Carl Craig is one of Detroit techno's forefathers, and hearing him speak is like sitting down for class with the coolest history professor. The GRAMMY-nominated producer, DJ, multi-instrumentalist and label head has influenced history with his innovative dance and jazz records — and projects that meld both worlds — and shaped dance music culture through his Detroit Love parties as well as his independent, Black-owned label, Planet E.
For the amount of noise Planet E has made over the decades, it's almost surprising that the label is housed in a quiet, glass-walled Mies van der Rohe-designed townhome complex. The inner walls of Planet E are painted black, a nod to clubs and the underground Craig is so essential to, and is currently showcasing two pieces of art from Black artists — including a tender photo of Prince from his first show in the Motor City in 1980.
His boundary-pushing dance music imprint is celebrating 30 years with the extensive Planet E 30 compilation album. Among its scene-shifting tracks is 1999's "Bug In The Bass Bin," which was sped up by U.K. DJs and became a foundational sound in the then-nascent drum and bass scene.
On the final day of legendary Detroit dance fest Movement, GRAMMY.com sat down with Craig at the sleek Planet E headquarters. He looks effortlessly cool in a black and white lightweight short sleeve button down shirt, black shorts, and chic oversized gray gradient shades as he discusses his label's milestone and its new compilation album. Craig also talks about the importance of celebrating techno's Black Detroit roots, his jazz explorations, bringing the Synthesizer Ensemble to Carnegie Hall, and much more.
How does it feel being back at Movement and to have the festival back?
It's great. It's great to be able to do this again after two years off. The pandemic has passed by so fast, it doesn't really feel like it's been two years that we haven't had the festival. Being back on the [Movement] stage feels like it did the last episode, which was in 2018.
Why do you think Movement is so important to happen now, 40 years into techno's existence?
Movement is something that should always be here. It should be here to celebrate the music of Detroit. Detroit doesn't have a Motown festival or a punk festival — the origins of punk come from Detroit as well — but we do have a techno festival. Detroit techno is as rootsy to Detroit as Motown and the band called Death.
What do you think is missing in the modern dance music education for the average raver? Do you think everyone knows that techno comes from Detroit?
No, no. That's a fight that we have to keep fighting, [to educate people] that Detroit techno is grassroots Black music. Like every music, there're influences that come from everywhere; we get our influences from, of course, more famously Kraftwerk and, less famously, funk music. We have to always keep people abreast of what's going on, that we're making techno music in Detroit that is not only the real deal, but it's also the beginnings of how we know electronic music in the United States.
This is a big question, so feel free to unpack it as you wish. Could you speak to the legacy, impact and continuing influence of Black artists in dance music?
Dance music as we know it comes from African roots, that's just as folksy as it gets. It's not like doing square dance [chuckles] or doing the Riverdance or any of that kind of stuff, it is really based around solid African influences that came with the slaves, and that found other ways of coming over as well, whether it's from Fela Kuti and the whole Afrobeat style of music. And now from South Africa, there's Amapiano.
For most Black people in the United States, all they had was dance and music. So, to be able to get out of it out of the ghetto, it was either become a sports star or become a musician.
The great thing about Detroit is that because we have techno, we're more interested in being Dr. Dre than being Drake. So, at a production level, people are more willing to make music within that legacy of what the underground is.
Read more: Record Store Recs: DJ Carl Craig Selects Some Of His Detroit Faves & Talks Planet E's 30 Years Of Independence
So, making music less focused on radio or more mainstream audiences?
Yeah. Of course, if you can get a hit, then that's great. The publishing was really good on hits. [Laughs] But on a production level, it's about making great music. It's about making music that is within yourself, and that can translate.
So we here [in Detroit] have grabbed hold of making dance music and making it electro style, or disco style, or house style, or techno style or whatever. And it's important to influence people so that they understand that it is a style of music that is from people with an African background. Of course that gets lost in the shuffle because EDM — it's become a generic term — but it's not really the style of music that you would associate with Black artists until, I think Rick Ross did a track with Skrillex [in 2016].
I love the fact that many rap producers know who Moodymann is, and they knew him before Drake sampled him [on 2017's "Passionfruit"].
What excites you now about what the young Detroit kids and other Black artists are doing in dance music?
I'm happy that Waajeed is doing the Underground Music Academy. That's really important for the next step of production here in Detroit. Because, at a time, it seemed like producing in Detroit — in the U.S. — it seemed like being a Black person wanting to get in the music business, you had to do rap music. J Dilla proved that you can do rap music, but you can be underground as well, you can make all this amazing music and you can cross over.
That's what I've always done, making jazz, making techno, making anything. I've always crossed over genres. And that's what I'd like to see more in Detroit, that kids realize that they have the possibility to crossover and do anything that's musically interesting to them.
What does being able to celebrate 30 years of Planet E mean to you?
I mean, to do anything for 30 years is major. To be alive for 30 years, for some people that's a feat, let alone being in the music industry [for that long]. I wrote my own story. That was what was important — I decided I had to have my own label in order to really have a voice.
Some songs, like "Bug In The Bass Bin," for instance, would never have been released if it was through another label, because…it was somewhere else, it came from outer space. If I tried to put that record out through a Detroit independent, it probably wouldn't have come out. And if I tried to put it out to a major, it definitely would not have come out, it just would've been another demo. So, I put it out myself and then it made waves, got to the right people's hands and the rest is history.
What are you most proud of from your Planet E journey?
The risks. I've always been about taking risks, and staying independent, an independent Black-run company, because that doesn't happen very long. The only Black-run label that has been around for [at least] 30 years — and it's not even owned by Black people anymore — is Motown. It's important being a Detroit label and being around for so long. I'm really proud.
What are you hoping that listeners get when they experience the Planet E 30 compilation album?
It is just a way of chronicling the steps that we've taken. We really spent a lot of time on Planet E 20; we did a boxset, it was really a big undertaking. And for this one, we've had new releases over the last 10 years, but we hadn't done maybe as much as we had in the first 20. Part of that has to do with the record industry changing; streaming. We're proudly a vinyl label, and it's really difficult to get vinyl pressed these days.
So, [Planet E 30] is to give people the idea that there are some things that they probably did miss over the last 10 years since we did Planet E 20. [The tracks are] really more from the past 10 years, plus my music, which has been from the beginning of Planet E.
What have been some of your favorite releases on Planet E?
[Deep chuckle] I A&R the label, so everything is from my choosing. And I never choose based on commerce. I base it more on the idea, the intent of the label, plus my taste and what I just think is good. So I can't say that I liked Clark better than I liked Kirk DiGiorgio, better than I liked Moodymann, better than I liked Niko Marks; it's all something that I enjoy.
I know, it's like asking you to pick your favorite child, you can't do that.
[When people ask] "What's my favorite song that I've released?" That's exactly what I say, "I love all my children." One is not more interesting than the others.
Are there any responses to Planet E releases that have surprised you?
When I put out Moodymann [his debut album, Silentintroduction, in 1997] what surprised me is when I was in New York at a restaurant and they were playing it. And they said, "Yeah, the chef loves this." I don't know if they knew I was coming, but that was a big, big surprise.
My releases, I put out and just let them happen. And then if it's a big deal, it's a big deal. When I put out "Throw" [as Paperclip People in 1994], it was a track that I did while I was watching the Super Bowl one year. I had it on acetate, and I played it out in London and the whole place exploded. That was a really nice feeling.
Planet E feels very boundaryless and you definitely push that with the genres and styles that you bring in. I'm really curious about how you've brought jazz and orchestral arrangements into electronic music in your work, and specifically to Planet E.
We used to have jazz radio here called WJZZ — every major city had a jazz station, like a serious jazz station, not a public radio one. I grew up listening to the jazz station when I was with my dad, and with my brother, he liked rock and funk, so I was listening to Led Zeppelin and Parliament Funkadelic. With classical music, I've always been interested in the whole thing about muzak, like the music that Ramsey Lewis was doing, with a jazz version of "Eleanor Rigby" or something, with a swooning orchestra. Call it elevator music, I love elevator music. I think it's great.
I like symphonic music from that standpoint; from the beginning, that is what was interesting. When I was in high school, I played upright bass in an orchestra. I also played jazz band and played guitar. So my background comes from playing these interesting styles that weren't necessarily normal for my age group. [Chuckles]
I love all kinds of music. So me working with [pianist] Francesco Tristano on Versus is amazing, me working with [trumpeter] Marcus Belgrave, [saxophonist] Wendell Harrison, [trombonist] Phil Ranelin and [drummer] Doug Hammond of Tribe [for their 2009 Rebirth album] is amazing, to the Detroit Experiment with Bennie Maupin, Jaribu Shahid, Karriem Riggins, Amp Fiddler and Francisco Mora Catlett and all these guys. I mean, it's unbelievable. I'm at a position where I feel I've been able to express everything that I can as a Gemini.
Do you feel any connection between playing music in a jazz setting and being a DJ, where you're helming the vibe and the mood?
I've been DJing since 1991. So it's gotten to the point that I look at DJing first, in comparison to being a musician first. Before, when I started making records, I would get suggestions from DJs like, "Hey, you need to have four bars of just kick drums so we can mix into it." I thought, What? Why would you do four bars of kick drum? That doesn't make any sense creatively. I'm not making hammers and nails, I'm making art here.
Of course, after DJing for some years, I understood why they would want it. But I see it now how most dance music tracks that you get have this intro of drums so that it makes it easy for beginner DJs to mix in. Even though I'm a mix DJ, I still come from that world of how [vinyl] records were made where you scratch in and then the track is there and you might have a drum turnover or something like that, and then you can [makes chucka chooo vinyl scratching sound] go right into it.
So I still think in that way, but because I'm looking at the dance floor, how I'm playing, it does come back with me to the studio when I'm working. And I don't particularly like that. It's my life, but I have to separate myself from it to be able to go in and do what is actually best for the track, best for my creativity. I've never sat in the studio like "I betcha people will dance to this." But I do find myself closer to that situation now than I had in the past.
I wanted to ask about your Synthesizer Ensemble and what it was like bringing it to Carnegie Hall.
That was incredible. My great friend King Britt invited me to be a part of the Afrofuturism Festival that he was involved in organizing. It's a beautiful project that he has. For us to do the Synthesizer Ensemble there was maybe the perfect venue in America for it. It was my great pleasure to be able to come to Carnegie and do something as special as that project and for Afrofuturism to be recognized in that way.
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