Back when Napster was all the rage, big name artists were up in arms because their material was being made available for free to whoever wanted it wherever a computer with Internet access existed. On the other hand, if a musician wanted to get mass distribution on the cheap, Napster and similar programs were a godsend. Detroit crooner Dwele’s career is a testament to that.

Recorded mostly in his bedroom, Dwele’s Rize demo was highly sought after in the Motor City during the late 1990s. However, supply couldn’t meet demand and the album didn’t make it much past Southeast Michigan. Then around 2001, Rize tracks like “Down Jimmy” surfaced on peer-to-peer music servers. Around the same time uber-tastemaker Gilles Peterson heard some of the songs and started giving them spins on his “Worldwide” show on the BBC’s Radio 1. With this seal of approval plus the growing popularity of Detroit acts he had associations with such as Slum Village, Dwele was poised for bigger and better things.