Musical Locations

Maurice Malone opened the Hip-Hop Shop on the West side of Detroit on Seven Mile as a spot to sell his coveted jeans and leather clothing

Learn about the original Blacktronica music series created by Charlie Dark in London.

The Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF), the largest Black Film Festival in America, is happening in Los Angeles.

Gorillaz performed their new single “Skinny Ape” live December 17 in New York and December 18 in London

Afrofuturism’s artistic freedom, social impact and limitless sonic ideas are celebrated through jazz, funk, R&B, Afrobeat, hip-hop, electronic music in this Festival.

YG Entertainment is laying the groundwork for the future of music by developing groups in K-Pop

Wonderland Music was a Detroit institution that helped artists for over 50 years

Spectacles Clothing Store and the Founder Zana are tastemakers in Detroit. Spectacles is a Detroit store selling eyewear, clothing, articles and books.

Learn about Reggae and Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One, where he developed artists like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, The Skatalites, and Lee “Scratch” Perry. Laying the foundations of Jamaican music culture.

Soulection started in LA but they have become a source sharing the newest musical voices for GenZ and Millennials around the world.

Learn more about who the “Kilby Girl” is, and about Kilby Court the iconic, Utah venue where this group of fans got their name.

Learn about the legendry New York club the Paradise Garage and the legacy of Larry Levan that became the genre of garage house music.

Record Time is a shop that was a centerpiece of Detroit’s music scene.

Sacramento has pivoted to a growing city embracing investment, and community involvement in arts, entertainment, and hip-hop like never before.

Punk rock emerged in the mid-1970s from an underground Manhattan club called CBGB.

Native Tongues crew’s (Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest among others) early work in Calliope Studios started a hip-hop movement.

Few artists have influenced style, fashion and music like David Bowie did during his 50-years career explore, Hansa Studios, where he made his seminal hits.

Graystone Ballroom is legendary in big band jazz and swing. It opened in1922 billed as “Detroit’s Million Dollar Ballroom”.

Bossa Nova was born in the alley of bottles in Rio De Janeiro.

Musicland Studios was located in Munich, Germany was established by Italian record producer, songwriter Giorgio Moroder.

The influential “Brill Building Sound” and the style of popular songwriting and recording created by its writers and producers defined 60’s popular music.

Learn more about Greene St. Recording Studios and it role in recording the golden years of NY hip hop in the 90’s

Gold Star Recording Studios was a trailblazing studio that changed the course of modern music through technology and hosting pioneering producers.

On Saturday, November 19th, 2016, the corner of 192nd St and Linden Blvd in St. Albans, Queens, NY was dedicated as Malik ‘Phife Dawg’ Taylor Way in memory of the member of rap group A Tribe Called Quest who died in March of 2016 as a result of complications from diabetes. Shortly after his passing a small group of men took it upon themselves to dedicate a mural and a street they loved and immortalized in song, in his honor.

The origins of Samba schools began in the neighborhood of Estacio in Rio De Janeiro, which is regarded as the “Cradle of Samba”.

Detroit’s historical and utopian Garwood Mansion was a homebase and creative haven during the mid 70’s.

The Chess Mate was one of Detroit’s most famous and legendary Blues clubs and’60s folk clubs,

Madonna lived with her parents and seven siblings in this four-bed, two-bath house till she moved out at 18 to attend the University of Michigan.

State of The Union bar was a lounge and live performance venue in North West DC, on the historic “U Street Corridor”.

J Dilla aka Jay Dee crafted his style from about 1992 to 1997 in a basement in Detroit. His studio gave birth to a revolutionary approach to hip-hop production.

Iggy Pop and his band the Stooges got started in this home. It was a hot spot in the local Ann Arbor music scene.

The MC5 pad in Ann Arbor was a hub for local rock bands and activists that were in Ann Arbor.

The Watts Club Mozambique was established in 1969 by Detroiter Cornelius Watts to showcase local talent.

Rudy Van Gelder’s Studio is a location where practically every major jazz musician of the 1950s and 1960s was recorded. Rudy Van Gelder was considered the greatest recording engineer of all time.

Bookies was ground zero for the Detroit New Wave scene and home for Detroit’s punk rock scene

The Graystone became Detroit’s “cradle of jazz,” and many greats including Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Guy Lombardo took the stage here and became nationally renowned while playing at the Graystone

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing. Other elements include beatboxing. Since its emergence from the South Bronx, hip hop culture has spread around the world. Hip hop music first emerged with disc jockeys creating rhythmic beats by looping breaks (small portions of songs emphasizing a percussive pattern) on two turntables, more commonly referred to as sampling. This was later accompanied by “rap”, a rhythmic style of chanting or poetry presented in 16 bar measures or time frames, and beatboxing, a vocal technique mainly used to imitate percussive elements of the music and various technical effects of hip-hop DJ’s. An original form of dancing and particular styles of dress arose among fans of this new music. These elements experienced considerable refinement and development over the course of the history of the culture. Hip hop originated, by most accounts, in the late 60s with Clive Campbell, also known as DJ Kool Herc. In fact, Herc is the person that brought the first hip-hop music to the Bronx […]

Archer Record Pressing, is one of 12 record pressing plants left in the US. It is the plant where most of the classic Detroit Techno vinyl records were pressed.

Santurce’s famous market – La Placita – has been the hub of San Juan’s nightlife and salsa scene for many years. The historic market plaza and its surrounding streets host what becomes a street party and jam session

Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music. We highlight one of the oldest Theatres in the Carribean, Teatro La Perla. Teatro La Perla is a historic concert venue in the city of Ponce Puerto Rico.

Trap music is a music genre that originated in the early 1990s in the Southern United States. It is typified by its aggressive lyrical content and hip hop instrumental sound.

The Detroit Sound Project Team, traveled with Derrick May to WIRE 12 event at Yokohama Arena in Tokyo, Japan (Fall 2012)

The Packard Plant was designed by Albert Kahn. It was a automotive manufacturing center from 1903 to 1962. While the parties migrated week to week in the 90’s, the infamous Packard Plant, a long abandoned auto factory that in recent years became the primary party space monument to urban decay and the illegal underground party scene.

the Motown Museum was the home of Motown Records’ which was founded by Berry Gordy, in 1959 in Detroit. The small flat where he lived and worked is now called Hitsville U.S.A., and is home to an extensive array of Motown artifacts, photographs and other memorabilia.