EMERGENCE

It has been an extraordinary year in Detroit hip hop and the Hairdryer Treatment brings us a retrospective compilation "to celebrate the bittersweet victory of detroit hip-hop in 08’ and the perseverance of the city despite all odds." Go here to download.

Hairdryer Treatment has this to say about Invincible & Finale's notorious docu-music video, Locusts, featured on the ShapeShifters LP:

"if any song dropped in 08’ defines the city and has the chance of truly standing the test of time, it’s ‘locusts’ by invincible and finale. i am confident that this track, in 100 years, will be a primary source in the history of detroit. the melancholy houseshoes beat haunts this five-minute cut and frames its lyrical brilliance, striking an emotional chord with anyone who has seen the city change in the last 5, 10, 20 years."

And some reflections on the state of Detroit hip hop:

"lyrically astute with swagger to match and riding the lineage of a rich musical history, the city of detroit may have had its best single year in hip-hop output to date. excellent albums, not only critically acclaimed but also boasting national (and international) distribution, have helped redefine the detroit hip-hop sound in the post-dilla, post-proof, post-em, and post-big 3 auto era. leading the way are albums from elzhi, black milk, invincible, guilty simpson, postmortem dilla, and buff 1, as well as de facto album-mixtapes from royce da 5’9”, danny brown, nametag, and big sean. going against the grain of today’s hip-pop popularity, in the d lyricism, songwriting, and gritty soulful beats take precedence over played-out dance routines, auto-tune, lazy bars, and t-wayne collabos."