local music scenes.”

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Chuck Andersen

Ingrid Racine.

The Le Dog House was always active, a place where the creation of music was happening every single day for years, with a revolving door of unique musicians.

Unfortunately, the good energy of the space eventually turned bad.

“Everybody there was kind of on the same wavelength, and at the same time, the house itself was always in a state of chaos,” Haywood says. “There was always some craziness going on there. It was never the most stable environment. There were always people coming and going.”

Nevertheless, “it was magical,” he adds.

The home was “majestic” in style and vibe, with ornate architecture, regular jam sessions, and spiritual energy, but eventually began to crumble as dangerous people started frequently visiting, leading to dangerous situations. While the instability “allowed the creativity to flow so freely,” Haywood says, there came a time when everyone had to move out for their own safety and sanity.

“That was the nature of the house… a deep sense of fellowship, comfort, and belonging, paired with a foreboding and unshakeable feeling of chaos, dread, danger, and unease. Beauty and ugliness, all coexisting together, trying to make a way,” Haywood says. “This album, Professional Love, is a testament to this struggle and resilience, which I believe is a character of Michigan music in all its forms.”

Additionally, Professional Love is dedicated to Fugi, an artist who sang with the Detroit funk band Black Merda in the late ’60s and was friends with the Temptations. Haywood says he met Fugi while living in Hamtramck and the artist was supposed to be featured on this project, but unfortunately passed away before he was able to record his part. Still, “Fugi’s spirit is present on the album,” he adds.

This is the “next piece of the puzzle” of Haywood’s string of releases of archival projects following his Canterbury Tales album that was just released less than two months ago. The artist plans to release more past recordings soon before debuting newer music.

Layla McMurtrie

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April 1, 2024
Jhene Aiko is opening her tour in Detroit on Juneteenth

R&B singer-songwriter Jhene Aiko just announced “The Magic Hour Tour,” her first headlining tour in five years, and she’s kicking it off on the right foot with an opening stop in Detroit.

The show on Wednesday, June 19 is set for Little Caesars Arena at 7 p.m.

Joining Aiko on the journey are R&B and rap queens Coi Leray, Tink, Umi, and Kiana Lede, although it’s yet to be revealed which openers will accompany her at which city or if they will all be performing throughout the entire tour.

In a series of Instagram posts announcing the tour, Aiko also revealed a snippet of a new song that fans hope to soon hear in full. Her most recent release was the single “Sun/Son,” on January 5. The soothing, heartfelt track honors the child she welcomed in late 2022 alongside Detroit-born rapper Big Sean.

Aside from a project of R&B sleep music for babies, Aiko hasn’t released a full-length album since Chilombo in 2020, so hopefully the tour and the new tracks mean a new LP is coming soon.

The six-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter was last in Detroit to perform at the Mo Pop Festival in the summer of 2022, and Detroit fans have missed her ever since. So, what better way for Aiko and Detroiters to celebrate Juneteenth than with some great music in a great city?

“The Magic Hour Tour” will span North America, with 26 stops in the U.S. and one in Toronto, ending in Columbus, Ohio on Aug. 22.

Presale tickets go on sale starting Wednesday, March 27 at 10 a.m., while tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, March 29 at 10 a.m.

Tickets are available at 313Presents.com, LiveNation.com, and Ticketmaster.com.

Layla McMurtrie

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March 27, 2024
MAP Fest returns for a second year with goals to grow and highlight ‘the beauty of the hood’

In 2023, MAP Fest debuted in Highland Park’s Avalon Village, blending music, art, and poetry for a day-long community festival. By all accounts the event was a success, drawing nearly 1,200 attendees, 60 vendors, and over 60 performers.

This year, the festival is set to return on July 27, and organizers have hopes of growing with more sponsors, interactive activities, and community partners, with a goal to double the turnout.

“If this was a TV show, that was our pilot episode,” says Kwesi Huffman, co-founder and 2024 Map Fest head director. “This year, the goal is to expand everything and to make everything much more fun and organized. We had no experience, we were just trying to make it happen.”

Huffman, who was promoted from marketing director to head director, joined the MAP Fest team shortly after the idea was thought up by co-founders and local musicians Koron Wilkerson and Anthony Young Jr., who goes by AyeWhy. Wilkerson is also the founder of the local arts and entertainment group Jewels of Detroit and owns Rock Local Entertainment Cafe in Highland Park, so MAP Fest is basically a culmination of all the work he does to showcase Detroit talent.

Despite little festival experience, MAP Fest 2023 was a win. The team worked hard and gained tons of positive community feedback, plus secured high-level sponsorships from cannabis retailers Jeeters and JARS and event company Crowd Freak.

“With all odds against us, our sponsors still decided to work with us,” Huffman says. “Collaborations were important because it showed that we had credibility. For a lot of people, especially in the city of Detroit, especially if you’re doing something that’s different in a location that people already have a negative stigma about, people just won’t show up based on caution going off in their brain, being scared, or whatever they think.”

He added that many people told him to not even have the festival in the location it’s in because no one would show up, but clearly, they were wrong. If you’ve ever been to Avalon Village, you know it’s a gem.

Avalon Village is a nonprofit eco-village that has brought blighted lots on Avalon Street in Highland Park back to life, now providing a safe space for the community with youth programs, holistic healing, activity spaces, and more.

This year, beyond more sponsors, the plan for MAP Fest is to better utilize the space on Avalon Street with things like bigger stages and larger activations.

“We just want to have more things for people to do and make it an event that you can stay at the entire day and not get bored,” AyeWhy says. “Carnival games, or more painting activities for the art district, whatever it may be to just keep people entertained, even on the basketball court.”

For AyeWhy, the main mission of MAP Fest is to give local artists a platform to gain recognition, so he hopes to show performers even more love this year. “I think that the artists that perform need to have a longer set and actually understand that we care about them and we want them to shine with this festival,” he says.

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Courtesy photo

The inaugural MAP Fest brought around 1,200 attendees and over 60 performers.

Not only does MAP Fest provide that platform to local artists, but Huffman says he is also glad that the festival showcases “the beauty of the hood.”

“We’re trying to change the stigma of the hood actively inside the hood… For me, growing up, I didn’t think that doing anything like this on your own with the limited resources that we have was possible. So MAP Fest, being in the hood, being in this location, gathering large amounts of people, creates that type of experience and it’s positive,” he says. “We are products of the community creating something for the community and we’re also inspiring the community as a whole to do what you want to do. No matter if it’s music, art, poetry, if it’s business, if it’s getting off your ass — do something, be an impactful part of your community.”

To get people ready for MAP Fest, the Jewels of Detroit hosted MAP Con during the week of Valentine’s Day with a series of music, art, and poetry events held at Rock Local. The idea started with the group’s visual artists wanting to do a gallery show, but it quickly grew into something bigger, making the space a gallery all week long. MAP Con featured a karaoke night, an open mic, R&B and neo-soul nights, and an open gallery day to meet the featured artists.

Organizers hope to have a few more events leading up to MAP Fest that continue to build excitement around this year’s event. In the future, AyeWhy says the vision is to take the festival to other cities and countries, but for now, getting ready for another hometown success is at the forefront.

“I just think it’s important for people to take July 27 off, be completely free, and have nothing going on, no babysitting, no work, none of that,” AyeWhy says. “Just be prepared for a whole day of extravagant events, music, basketball, poetry, everything.”

A lineup of performances for MAP Fest will be announced closer to the event date. Tickets will be on sale in the coming weeks. You can follow @mapfest on Instagram for updates.

Layla McMurtrie

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March 14, 2024
Award-winning Detroit musician Audra Kubat hosts songwriting workshops and performance at the DIA

Detroit-born musician Audra Kubat will be at the Detroit Institute of Arts this weekend, not only to perform, but also to share her songwriting knowledge with others.

On Saturday, March 16 during two sessions at noon and 1 p.m., the award-winning singer-songwriter, composer, and educator will allow guests to become contributors to her art. The workshops will be a collaboration between Kubat and guests to write a song inspired by select artworks within the DIA, mainly created by women artists.

The guided songwriting process will start with a creative discussion, developing observations into lyrics, and finally being paired with a melody that will become a cohesive, reflective lyrical piece of music. Through the collaborative activity, participants will gain some understanding of how to turn visual inspiration into a song.

The songs created during the workshops will be performed by a group led by Kubat at the concert that follows at 2 p.m. The family-friendly show will feature favorite songs from Kubat’s catalog, plus the new tracks, with the artist joined by celebrated musicians Emily Rose and Ozzie Andrews.

The workshops and the concert will take place in the DIA’s Rivera Court. Admission is free for residents of Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland counties.

Limited spaces are available for the workshops, so early registration is required. Anyone interested in participating can register now online at dia.org.

Layla McMurtrie

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March 11, 2024
Flyana Boss talk Motown influence ahead of hometown debut

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SJ Spreng

Flyana Boss will be in Detroit for the second stop of their first headlining tour.

Women from Detroit do it better, and Bobbi LaNea, one-half of viral rap duo Flyana Boss, is proving it.

She and other-half Folayan are real-life best friends — they finish each other’s sentences, practice self-care together, give each other space when needed, and take pride in being unapologetically themselves — elf ears, bright colors, and punny yet punchy lyrics included.

Just around a year ago, the two aspiring musicians quit their jobs at cannabis dispensaries to pursue music full-time, and success didn’t happen overnight. Years of previous hard work and consistent posting to TikTok finally paid off when Flyana Boss’s song “You Wish” went viral, accumulating nearly 40 million Spotify streams since its release on June 16. Their uniquely eccentric videos, featuring them singing while sprinting through various locations, caught people’s attention, leading to videos in notable places like Spotify headquarters, Teen Vogue, and Disneyland.

The duo also gained acclaim from various celebrities, including hip-hop icon Missy Elliott, who collaborated with them on the “You Wish” remix alongside rising rapper Kaliii. The success earned Flyana Boss over 1 million followers on TikTok and the opportunity to open for Janelle Monae on The Age of Pleasure Tour, an experience among many over the past year that the pair describes as “surreal.”

“We’re super grateful for Janelle, Janelle’s amazing and was such a great artist to watch every night,” Bobbi says. “We’ve dreamt of this our whole lives, so we feel very prepared and ready for everything, but it’s a dream.”

Now, Folayan and Bobbi are gearing up for an even bigger dream, their first headlining tour of their own: The Bosstanical Garden Tour. It kicks off on Saturday in Chicago, with a second stop in Detroit on Sunday.

@flyanaboss Replying to @Spotify Running to a playlist near you!!!!! #flyanaboss #evanblummadeit #rap #hiphop ♬ You Wish – Flyana Boss

The duo hopes that people who come to their performances feel accepted, connect with people, and hopefully leave with a new friend. Music has been a form of connection for the two of them, so they hope they can help it be the same for others.

“You can expect plants, you can expect growth, you can expect to water yourself and to water others,” Bobbi says.

“And ass shaking,” Folayan adds.

The besties connected through similar aspirations at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, but they both originally hail from cities that begin with the letter D: Detroit and Dallas, also known as the D and D Town.

In true Detroit spirit, Bobbi does not stray away from proudly repping where’s she from — and for anyone wondering, she claims the westside.

“She owns a lot of pieces of clothing that says something about Detroit,” Folayan says.

“I feel like Detroit people, when we live in other places, we like to let people know we’re from Detroit,” Bobbi adds. “I definitely got that from Detroit.”

The name Flyana Boss is actually inspired by Motown icon Diana Ross, whom both of the girls have always loved and been inspired by. Now, like Ross, they boast in being fly and being bosses in the music industry in their own unique way.

“I grew up around Motown, my first job was at the Motown Museum, so Motown has been a big influence on me. I grew up watching The Temptations,” Bobbi says. “I don’t know what I would be without Motown, to be honest.”

Apart from “every Motown artist,” she has a handful of other favorite Detroit artists too.

“Some people may say Madonna’s not from Detroit, but I like to say she’s from Detroit because she’s from the outskirts, so I’m claiming Madonna,” Bobbi says. “Obviously, Eminem’s an icon, Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin, Big Sean, Kash Doll, the list goes on and on, we built them great around there.”

For their upcoming Detroit show, Flyana Boss will be playing at the Shelter, a pretty small and intimate venue on par with the rest of the tour, unlike the larger spaces they played with Janelle Monae. The duo is excited to connect with fans in a more up-close and personal way.

Their biggest show, they say, will be the last stop of the tour at the Echoplex in Los Angeles on March 28. On the same day, the duo will be dropping an EP titled This Ain’t The Album.

After that, Flyana Boss says their biggest goal is to take a long and well-deserved nap.

“We wanna get through this tour and not be so exhausted,” Folayan says. “But, by the end of the year, we want to have a song on the radio.”

“A top 10 Billboard smash,” Bobbi adds.

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SJ Spreng

Folayan (left) is from Dallas, while Bobbi (right) is from Detroit.

There’s no doubt that the pair could make that happen, especially as the two hold importance in helping each other maintain balance and stay calm during this time of tons of positive accomplishments, but also inevitable fatigue.

“We’re like butterflies going through stages of life, we were first making music alone and that was kind of the cocoon, and then we popped out of the cocoon and now we’re spreading our beautiful wings,” Folayan says.

Their mission with their music and all of the work they do is to uplift and spotlight all underrepresented groups of people, especially “weird Black girls.”

“We just represent our quirky unique self, we didn’t always feel seen as little girls in our awkwardness and our weirdness,” Bobbi says. “There were some artists like Missy Elliott that influenced and helped us along the way growing up, but we would like to be that for this generation.”

In their newest single “yeaaa,” released on Friday, the inspiring energy is apparent as Bobbi spits bars about Detroit that fans will get to hear at the upcoming hometown show and throughout the tour.

“Detrois faux fur, yeah I’m so cold,” she raps. “Anita Baker, sweet love, so low.”

That’s not the first Detroit mention in Flyana Boss tracks either. “I always try to shout out Detroit as much as I can,” Bobbi says.

Folayan, on the other hand, has never been to Detroit, but she knows the basics as she’s ready to visit. “It’s gonna be my first time, I’m so excited. I’ve heard a lot about Seven Mile and Schaefer,” she laughs. “Better Made potato chips and Faygo pop, I’m excited for that.”

Bobbi says she usually visits home once or twice a year, but she hasn’t been back to the city in a while, so she’s “obviously” looking forward to Coney Islands, as well as the often underrated authenticity the city has to offer.

“Detroit is a lot more diverse than people think. There are different types of people, creative people, artists, painters… everything is not just about the Motor City and the grind, there are a lot of delicate flowers in Detroit,” Bobbi says. “I think it would be nice for people to have a new perspective that there’s just more to Detroit than whatever they may think.”

We Detroiters already know that, but if you don’t, she’s right, and we’re glad that the city can now claim Flyana Boss too.

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Layla McMurtrie

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February 23, 2024