313 Legends

Robert Andrew Kreinar, also known as Bob Babbitt, was born in Pittsburgh to Hungarian parents and moved to Detroit in the early 1960s, where he quickly found himself immersed in the city’s booming music scene.

A core member of the iconic group the Funk Brothers, Bob fueled the baseline of some of Motown’s most iconic tracks as a session legend that was equal parts soulful, steady, and technically gifted.

A native of Detroit, David Ramsey, was brought up in a household that placed a high value on accountability, education, and focus.

Best known for his role as John Diggle in the superhero universe, “Arrowverse,” David is proof that sometimes the best kind of power isn’t the kind that begs for it, but the kind that earns it.

He’s a commanding presence on both television and film, one that brings consistent performances and the kind of discipline Detroiters are known for to all the Hollywood sets he works on.

An alumnus of Mumford High School and Wayne State University, David was busy studying theater long before he ever booked any major studio roles, learning how to dominate a room’s attention while keeping his integrity firmly intact.

That said, while it was theater that gave him his craft, it would be martial arts where he learned control. For proof of this, look no further than his black belt in Jeet Kune Do.

Best known for her smooth vocals, lyrical magic, and songs firmly rooted in vulnerability and power, Britney Stoney has never been one to care about chasing fame.
Quite the contrary, everything she does is heart-centered.

A child of the city born and raised on Detroit’s west side, Britney came of age at a time when the city’s many struggles required a resilient spirit to overcome.

She started singing at a young age, whether at home, at church, or inside the classroom, and she quickly developed her own unique sound rooted in both intention and emotion.

She was also a lover of poetry, infusing her songwriting with metaphors that brought to mind many of the greats of old.

A graduate of Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts and later Wayne State University, Britney has obtained a profound education on how to use music, theater, poetry, and moments of stillness as a form of storytelling.

As for Detroit, it wasn’t just the city that birthed her – it gave her purpose.

It gave her purpose.

Rising from Detroit’s Harper Avenue trenches, new-generation hip-hop artist and rapper, Peezy, is known for more than his survival instincts and leader energy.
He is a living, breathing testament to turnarounds, loyalty, and the outcomes associated with carefully applied pressure—a pillar of Detroit’s street rap game who earned every stripe the hard way before circling back to build something even bigger.

He was not put on any path.

He paved one of his own, co-founding “Team Eastside,” a rap collective responsible for providing Detroit with some of its realest voices of the modern age.

It was not about gimmicks.

This was strictly survival documentation.

The Team Eastside artists rapped about everything from jail stints to loyalty to setbacks and small wins, with Peezy standing out as one of the rare few who could take all that pain and transform it into purpose.

“I Took a Pill in Ibiza” crooner, Mike Posner grew up in Southfield, a middle-class suburb just a few miles outside Detroit’s city limits.

Best known for being the man behind the anthems of some of the world’s biggest superstars, few people know that Mike also walked clear across America on a soul-searching journey that helped him fully come to terms with what it truly means to “make it.”

Best known for fusing technical musicianship with a unique live energy, the group Black Dahlia Murder put Detroit on the global metal radar with their consistency, loyalty to the genre, and unapologetic heaviness.

Formed in the early 2000s in the Detroit area suburb of Waterford, The Black Dahlia Murder got their namesake from the infamous 1947 unsolved murder case of the same name.

The members include frontman Trevor Strnad (41), guitarists Brian Eschbach (42) and John Kempainen (40s), bassist David Lock (40s), and drummer Cory Grady (41).

During a time when American metal was mostly defined by a heavy nu-metal influence, The Black Dahlia Murder swam against the current by fully embracing the Gothenburg sound.

This was fast-paced, technical, yet extremely melodic death metal inspired by bands such as In Flames and At the Gates, only with an American grime.

Best known for combining humor, hustle, and Michigan slang, transforming it into a globally recognized brand, YN Jay is a key figure in Detroit’s next generation of hip-hop masterminds – not to mention one of the most recognizable young voices to emerge out of the 313.

A young man from humble beginnings, YN wasn’t born in the spotlight, yet he was destined for it nonetheless.

A product of Beecher, a low-income city just outside Flint, Jay grew up in a chaotic household that led him to turn to music as an escape.

He began rapping when he was barely into his teenage years, recording tracks alongside his older brother, who would later go on to pass away.

The pain of that unbearable loss further fueled Jay’s drive to succeed, turning what was once just a hobby to pass the time into a form of therapy for him.

Realizing that rapping was his calling, Jay doubled down, recorded constantly, released music on regular intervals, and slowly began to find new and innovative ways to stand out in Detroit’s already crowded underground music scene.

A product of Detroit’s eastside, where she grew up on Conner and Whittier, DeJ Loaf is a quiet visionary with fearless bars and impeccable taste – one who has made cracking into a mostly male-dominated scene without ever raising her voice look easy.

After losing her father at the tender age of four, she transformed her pain by going all in on music, recording in basements and uploading mixtapes to DatPiff while attending Detroit’s

Southeastern High and then (briefly) Saginaw Valley State.

She didn’t have any label backing her.

There was no fancy industry cosign.

But it didn’t matter.

She was so talented that she caught on all the same.

An artist best known for his viral street anthems full of local slang and explosive punchlines, Sada Baby is a rapper from Detroit’s new generation of hustlers—a product of Mack and Bewick whose perspective was formed from his time spent in church choirs, basketball gyms, and the blocks that raised him.

It’s a unique contrast that often shows up in his music: theatrical, chaotic, and above all else…real.

Sada never tries to come across as some mysterious figure.
He’s trying to be unmistakable.

A product of Detroit’s west side, best known for his razor-sharp delivery and street wisdom, Stretch Money came out of the gate roaring with a viral anthem (“Takes Money to Make Money”) and has never stopped sharpening his craft.

He is not an artist who chases the spotlight.

Instead, he tells hard truths, and his city has never stopped listening.

A west side great best known for crafting the sound that redefined Detroit hip-hop in the 2010s, Helluva doesn’t just produce beats – he’s the man that gave Detroit’s new school its signature bounce, bassline, and entirely own movement.

From Joy Rd to the top of the Billboard charts, Helluva has seen it all, especially since he came up in an environment where rhythm came from more than the radio—it was found in church choirs, hood arguments, street corner ciphers, and booming from car speakers.

From that environment, Helluva’s musical DNA was born.

He got his start as a rapper, but producing is what really called his name.

He didn’t want to sound like just another Midwest rapper trying to ride the wave of whatever New York or Atlanta was doing—he wanted the world to hear Detroit for what it was.

A product of Detroit’s east side, writer, filmmaker, and fiery cultural critic, Dream Hampton, grew up in the city’s post-industrial boom period and rebellion’s aftermath, an upbringing that would go on to color her career.

Dream’s father was a respected local jazz musician, and her mother was a community organizer, setting the groundwork for her fearless storytelling, strong commitment to social justice, language, and rhythm.

From hip-hop journalism where she brushed elbows with A-listers like Tupac to documentary exposés, she brought Detroit’s signature fiery spirit to every page she penned.

A graduate of Detroit’s highly respected Cass Technical High School, Dream then studied at NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, later gaining a reputation as one of the first Black women to take writing about hip-hop in the ’90s seriously at a time when the genre was still being mostly dismissed by mainstream critics and outsiders.

She was featured in much-loved publications such as “The Source,” “Vibe,” “Spin,” “The Village Voice,” and more, but she did more than just cover artists.

What she was known for was something far more radical:

Telling the truth.

Although born in Milwaukee, “The Chi” star Jacob Latimore briefly lived in Detroit, where he developed deep ties to Black Midwestern storytelling.

He got his start in music, and by age 9 he was already writing songs and recording music, eventually landing on BET’s 106 & Park in his teen years, where he gained attention with his singles “Best Friend” and “Like ‘Em All.”

Influenced by R&B greats like Michael Jackson, Ne-Yo, Chris Brown, and Usher, he busied himself studying the work of performers who were experts at connecting with their audience…not just singing…and that early discipline would set the stage for a very successful career to come.

Crystal Reed is an actress who brings a quiet intensity to screens both big and small, earning a cult following among teen viewers and representing Detroit with poise, professionalism, and a sharp eye for detail in all the roles she takes on.

Midwest born and raised, she grew up in the suburb of Roseville, just outside of Detroit, where she took part in local theater, studied dance, and even became the drama club president-an early indication that she was committed to her craft.

Upon graduating from Roseville High School, she furthered her studies at Wayne State University’s acclaimed theatre program before making the transition to Chicago and eventually Los Angeles.

A cherished civil rights activist, best known for continuing his iconic family legacy of blending grassroots advocacy work with politics, Horace Sheffield III did not simply choose activism—he was born into it.

The son of legendary labor, civil rights, and community leader Horace Sheffield Jr., who rallied black auto workers together under the United Automobile Workers (UAW), Horace Sheffield III grew up watching dignity and equality being fought for on the factory floor just as much as on the streets.

Not only did he get an up-close and personal view of power dynamics during this time, but he also marched alongside his legendary father and developed a taste for protest long before he ever worked a crowd.

That said, Horace did not just pick up where his father left off.

He brought a modern voice to Detroit’s generational battles around housing, education, jobs, and criminal justice, especially as the senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Fellowship Church, where his Sunday sermons intersected with his weekday strategies.

A man who viewed faith as a call to action, Horace Sheffield III never aimed to separate the gospel from his social justice and civil rights work.

Quite the contrary, he viewed it as one and the same, with his church becoming not just a sanctuary to take in God’s word, but a gathering spot for everything from food distribution to community town hall meetings to anti-violence initiatives and voter registration drives.