The slick-talking groove “ Trill Spill” balances vivid and colorful set pieces with IG-caption-worthy street poetry: “He gon’ put his niggas on in the hood, you probably won’t.” The cold street tale “ They Think I Rap My Brother’s Life” could have been made in 1999 and tells reflective stories that he actually lived, a necessity in Detroit. MIA Season 2, the sequel to his breakout 2015 mixtape, is his latest, and it’s one of the best Detroit rap albums of the year. But much of the credit belongs to the consistency and the steady growth of cornerstones like Babyface Ray. Some of this increased visibility is thanks to streaming, especially given that until a couple of years ago the scene heavily relied on CDs. Every week new rappers emerge, and there’s so much output that it’s often overwhelming. Like Atlanta, Detroit has become its own fleshed-out ecosystem of rappers, producers, videographers, and YouTube channels. “It’s still in the process, but it’s in motion.” He’s right. “Detroit is becoming like the Atlanta scene,” says Babyface Ray, expressing so little emotion that you can tell he’s deadly serious. Then I knew Detroit’s sound reaching the world was possible.”ĭetroit hip-hop has been on a tear since that moment. “Then Tee Grizzley dropped ‘First Day Out.’ It was a Detroit beat, a Detroit flow, and everyone ate that shit up. “I knew Detroit was hard, but I didn’t think we was hard enough for the world,” says Babyface Ray, tucked away in a booth in a dimly lit restaurant in Manhattan’s Flatiron District.

At the time, Detroit hip-hop was in a bubble, an underappreciated regional scene with a culture all its own. Like Tee Grizzley, Ray was making traditional Detroit hip-hop, though Ray’s flow was laid-back and conversational and his punchlines felt like motivational speeches. Babyface Ray was already years into his rap career when “First Day Out” took over Detroit.

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