All too often, emcees get caught up listening to and taking influence from the majors instead of looking at the wealth of material growing right in their local music scene. DeJ Loaf is not that kind of emcee. The following ten tracks, all of which Loaf picked herself, were so underground Detroit that half of the emcees listed didn't even come up in a Google image search. Throughout the interview, she'd recite lyrics on cue, so don't get to thinking she did all of this research just to come off as impressive.
Listening to the picks, it's easy to hear where Loaf draws her inspiration from. Take a look at the galleries above for Dej's top 10 favorite songs from the D, and watch her reel them off in the video below. We've also included our recent interview with DeJ.
Still not up on Loaf's music? Be sure to check out her new mixtape Sell Sole, which recently placed second on our list of fall's top releases.
"Boy Would You (Boss Up)" - Blade Icewood
"That's a classic Detroit song. Rest in peace to Blade."
"Ride On Me" - Blade Icewood
"['Ride On Me'] kind of changed the game. In Detroit, everybody was riding around with that."
"Can We Party?" - Rock Bottom
"This one had Big Herk. He's one of my favorites from the city; he really got that flow."
"No" - Rock Bottom
"They're just on there like, 'Is anybody hot like us?' That's one of the dopest songs."
"Lifestyle" - Oba Rolland
"He's IBGM. He said in that song, he'll 'murk a nigga over Dej Loaf,' so that's a classic song."
"So Far Gone" - Street Lord Juan
"It's a classic Detroit song. Every time it come on, everybody go crazy."
"Takes Money To Make Money" - Stretch Money
"That was a dope song. Any time you play that, it's gonna turn up."
"Ima Chedda Boy" - Chedda Boyz
"I had to be, like, in middle school, and I was like, 'this is so sweet.' They were one of the best groups to come out of the city."
"My Plug" - Go Dumb Boyz
"One of my friends put me up on that song a couple of years ago, and I fell in love with it. I was, like, 'man, this is dope."
"In My Hood" - K-Deezy
"That was one of the illest songs to come out of Detroit. He'd be at skating parks and all types of stuff, and people would be there repping their hood."