Rapper 42 Dugg is sitting inside the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Buckhead, an uppity district north of downtown Atlanta that feels like the suburbs. He’s relaxed and carefree, dressed in khakis, T-shirt, and a gray hoodie. A diamond-encrusted gold chain hangs loosely around his neck, with an emblem of the letters “CBFW” spelled out vertically in diamonds. It’s an acronym for the phrase “Can’t Be Fucked With,” a gift from Atlanta rapper Lil Baby after the 28 year-old Detroit native was released from prison on October 16. Collective Music Group label boss Yo Gotti also gifted Dugg with diamond links and watches, making Dugg’s return to society a homecoming fit for a king. The highlights can be seen in his video “Go Again,” which dropped a week after his release.
“It was all cool, it was well appreciated,” he says while nodding his head.
Per terms of Dugg’s release, he can only travel for work — concerts, appearances, etc. — so he’s currently calling Atlanta home.
“I been had a house out here but I moved out here when I got out of jail,” he says with a shrug.
Commonly referred to as the “Beverly Hills of the South,” Buckhead feels identical to Troy, Michigan, as both have median household incomes over $100,000, majority white residents, and a slew of sumptuous restaurants. In fact, directly across the street from the hotel is Lenox Square mall, which is damn near a replica of Troy’s Somerset Collection. If you take a quick 13-minute drive back toward downtown you’ll find Atlanta even has its very own Renaissance Center in the form of the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, a 73-story cylinder-shaped building also designed by John C. Portman Jr. While the shared architecture and bourgeois surroundings are notable, Atlanta and Detroit’s kinship is built off of music, prosperity, grind, and respect.
Since the early ’90s, Detroit and Atlanta have been hip-hop first cousins. Everybody from legendary Flint artist MC Breed to Detroit all-star emcees Al Nuke and Motsi Ski have helped introduce Detroit swagger to the South by relocating to Atlanta. (Other Detroit hip-hop heavyweights who own residences in Atlanta include Kash Doll and Veeze.) In 2013 Young Jeezy, one of the founders of Atlanta trap, signed Detroit hip-hop group Doughboyz Cashout to his CTE World record label, and currently Lil Baby is executive producing rapper Tay B’s next album. However, the biggest Detroiter to impact and shift the culture of the Big Peach was none other than Big Meech, the co-founder of the Black Mafia Family organization recently immortalized in the Starz crime drama BMF.
“Ain’t no question,” Dugg says, referring to the BMF founder. “They came down here and held it down. A lot of people from the A got love for Detroit because they saw how Meech was playing it. Meech came down here and they embraced him and they’ve been embracing Detroit ever since. He changed the whole culture down here forever.”
Born Dion Marquise Hayes, 42 Dugg grew up on the eastside of Detroit on Wayburn and Whittier. He describes himself as a “popular young nigga” who grew up listening to local rappers like Blade Icewood, Doughboyz Cashout, and Peezy. “I had fun. I used to be at all the high school parties, skating. I was that type of muthafucka, always going staking,” he says through a laugh.
The partying came to a halt when the one-time Denby High School student was convicted of carjacking and felony firearms possession in 2010. At the tender age of 15 he found himself serving six years in prison.
While incarcerated, he made good use of his time by filling multiple notebooks up with bars, rhymes, and lyrics to hip-hop songs. He had not considered himself a rapper before he went in, but says he needed something to cling to, something to mentally occupy his mind and help pass the time.
“I was in the hole, so just doing it to escape and to stop thinking about my circumstances,” he says.
In 2017, Dugg was released at 22 years old and decided to test the waters of hip-hop simply to see where it would take him.
“Shiiit, I was just trying something, I was just trying rap,” he says humbly. “I didn’t have no real plan to do it. I didn’t have a step-by-step plan, but when I tried it, it stuck.”
He first collaborated with fellow emcee 42 Twin on the bangers “Shine Regardless” and “Had Too.” The tracks, produced by Derwynnwho, highlight a younger Dugg still refining his voice and cadence. The content is full of street themes and Detroit grindisms, but Dugg’s potential is evident. Both songs accumulated hundreds of thousands of views and streams each — not mind-blowing numbers, but good enough to build confidence and a foundation. Shortly after, 42 Twin ran into some legal trouble himself, and Dugg decided to pull out some of the notebooks of rhymes he wrote in the hole and see what he could do as an individual artist.
“I stepped to the side and started making songs by myself,” he says. “I said, ‘I might as well put out a tape for myself and see what’s going on.’”
The year 2018 was a busy one for Detroit hip-hop. Icewear Vezzo had signed to Motown Records, Molly Brazy was an 18 year-old phenom, Sada Baby’s “Bloxk Party” had become a street anthem, and Doughboyz Cashout’s Payroll Giovanni teamed up with Dallas-based producer Cardo for Big Bossin Vol. 2. That summer, Dugg released two projects that elevated him, turning his idols into his music contemporaries.
11242 Wayburn was followed by an additional mixtape, 11242 Wayburn Part 2. Both were largely built on two-and-a-half minute booming trap monologues, as they rarely had hooks (a style Detroit rappers have become known for). On notable songs “Marcelo Burlon” and “Free Mine,” Dugg raps through the common street topics of money, girls, and revenge. “Mama I’m Sorry” is a somber and melodic track that stands out because it does have a hook, and Dugg shows a rare side of vulnerability.
“Since a youngin’ I been out here just trying to make a killing/ Know my momma ain’t that proud of me but she done raised a killa’/ She like, ‘My son been hurting me bad,’ Ma, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he sings on the hook.
Dugg had an undeniable “it” factor behind the mic because let’s be honest, YouTube is full of Detroit hip-hop artists rapping about the same street motifs as Dugg, with only a portion of the clicks to show for it. An artist has to be able to authentically connect with their intended audience, and Dugg was doing just that.
Before year’s end, Dugg found himself on the other end of a phone call with hip-hop heavyweight Yo Gotti. “I was chilling, gambling and shit,” Dugg says. “I had got a call like, ‘Gotti on the phone.’ He was like, ‘I got a show down here [in Detroit], you fucking with it?’ Next day I was there and it was up since.”
Yo Gotti, a Memphis, Tennessee-born rapper and CEO of Collective Music Group (CMG), had been a longtime admirer of the Detroit hip-hop scene, finding a kinship in the confident composure and style that Detroiters displayed beyond the music. He found out about Dugg from Detroit producer Helluva, who had been working with Dugg regularly. “I met up with him and he was like, ‘Who’s hot out here?’” Helluva told The Hip Hop Lab in a 2020 interview. “So I was showing him a lot of people but I think I had just started working with Dugg and I was feeling his music a lot. That’s like the first person I showed him, and that stamp went a long way with Yo Gotti.”
He invited Dugg to perform at 2018’s “Big Show” at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena, and three months later it was announced that 42 Dugg had signed a record deal to Yo Gotti’s CMG label in collaboration with Lil Baby’s 4PF imprint. On March 9, 2019, during Meek Mill’s stop at Detroit’s Fox Theatre, Yo Gotti brought out a shirtless 42 Dugg and placed a CMG chain around his neck in front of a clamorous crowd. Four days later Dugg dropped his third mixtape, Young and Turnt, which featured the high-powered trap anthem “Dog Food.”
“I sent that to Gotti as soon as we did it like, ‘This bitch bangs!’” Dugg says. “I didn’t know the streets were going to go that crazy over it though.”
The song starts off dark as Dugg is saying his goodbyes to a fallen friend over tense keys and strings, but by the 30-second mark, a gigantic bassline drops as Dugg raps: “Dog food, young gettin’ fifty, we want all blues/ Won’t catch a nigga passin’, bitch, we all shoot/
I mean, yeah, I’m a hooper, baby/ And I dropped out of school, I was too connected.”
The Helluva-produced single was Pitchfork’s “must-hear rap song of the day”, reaching more than 30 million YouTube views.
As 2020 rolled in, the COVID-19 pandemic had the world in a choke hold. Tours and festivals were canceled, leaving many music artists searching for alternative ways to stay relevant and make an income. Dugg was one of the few artists that saw his career excel during the lockdown.
He released his third mixtape Young & Turnt, Vol. 2, dropped a hot 16 bars on Big Sean’s “Friday Night Cypher 2,” and made two appearances on Lil Baby’s quadruple-platinum album My Turn, which pole-vaulted him into a different league. The first was Lil Baby’s “Grace,” which became Dugg’s first charting song. The second, “We Paid,” was Dugg’s first top 10 entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 10. Unlike previous tracks Dugg had scored wins with, “We Paid” wasn’t a high-octane “On the Lodge wit it”-type of song. The Section 8-produced track was slow, syrupy, and more relaxed than Atlanta trap songs tend to be. Lil Baby and 42 Dugg both shined, as they truly carried the beat versus the beat carrying them.
“‘Fore I go broke like Joc/ Fuck with that dog like Vick/ Not that rock, that pit/ Palm Angels down to my sock,” Dugg raps.
The song peaked at No. 1 on U.S. Apple Music across all genres and was nominated for a 2020 MTV Video Music Award. By all measures, “We Paid” pushed Dugg to the forefront of hip-hop’s radar; together, “We Paid” and “Grace” accumulated half a billion streams.
“Hell naw I didn’t think it would do that,” Dugg admits. “I knew ‘Grace’ was going to be a banger, but ‘We Paid’ was a shock to all of us.”
Dugg rode the hot streak well into 2021 with guest appearances on Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me if You Get Lost album and Pop Smoke’s second posthumous album, Faith. He also released his fourth mixtape, Free Dem Boyz (a nod to his friends still imprisoned). The mixtape debuted No. 8 on the Billboard 200 chart, making it Dugg’s highest-debuting mixtape so far. It scored two gold singles: “Maybach,” followed by the street banger “4 Da Gang,” a bass- and guitar-driven trap cut featuring harmonizer Roddy Ricch and a cleverly used sample of Scorpions’ “No One Like You.” Dugg calls the project his “favorite.”
In 2022 he collaborated with CMG labelmate EST Gee for the Last Ones Left mixtape. The project peaked at No. 7 on Billboard, and 42 Dugg finished 2022 as the eighth-most Shazam’d artist in Detroit.
“I ain’t telling you how to live yo life. I’m just giving you a soundtrack.”
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Sonically, Dugg’s squeaky but raspy voice rides perfectly on top of beats that it’s as if he’s using his voice as an instrument itself. The confidence and lyrical nimbleness in his flow has gotten stronger with every release as he switches up pitch and pace as needed. He says when he’s in the studio he punches most of his bars in, but will write a line down or record one on his phone if something hot pops in his head. He also says he doesn’t map anything before he gets to the studio, preferring to hear the beat first and go from there.
“I let the beat speak to me. I don’t really be having no topics, but I should start doing that, though,” he admits. “If I thought about topics that would probably be a good process for me.”
Overall, the biggest area of improvement for Dugg has been his composition and awareness. He says he listens back to his songs over and over again looking for small ways to improve them, and sometimes will just scrap a song if it doesn’t meet his expectations.
“I feel like I’m more detailed,” he says. “I used to rap a lot of my songs with no hooks in them. They say that’s like a Detroit thing, but I’m making sure I got hooks now. I’m focusing on my tempo, ad libs, just catching what’s going on. Sometimes I just like to go in there and catch my flow, I be saying shit and then I listen to it to make sure I put the right shit with it.”
As Dugg’s career was thriving, he continued to be plagued by legal issues. On November 21, 2021 a federal judge sentenced him to three years probation and ordered him to pay a $90,000 fine after surveillance video surfaced of him firing a gun at a firing range in 2019. (Michgian and federal law prohibits convicted felons from possessing or owning firearms under any circumstances.) Less than a month later, Dugg was involved in a minor fight in Las Vegas and arrested for obstruction of law enforcement and battery. This would have major legal ramifications, as Dugg had his probation revoked in February of 2022.
“It wasn’t my fault,” Dugg says of the Vegas incident. “I guess because it was me, that shit happened. I mean, that shit was just unfortunate, bro. It was just a fucked up thing. It wasn’t my fault, but it was my fault. I feel like I should have had more self-control.”
When Dugg speaks on “self-control,” he’s talking directly about this culture in which a stranger or a fan will instigate a physical altercation for social media clout, street cred, or even a civil suit (look no further than Mike Tyson being goaded into punching an airline passenger who now seeks $450,000). Hip-hop is full of stories about rappers being verbally or physically baited into altercations. Dugg doesn’t go into detail about the incident, but acknowledges he just has to be more careful.
“It’s all about how you moving, and I was moving loose,” he says. “A muthafucka might think he can afford to do this, he can afford to hit me, shit like that, so you just gotta avoid that type of shit.”
Dugg was directed to report to prison by April 12, 2022, but didn’t because he says he was still fighting the sentence. He also maintains that he was never ducking or dodging the authorities, and says reports that there was an actual “manhunt” for him are not true at all.
“They capping because I was never hiding,” he says. “I know it wasn’t no manhunt because I did Coachella [Festival], I did all types of shows, I was still living in the same spot, I still had my same phone, and I was staying next to the federal building downtown [in Detroit]. I had a condo there.”
On May 4, 2022, Dugg was taken into custody after flying to Willow Run Airport aboard a private jet. While behind bars Yo Gotti went to social media and offered $2 million to any lawyer that could get Dugg out of jail early. Dugg claims that due to the incarceration, he missed out on more than $6 million in performances and opportunities. But what mattered the most, he says, was not being there for his loved ones.
“My family, my kids, bro — I couldn’t be there for shit I needed to be there for as far as my kids,” he says. The father of two toddlers, Dugg says fatherhood is just as serious as his music. “[Fatherhood] made me be more responsible. You wanna make sure everything is alright for your kids, you’re really working for them.”
Even with his setbacks, Dugg is still in rarefied air. In the four short years of his music career he has three multi-platinum singles from features, two gold singles of his own, a solo project that charted top 10 on Billboard, and all the social media in place to further his impact. In a city full of hip-hop all-stars, Dugg makes a case of being Detroit’s MVP as he’s perhaps the closest to taking the baton from Big Sean as Detroit’s most nationally known hip-hop artist of this generation.
Dugg plans to step up his game even more with the release of his album early next year, and has four emcees signed to his own record label. He also wants his Detroit hip-hop peers to know how important it is to grind the hardest while the spotlight is on the city. Detroit currently has well over two dozen hip-hop artists that are signed to major record labels or have collaboration deals in place. For the last six years Detroit’s hip-hop scene has gotten a hefty amount of mainstream looks from national media outlets and the music industry as a whole.
“I be trying to make sure muthafuckas know what type of moment this is,” he says. “Don’t be content just being known in Detroit. Detroit might be it for a lot of people, but it’s a whole other world to this shit and once you get a taste of it, it will make you wanna go harder.”
Dugg also uses all his platforms to promote other Detroit hip-hop artists, bringing them on stage when opportunity permits and sharing their music on all his social media platforms.
“Muthafuckas be thinking I don’t look out,” he says. “I done posted so many people from Detroit, I don’t know how they could feel like ‘Dugg ain’t taking nobody with him!’ Everybody I posted got a record deal and I posted them all before they had record deals.”
Away from music, Dugg says he plans to invest in real estate and detach from negative energy. He also wants to get to a point where he’ll be able to go to schools in Detroit, be transparent, and share parts of his life’s journey with the students.
“I just want to tell them my story first and foremost and let them hear what I got going on,” he says. “‘Cause a muthafucka will hear how I rap and they think that’s what it is. But I’m an entertainer, I’m saying shit people wanna hear, but I ain’t telling you how to live yo life. I’m just giving you a soundtrack.”
When asked what he wants his legacy to be, Dugg doesn’t mince words.
“That I made a whole bunch of money,” he says. “I changed a whole bunch of lives, I freed a lot of people, and I motivated the kids to get money.”
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