Champtown

Champtown is a Motor City Alternative Rapper, DJ, documentarian, and teacher who has worked with some pretty big rap stars, including Ice T, Rev Run and Public Enemy, and helped establish the careers of Detroit rappers like Kid Rock and Eminem.

Champtown grew up as a childhood friend of local drug dealers Best Friends and got a lot of shit from local racists. After getting into Hip Hop, he met a young Esham, and the two performed together at open mic events, and were even forced to rap at gunpoint by a drug dealer. Champtown later formed a rap crew with a young Kid Rock, but the group split after Kid Rock signed a solo contract with Jive Records, so Champtown started his own label, Straight Jacket Records, where he became known for his gimmick of performing as a mad Jester, which some believe was "bitten" by Insane Clown Posse; these rumors were the source of a bit of animosity between the two, as ICP's Violent J dissed Champtown on ICP's first album, Carnival of Carnage. Nowadays, the two camps respect each other, however.

Champtown's music video for "Do-Da-Dippity" featured a young Eminem; Champ helped Em get his first recording sessions, but things later went sour between the two, as Champ later accused Em of not caring about Detroit and his manager, Paul Rosenberg, of being a racist, in a 2004 interview. In 2009, Champ began teaching at a local school and recently began working on a documentary, The Untold Story of Detroit Hip Hop, even reaching out to Eminem to resolve their differences so he could take part in the interviews for Champ's documentary.


 * Check It! - The EP (1996)
 * Racial Profilin (2009)