UPDATE: The Detroit hip-hop history tour for Sunday, August 11 has been canceled. The event will be rescheduled at a later date.
If you want to catch a glimpse of the place where Slum Village used to perform or the spot where Eminem, Proof and J Dilla used to rap battle, you’ll soon get the chance to take a trip down hip-hop memory lane.
Distinctively Detroit Tours is hosting its first hip-hop history tour Sunday, where attendees can board a motorcoach and visit places integral to Detroit’s hip-hop scene like The Shelter, the Hip Hop Shop, the former site of Stanley Hong’s Mannia Café, the house of the late J Dilla in the Conant Gardens neighborhood, music store Future Funk Records and Def Sound Studio, which recently became the first hip-hop studio in Michigan to receive a historic designation.
As a big fan of Detroit hip-hop, Distinctively Detroit Tours President Kris Hoff knew she wanted to host a tour that featured popular places from the music scene, but was having difficulty getting access, she told BridgeDetroit. Hoff, who runs Happy Times Tours and Experiences and Tami Manton of Group Tix and Tours, partnered together to launch Distinctively Detroit in 2023. They offer a variety of tours, from the homes of Motown stars, the sites where “Batman vs. Superman” and “8 Mile” were filmed, to a guide on Detroit food.
Hoff ended up meeting rappers Ron “Phat Kat” Watts, who was a frequent collaborator with J Dilla and Cardi Boyz member Ronnnie “Killa Ghanz” Kelly. She also met Def Sound Founder Jerry Flynn Dale and the four worked on organizing the tour together. Hoff said the hip-hop history tour has been two years in the making.
“I met Ron first and we spent a long time talking about what was in my head. I couldn’t believe he was thinking the same things I was thinking,” she said. “And I was like, ‘Well, two people are thinking this, it’s got to be really good. Then I meet Jerry and he has the same idea.
“I grew up on hip-hop music,” Hoff added. “People that grew up on hip-hop are now aging into the 50, even the 60-year-old category and that’s the tour audience.”
Dale said it was easy to select tour sites, adding J Dilla’s house and The Shelter were no-brainers. He has fond memories of frequenting Future Funk Records in the 1980s, sifting through records and battling local rappers like Kalimah “Nikki D” Johnson.
Dale founded Def Sound as a teenager inside a house on Winthrop Street. It’s been graced by big acts across all types of music genres—the Eminem-fronted group D12, the late Amp Fiddler, George Clinton Jr., Brown Mark of Prince and the Revolution and Kid Rock. Dale has also worked with the Winans family, including Vickie, Marvin and Mario. The studio received its historic designation in May.
Dale said being part of the tour is surreal. The event is dedicated to his mother Celia Dale, who died in May shortly before the designation ceremony.
“My mother invested heavily in hip-hop. She didn’t know nothing about it, she just knew that’s what I wanted to do,” he said. “I helped a lot of other people and incubated a lot of other artists in Detroit.”
Hoff was also set on giving passengers an experience. Guests will get a behind the scenes look at rapper Christian “Trick Trick” Mathis’ Warren studio Silent Riot Studios.
“When people think of tours, they think, ‘Oh God, it’s going to be boring.’ No, not this one,” Hoff said. “There’s going to be music, fun, laughs. The history will be there, but we’re going to do it in a way where it’s immersive and you can really experience it. If they’re music students or they’re interested in the music industry or hip-hop fans, this is the perfect tour for all of them.”
Hoff said she plans to host the tour again, with the goal of offering it during “good weather months” in the spring and summer. She wants to offer the tour biweekly and eventually make it a weekly event. The bus accommodates up to 40 people.
Hoff and Dale hope tour passengers will learn how influential Detroit is in the hip-hop industry. The city doesn’t get the recognition it deserves as a music destination, they said.
“I want people to know that we’ve expanded from Motown and now we’re here in our own right and some of the hottest artists in the music business are from Detroit in hip-hop,” Dale said. “People think hip-hop is dangerous. They don’t understand the engineers behind hip-hop and the beat makers. These people are really great musicians and are very intelligent and that’s what I would like for people to learn about this tour.”
The tour bus will depart from Fisher Theatre at 10 a.m. Sunday, with an estimated return at 1:45 p.m. Watts and Dale will serve as tour guides. Tickets are $79 and are available to purchase at Distinctively Detroit’s website.