INTERVIEW: Detroit Lines Release Of “Hit My DM’s” Vinyl + Tapes with Black Noi$e, skywalker & dream beach at El Club

July 02, 2019

INTERVIEW: Detroit Lines Release Of “Hit My DM’s” Vinyl + Tapes with Black Noi$e, skywalker & dream beach at El Club

Detroit Lines is a relatively low-key collaborative project compromised of the area’s most talented underground producers, including members Black Noi$e, Caleb Stone, Jonah Baseball, Megablown and Ji Hoon dream beach, Raphy, and skywlkr.

Starting from casual beginnings playing at the bowling alley, the group eventually landed a solid placement with Borussia x Puma, resulting in a vinyl release on Saturday, July 6th at El Club Detroit, with sets from the entire crew live all night.

The first Detroit Lines release was a collaborative project from Dream Beach and Skywlkr titled, “dogsss,” featuring vocals from cloud rap phenomenons like Squadda B and Pradmane. In no time, Detroit Lines began its journey. Meet Detroit Lines members:

Members of Detroit Lines in the studio. Photography credit, Lizz Wilkinson.

Members dream beach, Raphy, and skywlkr sat down to talk about their process, the music, and what to expect from this weekend’s release party in their studio.

Skywlkr, known for his wildly experimental rap beats, graced with vocals by the likes of Skepta, Mac Miller, Childish Gambino, and A$AP Rocky, to name a few. Skywlkr can also be found on the road as Danny Brown’s touring DJ and producer.

Black Noi$e (Rob Mansel) has taken form as a fresh face in Detroit’s techno soundscape, forging a new wave even the purest acid lovers of the city can’t help but notice. His production can also be found backing some of hip-hops most boundary breaking projects such as Zelooperz, Na-Keel Smith, and Earl Sweatshirt.

New faces like the elusive Dream Beach‘s (Andrew Oliver), ambient club sounds turned into productions for rap up-and-comers like Killavesi and Tripp Jones, and official remixes for singers like K.Flay and Tei Shi. November 2018 saw the release of DonMonique’s Black Kate Moss project, which boasts five of Dream Beach’s productions.

Raphy, who’s new age boom bap sounds mixtape Ashes On My MacBook saw release through Detroit Lines back in September, champions a handful of tracks on the HIT MY DMS compilation.

Caleb Stone relocated to Detroit after living California’s explosive years in the Bay during the rise of Odd Future. More recently, Stone has worked with artists like Open Mike Eagle and new wave pop acts like Njomza.

Jonah Baseball became a household SoundCloud name with the rise of the platform through his whirling, story-like compositions. After living in DC during an age that saw many fresh faces emerge from the state, he decided to turn his sights towards the techno capital, permanently.

Megablown (Harry Im), long time friend of Skywlkr and Black Noi$e, seems to be the wild card of the group; his hybrid trap productions are often the strongest of the team, and he is no stranger to high tempo footwork takes and fusion hip-hop works.

Jihoon, previously known as Ickyboy, released his joint tape with Ann Arbor rapper Reid titled Enter the Noid on Detroit Lines in July. His new sound results in acid tune “Aylix,” an inspired journey through rocky terrain with an untouchable underlying groove.

Broccoli: What was the last song that you listened to?

Dream Beach: “Smoked Out, Loced Out,” on the way here. / R: Just a bunch of samples, man. That’s really it honestly. / S: Yeah…(looks on computer), Peezy, Cash Kidd, and them, “STFU.”

Broccoli: Could you describe the ideal Detroit Lines session? What are the necessary details?

Skywalker: When it started we would all go bowling on Mondays with the whole squad, and then come back here and make a beat together…just buddies having fun.

Broccoli: Obviously though, any music project has to have a business side. You gotta do evaluations. So, how many Sweetwater wings does it take to make a beat, and does that end up being worth it with the cost benefit analysis?

Skywalker: The answer to part A is 10. 10 wings. It’s not always a good investment though. You gotta like make the beat beforehand, you gotta earn the wings.

Broccoli: I feel like there must be a curve, like diminishing returns once you get past a certain number of wings.

Skywalker: Yeah, it’s like anything. You do too much it’s not good. So I’ll eat like 3 wings during the process, then when I’m done, maybe eat some more. But I’ve been supporting El Rey chicken a little bit more lately, to be honest.

Broccoli: Listening to everyone’s music individually is really interesting; I remember the first drop and listening to the crazy beat changes, I’m wondering who made what parts.

Dream Beach: What it ends up being is hilarious, cause you hear…I feel like you notice when the Jonah part happens, that’s the funny part to me. That dude, he’s just out of left field…no pun intended.

Seriously I didn’t mean to do that (laughs), but really like some people just have these really ridiculous styles, it kind of just becomes all of us trying to do the most ridiculous thing with the same sample.

Broccoli: If Detroit Lines was a sports team, who do you think they would be?

Skywalker: It’d be the Warriors, man. Well I guess…yeah, they lost (laughs).

Dream Breach: We’ve taken a couple losses.

Broccoli: If you could DM one person from history, who would it be and what would you say?

Skywalker: I’d like to DM Chief Keef, just be like what up.

Raphy: I’d DM Obama man, hell yeah.

Broccoli: All of these people are alive, but I was thinking someone who wouldn’t have a phone from history. Whatever inspires you.

Skywalker: DM God.

Broccoli: I think God has a Twitter I’m pretty sure.

Dream Beach: Who’s the guy… Alexander Graham Bell, man.

Skywalker: I guess I would DM my Grandpa, and tell him to make Google or some shit (everyone laughs), that’s really what I would do.

Dream Beach: It’s like the quickest Back to the Future movie of all time.

Broccoli: What are you excited about for the show? How does it feel to be putting this whole thing on?

Skywalker: It’s just cool that there’s a vinyl coming out really, it’s more of like a party for that. / R: I’m excited for everybody to just be in the same room, having a good time.

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Broccoli: Talk more about the vinyl, Hit My DM’s- what’s good with that?

Dream Beach: It’s just like the three supersquad tracks, the ones where it’s everybody on it, and then there’s like 100 tapes with the full project.

Broccoli: If you had to tell people how to prepare for the show, how to be in their prime best self before the show, what would you say?

Raphy: Smoke a blunt.

Dream Beach: You gotta DM a bunch of your friends first, tell em to pull up.

Skywalker: Just don’t be negative, that’s really it.

Is there anything that people should expect from the show?

Raphy: We playin slaps all night.

Skywalker: Be stoked about buying the vinyl, and taking that thing home.

Dream Beach: Might be some clothes too, for the first time. Plus the project releases on the 5th, the night before, at midnight. So that’s pretty cool too.

Who’s the best bowler?

Dream Beach: I’d say Bob because he throws, he’s consistent. Jonah is good… / S: Well Caleb is good too…

Who’s the worst bowler?

Dream Beach: Probably me, I feel like I just had my first super good game ever, and it was past the time when everyone was competing for real. I’m just like damn, I never got the chance to really beat everybody. It sucks.

That’s another sponsorship waiting to happen, Garden Bowl.

Dream Beach: That’s really the closest thing to a sponsorship that we ever had, for real. They would hook it up.

That reminds me of the placement you had, with the soccer team? Like I saw that and for some reason I was paying way more attention to soccer at the time, and at first I didn’t know who that team was, and honestly I thought it was like a joke where you all put that music to that commercial just to mess with people. But then I was like whoa, that’s actually pretty legit.

Skywalker: Nah like, that was crazy how that happened. It started with a DM in our Twitter, and after a kinda long process it ended up happening, I had to Google Borussia Dortmund, but it ended up being pretty legit, and then whatever we made off of that we just used to fund the vinyl. So really it worked out perfectly.