Waajeed is a Detroit producer and DJ who came up with J Dilla and Slum Village, co-founded the Underground Music Academy in the old NAACP building on the north end of Detroit, and hosts a weekly show on WDET. This is his full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.
In this interview, Waajeed traces his origin story from rolling dice in Pershing High School's parking lot to landing in Amp Fiddler's basement, where a generation of Detroit artists learned how to make music and how to move through the world. He talks about his years with Slum Village, keeping the trains on the tracks, designing the album covers, filming the footage and why he eventually walked away from hip hop entirely.
He breaks down the Platinum Pied Pipers record, his collaboration with Dwele, and the genre-defying freedom behind Memoirs of Hi-Tech Jazz.
Waajeed also opens up about why he came back to Detroit after nine years in New York, what it means to own the things you pour yourself into, and how the Underground Music Academy became a space where every skillset he has — design, music, building, mentorship — finally came together in one place.
This one is about legacy, lineage, and what it means to be a conduit.
CHAPTERS
00:28 - The Underground Music Academy and the NAACP Building
03:08 - What Mentorship Actually Means: Lessons from Amp Fiddler
08:13 - Growing Up Next to a Prison: Urgency, Survival, and Detroit
12:29 - Funky Drummer, Dilla's Basement, and the Birth of a Sound
14:41 - Slum Village: Keeping the Trains on the Tracks
19:22 - Platinum Pied Pipers and Breaking Away from Hip Hop
29:07 - The Shelter, Genre Freedom, and Memoirs of Hi-Tech Jazz
36:35 - Nine Years in New York and Why He Came Back
40:48 - Gentrification, Culture Drain, and What Detroit Owes Itself
48:46 - The Future of the Underground Music Academy
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
Waajeed, Waajeed interview, Underground Music Academy Detroit, Slum Village, J Dilla, Platinum Pied Pipers, Amp Fiddler, Dwele Detroit, Detroit hip hop history, Detroit music producer, Detroit techno, Memoirs of Hi-Tech Jazz, Detroit gentrification, WDET radio Detroit, Detroit mentorship, Living for the City podcast, Hanif Abdurraqib, Detroit music culture, Detroit music history, Side Stage Network, Live Nation podcast
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