Andrey Douthard on Paramita, House Shoes, and Detroit Records | Living for the City Full Interview
Living for the CityShow Notes
Andrey Douthard is the founder of Paramita Sound, the Detroit record shop and collective that opened in 2014 and became a meeting place for the city's hip hop, electronic, and jazz artists. This is his full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.
Douthard came up as a teenager in Detroit's post-8 Mile hip hop scene, brought in by an Inkster group called Street Justice. He remembers Hex Murda running rooms at the Shelter, Danny Brown walking in wearing zebra pants and a blue blouse, and a scene so protective of quality that shows sometimes turned into rappers rapping to rappers. He talks about what gatekeeping protects, what it keeps out, and why he wanted Paramita to be a place for the misfits and outsiders.
He also tells the story of the shop itself. He spent the first three years in a house at 1417 Van Dyke that he treated like a sandbox, selling records from Kyle Hall, Jay Daniel, and Theo Parrish's students, and he explains why records have been his way of building relationships with Detroit's elders. He recalls the night House Shoes was booked for a couple of hours and played for 10, the July 2015 Beat Profile party that drew 500 people, and what it felt like to hear that House Shoes left Detroit knowing Douthard would still be here.
CHAPTERS 00:20 - Full Sail, Music Business, and Why He Came Back to Detroit 01:01 - Street Justice and the Doors They Opened 02:39 - Post-8 Mile Detroit: Dilla, Proof, the Shelter, and the End of a Golden Era 09:08 - Gatekeeping: Quality Control vs. Keeping People Out 12:27 - Opening Paramita in 2014 and Why Records Are the Vehicle 16:21 - The House on Van Dyke: A Sandbox for Kids and OGs 21:39 - Vessels for Community: The Beat Profile and Booking by Relationship 29:22 - Carrying On After Dilla, Proof, and a Wave of Grief 35:53 - The Photo Wall: Street Justice, Royce da 5'9", Shigeto, and Miss Corona 42:35 - The Party That Put Paramita on the Map
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TAGS / KEYWORDS Andrey Douthard, Paramita Sound, Paramita Sound Detroit, Detroit record store, Detroit hip hop, Detroit hip hop golden era, post 8 Mile Detroit, Street Justice Inkster, Hex Murda, Danny Brown, House Shoes, Beat Profile Detroit, Kyle Hall, Theo Parrish, Detroit gatekeeping, Detroit record shops, Detroit music community, Living for the City podcast, Hanif Abdurraqib, Side Stage Network, Live Nation podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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