It’s good to see talented Detroit-producer/emcee Quelle gain more attention this year. He’s one Danny Brown’s biggest producers and also part of the Crown Nation family that is also gaining more notoriety lately with the contributions of other key member Denmark Vessey. Like a lot of Detroit rap artists, Quelle lives in California now (Oakland to be exact) and is managing to reach a larger audience from his current vantage point. Check out this blood red video for his latest song, “The Loop” and stay tuned for more Crown Nation material showing up on this blog in the near future.

These days, she’s living in New York and focusing a bit more on the Afro/Latino (Puerto Rican to be exact) part of her music heritage. To get a better feel for her original productions… which tie in everything from experimental house to channeling orishas on wax, I’d recommend hitting her MySpace where she’s making some incredible music under the name DJ Rimarkable. For a taste of how she DJs and the music she’s into, listen to the Soundcloud below. It’s full of good sounds to help keep bad energy at bay.

Latest tracks by DJ Rimarkable

Most folks should know of Invincible if they consider themselves  fans of true hip-hop. She was initially raised in Israel before moving to Ann Arbor, MI at the age of seven. She crafted her sound growing up with A2 hip-hop artists like Athletic Mic League, DJ Haircut (now known as Meyer Hawthorne), and others before heading out to New York at the age of 17 to be a writer for the short lived television show, Lyricists Lounge. After awhile, she eventually settled in Detroit during the earlier part of this decade and has called the D home ever since.

She’s by no means the only female MC in Detroit worth paying attention to (check out Miz Korona when you get a sec) but Invincible is generating the most buzz. Check out the video below for her song “Sledgehammer.” And if you like it, try to buy her incredibly diverse album as well. It’s called Shapeshifters and it’s a journey through Detroit, New York, Palestine, and is all about showcasing talent through struggle. She’s constantly trekking around the globe doing shows, so if she’s in a town near you soon, definitely show her some love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze-S5Wz0iTc

Get to know Detroit through this video.  Black Milk is easily one of the best producer/rappers in hip-hop right now and Royce Da 5’9 is one of the surliest. If you’ve never seen it before, peep the video for “Losing Out” off of Black Milk’s ridiculously hot Tronic album. Gotta love the Hex Murda cameo. This is the definition of Detroit heat. Royce just dropped a new album less than two months ago called Street Hop. Check that out over here.

On the other hand,  if you’re talking hip-hop, they couldn’t be further apart. But Detroit’s Stoopz N Breeze are having fun connecting the dots. They dropped an album earlier this year called Turn Up the Smooth that’s full of fiery, yet hilarious raps that invoke images of Miami Vice circa 1985. In a way, Stoopz N Breeze are the anti Crockett and Tubbs. They’re not trying to uphold laws at all — they’re true criminals at heart, but they’re crooked in a good way. On stage, they dress in the cheesiest ’80s Miami gear imaginable, yet still rap and make beats like drunken hip-hop gurus. I caught them performing live last night with Nico Redd, Black Reign and Ohkang, and they killed it. Blake Eerie was on stage most of the night since it was the listening party for his upcoming project, The Lateef EP, in which the MC uses a sample from Detroit jazz legend Yusef Lateef on every song. It’s a beautiful album and I’ll write more about that when it drops mid December. But for now, just get acquainted with Turn Up the Smooth which you can stream/buy over here. Even the folks at Waxpoetics have taken notice.

Detroit and London in the house.  Download and blast it now.