{"podcast":{"title":"Living for the City","slug":"living-for-the-city-7841880","podcast_index_feed_id":7841880,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/IMP4672743019","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/6b7515e8-427d-11f1-b52d-13d6ecf715d9/image/f530e40772799dd2009def36c97a5891.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Side Stage","episode_count":22,"summary":"Before Detroit gave the world Motown, techno, and hip-hop, it gave the world something harder to name: a feeling that music made in basements and backrooms and borrowed spaces could become the soundtrack to an entire generation's life. That is the story Living for the City is here to tell, and nobody alive is better equipped to tell it than Hanif Abdurraqib. MacArthur Fellow. New York Times bestselling author. The most gifted writer working at the intersection of music, memory, and American identity today. Hanif brings his singular voice to a new video podcast series that goes inside the streets, venues, and neighborhoods where iconic sounds are born, talking with the artists, DJs, producers, and community architects who built these movements from the ground up. Season One is Detroit. Eight episodes. The full arc of how one city became the unlikely origin point for some of the most influential music ever made, told by the people who were actually there, and the writer who understands better than anyone what it meant. This is not a music history lesson. This is a front-row seat to the moments that mattered. Living for the City premieres May 13th, with new episodes dropping weekly.…","last_synced_at":"2026-09-30T18:17:41.745766+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/living-for-the-city-7841880"},"episode":{"title":"Waajeed on Dilla, Slum Village and Detroit's Music Future | Living for the City FULL Interview","slug":"waajeed-on-dilla-slum-village-and-detroit-s-music-future-living-for-the-city-full-interview","published_at":"2026-07-15T18:25:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/living-for-the-city-7841880/waajeed-on-dilla-slum-village-and-detroit-s-music-future-living-for-the-city-full-interview","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/living-for-the-city-7841880","url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/1468/tracking.swap.fm/track/GShUDppPATUMmMhYllkv/traffic.megaphone.fm/IMP8581073292.mp3","audio_url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/1468/tracking.swap.fm/track/GShUDppPATUMmMhYllkv/traffic.megaphone.fm/IMP8581073292.mp3","summary":"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 Un…","meta_description":"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…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3828,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/living-for-the-city-7841880/episodes/waajeed-on-dilla-slum-village-and-detroit-s-music-future-living-for-the-city-full-interview/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/living-for-the-city-7841880/waajeed-on-dilla-slum-village-and-detroit-s-music-future-living-for-the-city-full-interview.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}