“DETROIT MAKES YOU HUNGRY FOR MUSIC” — AMP FIDDLER | NEW ERA X MOODYMANN COLLECTION

By Kylie de vos • On What is New

In my uto­pi­an fantasy, by the time I am 40 years (in 9 years time, so not too long off), I will have achieved all of my life goals, be suc­cess­ful in my field (Hip Hop, lol) and a doc­u­ment­ary about my life will be pro­duced with inter­views from ?uestlove, Steve Stoute and Raps­ody speak­ing on how I am a dear friend and how my pos­it­ive influ­ence and con­tri­bu­tion to the cul­ture of Hip Hop can­not be forgotten.

In real­ity… if for some reas­on someone wanted to make a doc­u­ment­ary on my banal life, my Mum and few close fam­ily and friends would be the only pos­sible people featured.

Icon­ic Detroit DJ/producer Moody­mann is one such per­son whose influ­ence and con­tri­bu­tion to the music scene in his city is deserving of such fan­fare. Recently, for his New Era col­lec­tion, the his­tor­ic­ally elu­sive and private artist allowed film­makers into his life to shoot for doc­u­ment­ary Detroit Dust On My Shoes, giv­ing fans a small glimpse into the life so few know much about.

Close friend, fre­quent col­lab­or­at­or and equally as icon­ic per­son, Amp Fid­dler, was one of the people called on to speak about Moody­mann and Detroit in the doc­u­ment­ary. Fid­dler him­self is a Detroit legend, a singer/producer/musician, who is cred­ited as intro­du­cing anoth­er Detroit icon to the Akai MPC, none oth­er than the great J Dilla.

Amp and Moody­mann met dec­ades ago at a record­ing ses­sion and have been close friends ever since. As seen in the doc­u­ment­ary and heard in my inter­view, Amp couldn’t speak highly enough of his com­rade: “He is a rep­res­ent­at­ive of Detroit and [he] looks out for artists he helps, that’s [the] most amaz­ing thing about him.”

Amp is also an artist on Moodymann’s label Mahogani Music and a fre­quent col­lab­or­at­or, “he’s been on nearly all of my records and I have been on most of his records”, so it makes sense that Amp be called on to speak on Moodymann’s Detroit Dust On My Shoes.

Col­lab­or­at­ively they inspire each oth­er and with Moodymann’s dis­tinct ways of work­ing, there is no one pro­cess when work­ing togeth­er. “I start pro­duc­tion and he comes in and adds to it or he starts pro­duc­tion and I add to it.

We build on what’s there, [which is a] beau­ti­ful way to cre­ate togeth­er and be without any expect­a­tion, just open to total cre­ativ­ity,” says Amp.

Per­son­ally, Amp is work­ing on the new album for the Dames Brown and his futur­ist­ic, space-exper­i­ment­al side pro­ject Digit­ari­ans. He is also work­ing on a sound expan­sion for the Akai MPC, cre­at­ing a funk expan­sion for the machine, and provid­ing lyr­ics and sound for the Tony Allen project.

And that’s Detroit. As Amp put it “[Detroit] makes you hungry for music.” Wheth­er it’s the weath­er, the people, there’s always some­thing music­ally hap­pen­ing in the D.

Shop the col­lec­tion now www.neweracap.co.uk/explore/new-era-music/moodymann/

The fol­low­ing two tabs change con­tent below.

Kylie de vos

Self-pro­claimed Hip Hop nerd, Kylie dis­covered the genre through her older cous­ins in the mid-90s. Since then her interest in the genre has been on the psyche of artists: the how and why artists make the music that con­nects with so many people on so many dif­fer­ent levels.

About Kylie de vos

Self-proclaimed Hip Hop nerd, Kylie discovered the genre through her older cousins in the mid-90s. Since then her interest in the genre has been on the psyche of artists: the how and why artists make the music that connects with so many people on so many different levels.