Detroit is a city with almost too many nicknames: Motown, Motor City, The D, the 313, Detroit Rock City—the list goes on. One thing Detroit has never been called, unfortunately, is a Super Bowl champion.
The Detroit Lions, the city’s ill-fated NFL team, will turn 91 years old this year yet have only won four championships—the last being in 1957—and have zero Super Bowls. They were the home team of arguably the greatest running back in NFL history (Barry Sanders) and the greatest wide receiver in NFL history (Calvin Johnson), and saw both of them retire early in part due to their frustrations with the team’s relentless losing. They were the first NFL club to go winless in the modern era (0-16 in 2008), have been blown out on Thanksgiving numerous times, and the Lions are one of only four teams—along with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans, and Cleveland Browns—to never have appeared in a Super Bowl. All that is to say: the team has not been great.
But this season felt different. The 2024-25 Detroit Lions went 15-2 and earned the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, outscoring their opponents by an outrageous margin of 222 points. The city dared to dream of a Super Bowl run that would change its football narrative forever. And while that dream came to an end with their January 18th 45-31 divisional round playoff loss to the Washington Commanders (complete with shade from Commanders fan Kevin Durant), the run this season still brought hope, excitement, and unity to Detroit—a city already experiencing a cultural renaissance.
To learn how this Lions season felt for fans in the 313 amidst the larger Detroit upswing, we reached out to some of Detroit’s most influential rappers to hear what it all meant for them and their city.
Tee Grizzley: Holding the trophy [would’ve been] crazy. Something we never seen before—nobody’s ever seen before. The whole city [would’ve been] showing out. We know how to show out.
Gmac Cash: Man, I’m just heartbroken—shocked that we came out like that. We knew what to expect but couldn’t execute. [Injuries] caught up with us. They caught up with us. When everybody comes back healthy [next year]—we should be good.
I really don’t want to see Kansas City three-peat at all.
Dej Loaf: Coming from that gutter mentality, that rugged “we can do it no matter what” type of energy—I think it just goes along with how we’ve been over the years. We’ve been pretty much counted out for years so just to be able to showcase our energy and our spirit through sports [felt] amazing.
Babyface Ray: Grit explains Detroit people period—how we were raised to understand nothing comes easy. You gotta go out and get it and resilience is one thing in every Detroit person’s blood—we bounce back from everything.
Tee Grizzley: They [needed] to come out to “First Day Out.”
Dej Loaf: [This season] impacted the city as a whole just because for years we’ve been on this losing streak in so many areas of the city, not even just sports.
Gmac Cash: I’ve been a Lions fan for so long—I actually sat in the stands when it was nobody there where you can go and sit where you want. You could go move around and sit 10 seats further up and you’d be okay. Even with the ticket prices rising this season it’s still been sold out, man. Lines to get in the door, everything.
Tee Grizzley: [I remember] them playing at the Silverdome.
They [needed] to come out to ‘First Day Out.’
Babyface Ray: [It was] Barry, then it was Megatron. I was a big fan but once we got our spark I turned into a insta fan—I know that sounds crazy but it happens like that!
Gmac Cash: My first [Lions] memory was Barry Sanders when I was young. My uncles was watching it and all of them was just screaming at the TV. That instantly made me a fan. … I was hoping if we won this year that [Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson] would’ve gotten a ring, too.
Royce Da 5’9″: The Lions inspired both hope and pride. The last time I felt this good about being a “Detroiter” was with the ‘Detroit Vs Everybody’ movement.
Dej Loaf: Winning just attracts people; it makes everybody feel like they’re winning, too. It’s that ‘one win, we all win’ type of energy. And I think that’s how we’ve always been, even with the ‘Detroit Vs Everybody’ slogan that we have here—shout out to Tommey Walker.
Royce Da 5’9″: We [saw] ourselves in those guys while they [were] out there.
Gmac Cash: Detroit is on the come up right now. The way that the city’s on fire with music right now—it feels like everybody’s sharing the same energy.
Tee Grizzley: There’s a lot going on here [in Detroit]—I invite everybody to come through and check it out.
Gmac Cash: The city is coming back now so everything is getting rebuilt from downtown to the inner city [to] midtown—just a lot of rebranding and rebuilding. It’s a lot of money. A lot of money was brought into the city from the Lions, honestly.
Dej Loaf: I’m in the city a lot nowadays so it just feels good to be here and a part of it and bringing that spirit back. I definitely feel like us winning brought the city together, brought people together. I’ve even taken my mom to a game—I don’t think she’s ever been to a Lions game.
Tee Grizzley: Shoutout to the [Detroit] Pistons, man. I rock with every team in the city. There’s a lot of connection between the rappers and the sports in Detroit. The players rock with the artists and the artists rock with the players.
Gmac Cash: I actually perform for the Pistons on February 5 against the Cavaliers.
Babyface Ray: At the games you’d think we were on the field with how we act! Once you [left] or cut off the game, you [felt] inspired.
Royce Da 5’9”: Our teams have been counted out for so long. The guys [did] a magnificent job.
Babyface Ray: I think [this season was] a really big deal knowing how far the [Lions] came.
