313 Legends

Born in Nova Scotia and raised in Southern California, Detroit Lions kicker Eddie Murray’s path to becoming a football star was not foreordained – yet it happened nonetheless.

Best known for his calm and collected personality and razor-sharp consistency under pressure, Murray demonstrated during his time with the Lions’ special teams that sometimes the most reliable legends do not need to make a lot of noise to be noticed – they simply have to remain strong and split the uprights.

Known for his slow burn delivery, vivid storytelling, and unshakable connection to Detroit’s east side, Boldy James (birth name James Clay Jones III) is a man that was born in the trenches yet raised in intention.

Though he was born in Atlanta while his father was stationed in the military, Boldy James relocated to Detroit as a child and grew up on the city’s east side absorbing everything, especially since his cousin is Chuck Inglish of group The Cool Kids.

That said, unlike Chuck, Boldy chased clarity, never flash.

He doesn’t just rap – he reports – his verses cold, razor-sharp, and deliberate.

A product of Detroit’s east-side pressure cooker, Skilla Baby is an artist best known for his vivid imagery, razor-sharp delivery, and authentic spirit – a man who came up on streets where survival was never guaranteed, and the few who made it out were forced to pave their own path.

A lyrical mastermind in the making, Skilla was already busy transmuting his pain into power by his teen years, pouring his heart and soul into his craft during a time when most of his peers were busy being swept away by the pressures of street life.

Skilla Baby is so much more than just another street rapper with a point to prove.

His delivery is fast, clever, ruthless, and personal, with bars that demand you keep up or miss the punchline.

There’s no filler or fluff in any of his writing; only code, metaphors, and deep, unflinching truth – all spoken in a voice that is urgent yet somehow never rushed.

Detroit’s Fat Ray is the kind of artist you don’t merely discover—you are sent to find him in a way that feels like prophecy made manifest.

Best known for his hard-hitting delivery, impressive street logic, and for carrying the torch of the 313’s lyrical tradition forward without ever needing the validation of the mainstream, Fat Ray makes the kind of music that doesn’t beg for attention—it commands it.

Fusing horror, psychedelia, street pain, and shock value, Esham carved out an entirely new subgenre decades before the world would play catch up:

Acid Rap.

John Witherspoon is an iconic actor best known for his legendary roles in “Friday,” “The Wayans Bros,” and “Boomerang.”

A product of Detroit’s west side raised in a working-class household that taught him the early importance of finding humor in every situation, especially as one of 11 children coming up in a crammed home full of strong personalities.

It was the kind of real-life chaos he would later transmute into comedy, going on to become everybody’s uncle, everybody’s dad, and above all else – always the realest person in the room.

Best known for her catalog of work fusing classical technique with genres like soul, swing, and funk, Regina Carter is a woman who has entirely redefined what the violin can do.

Classically trained yet Detroit-raised, she came up on the city’s west side in a household where music was always heard.

Her mother was an expert pianist, her two brothers spun Motown records on an endless loop, and amidst all this, Regina paved her own path with the violin.

She studied the Suzuki method at the age of four, was enrolled in private music lessons, and eventually found her way to Cass Tech High School, Detroit’s legendary art school known for churning out greats by the dozens.

After graduating, she then studied music at the New England Conservatory, followed by Oakland University, all while occasionally returning to Detroit to reconnect with its culture and refuel.

It marked the beginning of what would go on to become a very influential career.

Best known as the founder of WGPR (the first Black-owned and operated television network in the US), William Venoid Banks broke barriers not just for himself, but for the Black community as a whole, opening the door for talented people of color across Detroit and beyond.

A man of many talents (pastor, civil rights organizer, and attorney), William’s true genius was in knowing how to build institutions from the ground up.

After completing degrees in theology and law, he relocated to Detroit seeking not just opportunity in the face of the Great Migration, but ownership, seeing firsthand how Black Detroiters were so often left out of the mainstream media.

However, rather than begging for a seat at the table, Banks decided to topple it over and create his own.

A man best known for redefining postwar American cars, Virgil Exner didn’t just design cars – he made them move before they even left the curb.

From his earliest years, Exner grew up fascinated by motion – planes, trains, and automobiles; he loved it all.

He studied art in Chicago and started his career in advertising, where his talent for drawing machinery quickly led him into industrial design. From there, he signed on with General Motors in the 1930s, a member as of Harley Earl’s design studio, gaining valuable experience working on early concept cars.

That said, it was only when he joined forces with Raymond Loewy’s team at Studebaker that Exner truly began to shine, helping create the first postwar car in 1947 – a one-of-a-kind, low-slung shape that was a teaser of the revolution soon to come.

Best known for his flashy interceptions, charismatic personality, and headlining the golden era of Detroit football both on and off the field, Lem Barney did more than just shut down receivers–he lit up the city with a natural swagger and shine that few of his era could match.

Born and raised in Detroit, Lem Barney came to Detroit from Jackson State University, a small Historically Black College or University in Mississippi, where he made a name for himself as a two-way player with a natural gift for making quarterbacks stew in regret.

Here was a man who was explosive, smooth, and wickedly smart, so much so that by the time the Lions drafted him in the second round in 1967, it didn’t take long before he was making major waves.

From his very first moment on the field with them, he brought the city to its knees by picking off Bart Starr, an incident that would set the entire tone of his career.

From there, he topped off his rookie season with 10 interceptions and went on to win the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award.

Best known as a multi-talented singer/songwriter with a knack for writing epics that are deeply personal and blur the line between folk, classical, and experimental pop, Sufjan Stevens is as purely Detroit as any artist can get – raised in a culture of music, fluent in trauma, grief, and beauty, and always willing to break boundaries.

Although his family moved from Detroit to a location further north when he was just a child, the city left its mark on him in the same way, its industrial melancholy, musical DNA, and quiet strength having a huge impact on his career.

In short: Detroit wasn’t just his birthplace.

It was the place that would influence the very texture of his sound.

The duality of violence and sensitivity, destruction and rebirth, pain and creativity, that’s all Detroit.

Sufjan took all of that and transmuted it.

He didn’t need to name-drop the city to give it credit.

He simply poured all it had taught him into his lyrics.

Loved for her cutthroat humor, working-class roots, and barrier-breaking as one of the few Black women to rise to the top in both STEM and stand-up, Loni Love is a woman who stands in a league of her own.

That said, to truly understand Loni, you have to start with her Detroit upbringing—not just because that’s the place where she was born, but because that’s where she was molded into the icon she is today.

Born and raised in the infamous Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects, Loni learned young that in order to get far in life she’d have to be fast, resourceful, and loud enough to get her point across.

Her punchlines might get her gigs in Hollywood, but the hustle behind them is as quintessentially “Pure Michigan” as you can get.

Growing up wasn’t easy for Loni.

Brought up on Detroit’s east side by a single mother who was forced to work multiple jobs to keep the lights on, while other kids dreamed of fame and fortune, Loni manifested stability—and a way out.

Like many Detroit legends, she attended the infamous Cass Technical High School, but unlike many of her classmates, she did not chase the stage…at least, not right away anyway.

Instead, Loni chose engineering, a solid path she knew would go a long way in supporting her and her family.

Tee Grizzley is a man best known for turning a prison sentence into a platinum platform, one who built a name for himself by always telling the truth and never turning his back on the trenches that made him.

An artist best known for his razor-sharp wordplay, emotional transparency, and unflinching loyalty to the city that made him, Royce da 5’9” is a true master of the craft—a rapper’s rapper who has always valued bars over buzz.

A product of Detroit’s west side, Royce grew up just a short drive from 6 and 7 Mile, a stretch known for doling out trauma and talent in equal measure.

A smart book, street-aware, and battle-ready youth, Royce was filling notebooks with lyrics long before the labels ever called him with deal offers.

His nickname came from his height: he stands on the shorter end of the spectrum at just five-foot-nine, but that doesn’t make him any less of a force to be reckoned with.

Much like his size, Royce’s rap style is concise, compact, and fully loaded. He’s a man who studied all of the greats without ever going as far as ripping them off, and it didn’t take long for the world to notice.

A vocal powerhouse known for her radical self-love anthems and genre-breaking sound, Lizzo (birth name Melissa Jefferson) is an artist who skillfully blends Houston bounce, Minneapolis funk, and her early Detroit roots with a classical backing.

A product of Detroit’s west side, Lizzo began her career in a city renowned for producing musical greats, a place where church and rhythm were equally valued.

Her family relocated to Houston when she was nine years old, but it was in Detroit where she first developed her eclectic taste, developing an early love of gospel, soul, and Motown that would eventually become an integral part of her sound, live performances, and overall musical DNA.

Gone or not, Detroit never fully left her.