Throughout the weekend, the Red Bull Music Academy brought a variety of polarizing acts into Movement 2010’s growing spotlight. On Sunday evening, as the heat subsided and the Detroit River sat calm and picturesque to the south of the stage, local emcees Guilty Simpson and Phat Kat took to the stage with 8-piece funk group Will Sessions (think Detroit’s Dap Kings) to rock the mic and rock the crowd. Running through a catalog of music — from Guilty Simpson’s recently released full-length OJ Simpson (produced by Madlib) to Phat Kat’s legendary hip-hop album Carte Blanche (including a guest cameo on “Cold Steel” by Slum Villages’ Elzhi) along a selection of classic cuts from legendary producer J Dilla — the two emcees set out to translate their rhymes from written lyric to live, fluid poetry while Will Sessions brought recorded sounds live to the stage. It didn’t take long for those unfamiliar in the crowd to wave their hands on command nor did it take long for Guilty Simpson, Phat Kat, Elzhi and Will Sessions’ Sam Beaubien to dish on the experience of performing together on one stage and the state of Detroit hip-hop while relaxing post-show in the Red Bull Lounge.

That’s definitely one way to start off the summer, gentlemen.

Phat Kat: That was dope, man! I’m usually doing spots indoors, so it was good show being outside, right off the water…

Guilty Simpson: Any time you’ve got a live band, it’s a new experience as opposed to playing some tracks off a CD. The element of the band and the natural timing of it opposed to the quantized, robotic timing of a normal show definitely brings some energy to my performance.

Elzhi: The bass felt right and just watching the rest of the set — hearing the musicians absolutely kill those tracks — it felt real good, man. The vibe of the crowd was great, too. I definitely appreciated the whole experience.

Sam, you just had three very important figures in Detroit hip-hop say the band killed the show, so how did it feel on your end?

Sam Beaubien: It feels good to have it done with. It was a lot of work putting this together and just trying to stay true to the music and not trying to do much with the way the songs already sounded. These are some of my favorite songs, so it was an absolute pleasure to perform with all of them.

Is it tough to transfer those beats and bass off the record and plug it into the live band?

Sam Beaubien: There are definitely a lot of steps that go into making the music happen. I don’t just call the band over one night and start jamming, you know. It takes a lot of time to program the keyboards and getting the band tight and then bringing in the emcees and getting them up to speed. When you’re with a live band, the songs change every time. They end differently every time, so you’re never really sure how it’s going to go down. It comes down to a lot of trust between the emcees and the musicians.

Phat Kat and Guilty, the tone and delivery of your respective styles are so different. Is it tough to find a common, cohesive ground when you perform together?

Phat Kat: I’ve always been a fan of Elzhi and Guilty, so it’s all about the chemistry. The chemistry has always been there with all the cats I’ve been working with. If that shit is working, everything else will fall into play.

Detroit hip-hop artists have always been able to head overseas and receive mad love from audiences. Sometimes, it seems like the city doesn’t always show the same sort of respect.

Phat Kat: When you look at the fans overseas, they’re not lazy. People over here are lazy and they’re spoiled. They don’t always appreciate the music coming from here because they feel like they can see it anytime, you know? The people overseas are hungry for the history and do the research. They know songs you probably don’t remember recording!

Guilty Simpson: Sometimes, it’s a lack of respect. Sometimes, it might just be a lack of awareness. Some people that I love to death are like zombies when it comes to music. It’s almost like if you’re a good rapper, you have to be on the radio or be on 106 & Park. They don’t incorporate the struggle when they try to understand the music, you know? When you look at it in that aspect, I don’t think they necessarily have hate or malice in their heart … they just don’t know. They don’t understand the music game. Some people took notice of me, but some people didn’t choose to take notice until I got a record deal. I just think that I’m in the process of writing my history. I can’t worry about everybody, you know? Hopefully, I can make a beautiful body of work so when people go back and listen to it, they can ask themselves, “Damn! How stupid was I?”

As emcees, are the three of you paying attention to what’s going down in Detroit hip-hop right now?

Elzhi: We always do because basically, we’re up in the spots with the same cats who do the music. We just love the fact that there are cats like Danny Brown and Ro Spit are keeping the movement going, you know?

Guilty Simpson: We always make it our business. After you pay your dues in Detroit, you want to make sure [someone] is maintaining the house. That house is Detroit music. Who’s keeping the yard up? Who’s making sure it functions and remains progressive? Who’s pushing the envelope and breaking the monotony? If we don’t tend to and nurture Detroit hip-hop, we’ll lose our way. We always have to nurture the original sound that we do have and elevate that. If we don’t, we’ll get lost in the sauce and won’t know what we sound like that anymore.

In the national media, Detroit hip-hop is always “about” to pop. It’s always “about” to do something. On a very real level, what is the state of hip-hop? When is it going to be forcibly put on the map?

Phat Kat: Who’s to say that it’s not already on the map? By who’s standards are we judging that by? We tour all around the world! The body of the work that we’re doing is appreciated around the globe! To me, Detroit is already on the map.

Guilty Simpson: If someone is waiting on Guilty Simpson’s music to appeal to a 15-year-old, it’s not going to happen. I’m not going to waver with the trends. I’m not going to jump on the next hot thing. I’m not going to recreate myself every three months to follow what’s hot, you know? I’m not going to follow these standards of remaining relevant in the game. You have to sell your soul to do that, so that’s never going down with me. I’ve never really had the 106 & Park game or that aim, you know? Once you understand what your goals are and what you really want to do then, you know, you won. I can do things to get better at my own craft, but I don’t feel like I have to prove anything or sell myself to sell some bullshit music.

Elzhi: I feel like Detroit is on the map just through other people’s music. We’ve influenced a lot of folks…

Phat Kat: Damn, he went there!

Elzhi: We’ve influenced folks who are underground and folks sittin’ on top. I’ve even heard Pharrell on 106 & Park give props to J Dilla.

Guilty Simpson: Said he was his favorite producer!

Elzhi: I know for a fact that Dr. Dre, Korrupt and Snoop Dogg on the “Up In Smoke” tour were on three separate buses and they named their buses after the members of Slum Village, you know? … Just knowing that lets me know that Detroit music is on the map in a big way. It might not be in the forefront like that, but people who make music and drive the trends know all too well what’s up on Detroit music.

Phat Kat: You can ask any well-known artist if they know of a Guilty Simpson, Elzhi, Phat Kat, Slum Village or Black Milk. You better believe that nine times out of ten, they’ll know exactly who you’re talking about.

Words by Ryan Patrick Hooper with photos by Dustin Downing