Pulp's "Hip-Hop History" series sheds light on the early days of the genre and the integral role it’s played in the Washtenaw County music scene since the 1980s. To get a better idea of what it was like back when hip-hop first emerged, we spoke to four pioneering local DJs—Will “Chill Will” Higgs, Chuck Slay, Scott “DJ Scotty D” Downer, and Jamil “DJ Jammin’ Jay” Powers—about how they got started in the music, some of their favorite memories, and where their creative journeys have taken them.

Will Higgs

In 1978, 10-year-old Will Higgs wanted to become a DJ after seeing a cousin demonstrate his skills.

Rob Millett, aka DJ Robby Rob, taught Higgs his mixing skills and dubbed him “Chill Will,” a moniker that stayed with Higgs and later became his DJ name. It stemmed from Higgs getting hyped up about learning the DJ trade.

“Instead of [being] the kid that wanted the GI Joe with the kung-fu grip, I wanted a turntable and a mixer,” he said.

Higgs’ father soon got him two turntables and a mixer, allowing him to sharpen his DJ techniques alongside Millett.

“I’m right-handed, but I’m really ambidextrous,” he said. “But I do things—in the DJ world it’s called ‘hamster’—backwards to [my cousin] because [with] my right turntable, the crossfader goes left, [and with] my left turntable, the crossfader goes right. Eventually, mixers started coming out where you [could] just flip a switch and make it hamster for you.”

Higgs also tagged along with his uncle Walter Harris to WCBN-FM since Harris knew several DJs at the station. Those early WCBN visits eventually laid the on-air foundation for Higgs, who would later DJ and host the weekly The Prop Shop radio show on Saturday nights starting in 1988.

In August 1983, 200 people entered a new dimension above the Heidelberg in Ann Arbor.

The clubgoers stepped into an unfamiliar yet fascinating music realm at the Big Beat Club, now known as Club Above, to dance the night away.

“Want to be on the cutting edge?” wrote Jim Boyd for The Michigan Daily on July 28, 1983. “New York, as usual, is the place to be, but this Friday you can save the plane fare by going to the Big Beat Club. There you will be able to experience the latest music/dance craze that is now surfacing in New York. It’s called ‘hip hop’ and its impact may prove to be culturally vast.”

The show was pushed back to August 5, 1983, but when the concert finally happened, curious viewers arrived to watch Harold “Whiz Kid” McGuire, a New York City DJ, spin and mix records in a “new” musical style known as “hip-hop.”

In 1994, seven friends never anticipated they’d make hip-hop history in Ann Arbor and beyond. A mutual love of creating music and playing sports prompted the Huron High School students to form a group that would eventually become Athletic Mic League.

“We weren’t Athletic Mic League then. We were the Anonymous Clique, but we all started going to Trés [Styles’] crib writing and messing around on little beat machines and little recording setups in 1994,” said Jamall “Buff1” Bufford, one of Athletic Mic League’s MCs.

“We didn’t become Athletic Mic League until probably [1997]. Wes [Taylor] came up with the name … so we said, ‘Yeah, let’s go with it.’ We all play sports. We took an approach to writing and practicing like it was training.”

Thirty years later, that disciplined mindset has stayed with the members of Athletic Mic League: Trés Styles, Wes “Vital” Taylor, Vaughan “Vaughan Tego” Taylor, Michael “Grand Cee” Fletcher, Mayer Hawthorne, Kendall “14KT” Tucker, and Bufford.

Now, the group is celebrating its contributions and legacy in a new track aptly titled “Made History.”

Commissioned to write and record the track for the Ann Arbor District Library's Ann Arbor 200 bicentennial project, Athletic Mic League also pays homage to Washtenaw County hip-hop history and Black history in Ann Arbor.

I remember the moment I fell in love with hip-hop.

It was 1985, and my older brother had rented VHS copies of the films Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo from our local video store.

Seeing the breakdancing prowess of Kelly, Ozone, and Turbo in the films instantly captured my attention and spurred nine-year-old me to experiment with some moves of my own.

While I couldn’t quite emulate the popping, up-rocking, down-rocking, or power moves of the films’ heroes, I embraced a love of dancing and developed my own quirky style over the years.

As I grew up, I danced to the music of Run-D.M.C., Beastie Boys, Salt-N-Pepa, LL Cool J, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, Young MC, MC Hammer, and others.

By high school, I had started learning about three of the five elements of hip-hop—rapping, DJing, and breakdancing—and would encounter the other two—graffiti and historical knowledge—as an adult.

Today, these five elements provide the foundation for a hip-hop history exhibit curated by the University of Michigan’s Department of Afroamerican and African Studies and on display at Haven Hall’s GalleryDAAS through September 4.

Known as Hip Hop @ 50: Defs, Dates, Divas, Detroit & Dilla, the exhibit celebrates the 50th anniversary of the culture and explores its evolution across music, society, fashion, language, entertainment, and politics.

Hip-hop started in the Bronx in 1973 and spread across the world to become one of the most popular and influential genres ever created.

There were numerous 50th-anniversary celebrations for the art form in 2023, and we're working on some articles about the history of hip-hop in Washtenaw County that we’ll be sharing soon.

But before that, we wanted to share some influential hip-hop records made by Washtenaw County artists—as identified through research and interviews with local creatives for our upcoming history pieces.

There were plenty of other important recordings that were cited, too, but we're highlighting these selections because they’re the only ones you can listen to online. (A broader list will accompany one of our upcoming articles.)

Read on and drop us a line at pulp@aadl.org if you want to share stories and memories about the Washtenaw County hip-hop community.