Jay Taj: There's a very funny habit that we see in kids, exploring our neighborhoods on Google Earth.

Sura Ali: It's really survival of the fittest.

Jay Taj: I'm from one of them neighborhoods. 

DreTL: My favorite bar that I put together, it's a funny story. 

Detroit Diamond: Did you get it? Or, no? [laughs]

Sura Ali: Y'all stressed me out with that.

[hip-hop beat playing, beat stops]

Detroit Diamond: [rapping] Like ******* you syncing or naw / Free life line hit Regis to call / It’s Christian Dior when I step in the mall / Thick is she chocolate like Watchamacall / Get love when I ball like Quincy McCall / 23s on the sneaks so I’m never gon’ fall / What’s a challenge to me not a challenge to y'all / Hit it first time then I’m never gon’ call /

Detroit Diamond: First rappers that I listened to growing up… 

DreTL: Eminem and Lil Wayne. 

Sura Ali: Jay-Z, Cam'ron. 

Jay Taj: My own uncles, the legendary Dedwon Krew from Santa Ana. They really came from my own village. 

Sura Ali: Growing up, I really listened to everything my sisters listened to.

Jay Taj: Because my folks was locked up when I was a baby, I was raised by my grandparents. so I didn't actually grow up listening to hip hop. That was kinda something I had to do on my own. 

[CLIP] Jay Taj:♪ Tryna lock a kid away, whoa, not today ♪ ♪ You fucked up / When you handed me the mic ♪ ♪ I might not dance / Pull up my pants, run the Rockaway ♪ 

Detroit Diamond: Outside of hip-hop, Michael Jackson was basically my biggest influence when it came to music. The GOAT.

Jay Taj: I grew up playing keys in the church, gospel records. 

DreTL: Tupac, and that's why I got a nose ring, and he died before I was born, but, you know, he made some timeless music.

Jay Taj: I would love to produce an entire album with Herbie Hancock. Uh, you know who Herbie Hancock is?

DreTL: [rapping] I really beat the odds man / Even when they tell me I can’t do it I know God can / I’m just a man of God not tryna be a God man / But I got God in me tho / I’m touched by God hand / I coulda been hit with the Drake but like Drake biggest hit / They ain’t know that this was God’s plan /

Sura Ali: Being from New York, it's really the hustle capital, for real. 

Detroit Diamond: Detroit, as a city, has influenced me and my style. 

DreTL: I am very down South.

Jay Taj: I would describe my music as malleable. 

Detroit Diamond: I'm gritty. You know, like, I'm versatile. 

Sura Ali: It's rats, it's roaches, it's pigeons. It's crazy people on the train. 

DreTL: I like trap beats, but I like soul samples as well. 

Detroit Diamond: We like to talk really spicy, you know. Like, make people feel like you're bossy. 

Sura Ali: It's really survival of the fittest. 

[CLIP] Sura Ali:♪ I ain't never pressed about comparing or comparisons ♪ ♪ We in different brackets You don't know what a bracket is? ♪ ♪ I'm fly and I'm arrogant ♪ ♪ Keep my name out your mouth Before I smack you, bitch ♪ 

DreTL: You really can't categorize my style. For real. 

Sura Ali: I really be giving my soul on a track. 

Jay Taj: Rise to the occasion. Whatever the production calls for, whatever the subject matter calls for, whatever the people call for.

Sura Ali: For people that don't know that there's other people feeling exactly how they’re feeling, I make that connection, I bridge that gap. That's what I'm here for.

Jay Taj: [rapping] Westside Jay the modern-day Luther / Patient and kind but the kind that got me a shooter / I pour it in the streets on the beat he probably a looter / Robin Hood from a hood that you visit from a computer / 

[mellow beat playing] 

Detroit Diamond: When I go into the studio… 

Sura Ali: It's a safe space. 

DreTL: I always like to start with a beat. 

Jay Taj: When I write records, when I create anything in life, it's probably freedom. 

Detroit Diamond: That's where you get to be your true self. You get to be vulnerable, you get to tell your story, and there's nobody judging you. 

Sura Ali: That's what the studio brings to me. It gives me a sense of creative space. 

Jay Taj: I'm vulnerable in real life. There's nothing I'm not afraid to talk about with anybody, whether you're my loved one or my stranger. 

Detroit Diamond: You have to have moments where you really tell your real-life story so that you can connect with the fans. They don't want to hear all the glitz and glamour stuff all the time, because people don't have that. So they want to hear your real-life story, and that's what I do. 

[CLIP] Detroit Diamond:♪ Took a chance, moved out to LA /  Faith in my music, I can only be real ♪ ♪ Three months, at a table with a label Gettin' offers 'bout my first deal ♪ ♪ Won't sign till I make my first mill / Stayin' in it, we could never be drill ♪ ♪ Droppin' shit I know they gonna feel / 19 when my brother got killed ♪ 

Jay Taj: The priority is always the lyrics and the melody fist.

Detroit Diamond: I write all of my music.

DreTL: About half will be written. Most of the time, that half will be freestyle, maybe a hook. 

Jay Taj: Sometimes I go in there with a hook in mind. 

Sura Ali: Nah. I ain't a hook kind of person. Ha.

Detroit Diamond: For me, I just like to write and live with my song, and then once I get to the studio, record it so we not wasting  no time.

Jay Taj: I typically start four bars at a time. For the most part, I'm freestyling one to four bars at a time and I listen back. The kind of thing we used to make fun of Easy-E for but now it's probably the most efficient way for me to write. 

Sura Ali: I'm a verses kind of girl. [rapping] I ain’t never sold crack before / But I’ve been in the back of the trap house with a couple of crack whores / While my brother baggin’ up and I’m watching the back door / If I gotta double back then I’m hittin’ the top floor /

Detroit Diamond: Before doing this show, I've never in my life had to write a song, record a song, memorize a song, and perform a song within 24–48 hours. 

Sura Ali: Y'all stressed me out with that deadline, 24-hour shit. Let's really call it what it is. 

Detroit Diamond: Now I really don't got no excuse for anything, like I know that I'm capable of doing it. 

DreTL: It really challenged me and made me open up to a lot of stuff I wouldn't open up to. 

[CLIP] DreTL:♪ Uh, I might end racism in the nation ♪ ♪ Uh! I'm a star I got these bitches gazing ♪ ♪ Soon as I open up my mouth, they hyperventilating ♪ 

Jay Taj: There's kind of a poetry in me being 32 years old and still being here and going as hard as I was going when I was 13. Whatever it is that you love, whatever it is that you create, time is a man-made construct. Don't be intimidated by the fact that it took a long time to get that opportunity.

DreTL: You know,  I'm just a regular dude, but I made it far, and I did all of this stuff just from following my dreams. 

Sura Ali: Even though people act like ego is a bad thing, it's really not. Like, you really gotta stand ten-toes on who you are. You gotta stand on that. 

Detroit Diamond: We be doing that shit every week, so … 

Sura Ali: Twenty-four hours, that 12 hours, maybe eight, 'cause you gotta eat, sleep, shit, and shower, you know? I was put under pressure, and I brought it every time. Y'all gonna see.