Here are the techno related extracts from my Kid Rock interview last week which I put in a local hip-hop column.
Can't say I like Kid Rock's music but the guy is really quite amiable. I guess you could say I like Bob Ritchie, not Kid Rock. Here goes: Did Kid, too, grow up on the progressive radio shows of innovators like The Electrifyin' Mojo and The Wizard, aka Jeff Mills, both of whom totally disregarded racially-segregated formats? Yes, he did: "I grew up on Mojo and The Wizard!," Kid enthusiastically explained. "I used to actually do all the raps for The Wizard on the radio - like, he'd make beats and then I'd come over to his house and rap on them - just some no-name guy. I'm good friends with him. I haven't seen him in a while, but we're good buddies. [Mojo and The Wizard] used to play a lot of hip-hop, so every kid used to listen to 'em. Jeff Mills was all rap, a big hip-hop DJ, and then he started getting into house. And then he got into techno." Kid himself mingled with the techno luminaries in the Detroit scene when he, too, was a DJ rockin' basement parties. "I was a DJ myself, so I used to spin Eddie "Flashin'" Fowlkes, Kevin Saunderson, all the Metroplex records... I even worked with Juan Atkins on some rap projects when I was 15-years-old." Has Kid ever considered tapping into the increasingly influential Detroit booty? "No, though I do love booty music. I love all the Miami bass music. I always did. I think it's great. I mean, I made a couple of tracks on my first record, actually. They were kind of like this, but they were more like block music... I love that shit!" Still can't believe this but hey. C
