Detroit is intrinsic to understanding Lelo. All the way back to his childhood, he watched the city embrace his grandfather, eventually informing his love for the Motor City.
“He always preached that it don’t matter what walk of life a person from, they can all congregate in one place. Understanding that is really how you live and be a humble n***a and still be the flyest. You can be fly and still be a humble n***a,” Lelo told me ahead of his set at Rolling Loud 2026 in Orlando.
It’s these moments that inform his undying love for the city. Moreover, its history allows the “Yoppenheimer” MC to sculpt a fresh vision for a “New Detroit”, a loose concept bridging its past and present to define the future. “The history of Detroit is a renaissance bro,” Lelo said, stressing how the birthplace of Motown is built on hustling. “In a world where none of this s**t really matters”, Detroit still perseveres.
Lelo Talks New Music and His Coming of Age Music at Rolling Loud 2026 in Orlando
But it’s not all street raps. Babyface Ray, Peezy, Blade Icewood, and Doughboyz Cashout aren’t the only ones that tell modern Detroit’s story. The city is also responsible for creating ‘ghettotech‘, a typically raunchy, blisteringly fast spin on techno with twangs of Chicago house and Miami bass. Naturally, Lelo had to put his spin on it by rapping on ghettotech production.
Just like how he grew up around street legends, ghettotech music had always been around him since the very beginning. “That techno s**t is so ingrained in Detroit, you feel me? My culture, bro. I seen n***as dancing way before I knew that s**t was techno,” he recalled. “N***as in big a** Harleys and motorcycle gangs listening to that s**t.”
It took a friend pushing Lelo in that direction to give him the courage to rap on ghettotech beats. Just like the rest of his music, it was already deeply entrenched in his spirit. Consequently, finding his pocket to rhyme on it became second nature.
In addition to all the rising artists blowing up out of Detroit, Lelo was also transfixed on the era of rap cliques burgeoning in the 2010s. From A$AP Mob to Flatbush Zombies to Pro Era, his love of hip-hop made him enamored by the cypher circles and posse cuts.
“I’m in middle school, elementary school, I got my homies, we love rapping. We see n***as that look like us in another area making it happen. That s**t was really monumental for what a n***a do now,” Lelo said. “I needed that to see what I could do now. Me and my mans prolly done played the Pro Era cypher a trillion times. I know that better than the National Anthem, bro.”
The post Lelo Shares His Vision for a ‘New Detroit’ by Embracing His Past appeared first on VICE.
