Brandon Colvin was a DJ for the Detroit Diaspora Day Party, which had an array of amazing music, DJs, vendors, and food for people to come out and enjoy.
Colvin spoke with rolling out about the day party, Amp Fiddler’s importance to the Detroit culture, and how important it is to Detroit culture.
How important was Amp Fiddler to Detroit culture?
Amp Fiddler really touched so many people creatively and culturally. As far as I’m concerned, he is an icon not just in the Detroit community, but in the larger music community and the global music community. We also will be honoring Amp. In fact, just the other day, the 16th of May was announced as Amp Fiddler Day in Detroit. The Detroit City Council just passed the resolution. Amp is an amazing force even to this day. We will most certainly be channeling his energy, playing his music, of course, and honoring him at this Detroit Diaspora Day.
The last thing I’ll say on that is you hear a lot of stories of Amp in the community, and I’ll just briefly share my own. One of Amp’s mentees is a great brother and a great talent. He’s a DJ, artist, and creative photographer named Donovan Glover. He and I have worked together and collaborated a lot, and he was actually at Amp’s place a lot, so I would often meet Donovan there. Every time I would pull up, Amp was always so gracious, always offering to allow me to use any equipment he had down in the basement, and he was just the type of brother that you can pull up on in that way. Our community, the Detroit community, and the global music community for sure, is suffering a great loss with his ascension, but we’re thankful to have had that brother.
How would you describe the rise in the city over time?
It’s palpable. You can feel it, and there’s a real difference. This year was a big deal for Lions fans in Detroit because we’ve been waiting a long time for a season like the one we just had. You could definitely feel that energy for the Lions and that also transferred into the NFL Draft. I don’t know if you saw any of the photos or videos, but I think it was the biggest draft crowd in over a decade, it may have been the biggest draft crowd ever once they finally tallied the numbers. Detroit is really booming man.
