moving here from around the world and trying urban farming amongst other ideas to try to help Detroit come back. I applaud their efforts, but the situation is gray. By putting out records by a producer like Nick Speed, who is known in hip-hop, are you moving into new territory? I feel that Detroit techno in its romantic early ’90s form has been dead for years. Only a few are still exploring and searching for “Something in the Sky.” Death via assimilation, producers moving overseas, and unscrupulous booking agents who keep our best sound teachers—DJs—out on the road for way too long to create anything or run their own labels. The original reasons for creating the tracks have faded into DJ ho shit like, “I wanna be a jet-set DJ,” or “Do you think a company from Europe will license this?” and have polluted most producers presented to us. Everything is safe, neat, well mixed, and efficient. That does not reflect the Detroit I know, which consequently says a lot about where a lot of the current “Detroit techno” producers are from. Unfortunately, the Detroit hip-hop scene is experiencing a similar thing post–J Dilla. Oddly, all of the major players in both scenes frequent the Submerge building or have studios here. Cats like DJ Skurge, Nick Speed, Bileebob, Jon Dixon, MC Invincible, the KicSounds crew, Fes [Roc], Illite, and Magestik Legend. I’m confident that eventually some type of mutant hybrid virus will spawn from here and infect the world soon.
course, are fanatics, fakes, sellouts, and riding our nut sack ’cause they can’t do shit else—the more of them and the less of us, the better. It makes the truth harder to find. In the jungle, those who hide the best live the longest, and so it is in my experience. Zebras all have similar stripes to confuse predators. Most successful predators use camouflage and concealment to achieve sustenance. I study their way as the law. There will always be fake UR gigs, bogus, defunct castouts who sold out still trying to survive on the phony UR DJ bill put together by promoters looking to cash in. Short of killing people, we cannot stop that. ’Cause once a ho, always a ho. But you can always check with “those who know” to find the truth.
How do you know when it’s the right time to drop a record?
Usually when there are huge delays in the fragile manufacturing process that it takes to make a vinyl record, it is a good sign that you have something special. It is a test of your endurance to see if you will give up out of frustration, doubt, or finance. If you survive and make your transition, then the record will have a soul. This interview has been coded “For Those Who Know.” .
This article originally appeared in Wax Poetics Issue 45, 2011.
Groups from other countries have long imitated UR. Is this flattering or dangerous?
It’s essential for us. It is our cloaking device. I never try to stop imitators. I think they are a given based on history. Most are cool people who think and see the world as we do. Some are very genuine and even considered allies. While most, of
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