How the fascinating Cadillac Dale helped a little Detroit style go viral

An East Sider from Motown, Cadillac Dale helped Jack Harlow’s ‘Lovin on You’ shoot atop the charts with a sample of his —–from 30 years ago, and now he’s dropping the wisdom behind his smooth moves

By Munson Steed
Jun 20, 2024
2:48 pm

If you’ve ever heard the hit song “Lovin on Me,” by Jack Harlow, this would be a good time for you to hear the heart behind the hit. It’s a story three decades in the making, and it has shined a new spotlight on Delbert Greer, the artist better known as “Cadillac Dale,” a Detroit East Sider through and through.

You can hear the Detroit in his music. You can hear the Detroit in his story. Harlow heard the hook in a Cadillac Dale B-side song called “Whatever: Bass Soliloquy.” It went viral. Harlow’s song shot to No. 1 on the charts. The rest is history.

Now, you can hear it as Cadillac Dale shares the underlying stories that led to his work coming to light in an illuminating conversation that he had with rolling out publisher and CEO, Munson Steed. It’s full of nuggets of wisdom gained through a long and winding course to stardom that Cadillac Dale never saw coming. But he was prepared when it came and he wants everybody to know what to do when your moment comes.

Munson Steed: Hey, everybody! This is Munson Steed, and welcome to rolling out music where we are here on Star Studio with my dear brother, Cadillac Dale! What’s going on?

Cadillac Dale: What’s up, man? I’m glad to be here. Nice to finally meet you, sir.

MS: You know, when you think about passion and having passion in your life, particularly passion for music, what has driven you? And how does this hit that you already made it — that now you have collaborated to so that the universe can see it — make you feel?

CD: Hmm! I’ve learned to understand how powerful music is and how it can affect people. Earlier in my career, I didn’t. I didn’t really think about that. I was just making music. But within the last especially 10 [to] 15 years, I’ve come to really understand that this is a gift, and I gotta use this gift accordingly. And I feel that I was obedient, and that’s why some blessings have come my way.

MS: You know, when you say obedience in the universal sense, for all the young hustlers, particularly in the D — that what up, though — to everybody gets the idea of having a cultural pride.

CD: Yes.

MS: Sustainability. When you think of the D — my four favorite cities are the ATL, Chicago, Detroit, and DC, where we can be unapologetically Black. And and you can wear your gators and don’t have to worry about what it is that people think, you know the color. You know my jacket just represented. My brother does on occasion wear a red or a blue, and it ain’t about manhood. It’s about a fashion statement that almost shine. Right? You’re not gonna ignore me. Can you explain that to those who never ventured into the D and don’t have the courage to embrace themselves?

CD: Yeah, it’s it’s it’s interesting you say that. The D is a different place. Man, you know, it is one of the the few cities in the country where Black people actually run this city, for the most part. And I have always felt that, man, you know, when you, when you learn at the same streets that you walking on the same streets. Marvin Gaye used to walk down that street, and and Stevie Wonder used to be in that neighborhood, and even Michael Jackson used to be in that house right there that Berry Gordy mansion. It gives you a sense of sticking your chest out. And you know, walking in your Blackness unapologetically, like you just said. That’s it’s a very important thing. And I also understand that, especially as it relates to music, the music that came before me is my legacy, and it is almost to some degree an artistic birthright. You know, anywhere that I’ve been in in the world, when I say “I’m from Detroit,” one of the first things that came up was Motown.

And so I think not enough artists really understand what has been blessed upon us to be able to have, and to walk in that and walk with our head up high for real.

MS: Well, you chose a name like “Cadillac Dale.” How did that come about? It truly once again says, “I’m going shine bright from the D” — I mean, you really couldn’t be from Phoenix, Arizona. Say, I’m Cadillac there, I mean.

CD: Right on.

MS: What would that? What would that mean? I mean?

The meaning behind the moniker: Cadillac

CD: Right on, so that came from a gentleman his name is Jerry Fortenberry. Rest in peace, Jerry Fortenberry. When I was like in my I would say maybe my twenties, late twenties, early thirties. I met Jerry Fortenberry. I used to be a janitor at this building at the Lafayette Towers, and Jerry they called him “Cadillac Jerry.” Cadillac Jerry was a guy — I think he used to work in at General Motors, but he’s retired by then — but he always kept a clean Cadillac, and he just gave me so much game. I wasn’t blessed to always have a father around me, but Jerry was like a secondary father to me, and some of the things that he used to talk to me about as I was cutting his hair is stuff that I just remember to this day. So it initially started like that.

I remember before I had gray hair, I used to look at Jerry, cause he had a gray goatee, and I was like, “Man, I can’t wait till my hair gets gray like that,” because he was just so smooth. All the ladies loved him. Young ladies loved him. Older ladies loved him. Black women loved him. White women — everybody just loved him, and it is because of his character, man! So, it started like that.

But as I started to really understand what the word “Cadillac” means, and how it’s synonymous with Detroit, it even broadened my perspective. So Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac is the guy who founded Detroit. He was getting money with the Indians, slangin’ furs like we still do in the D. And Cadillac means the best of his kind.

So, it’s like me saying, “I’m the best of my kind at what I do.” I’m the best of my kind, and I’m always trying to be the best Dale that I can be.

MS: I appreciate that for humble beginnings, lot of young hustlers think that is about looking at other people who are starring, and they forget that they’re gonna starve for themselves in their own life. You mentioned the fact that you’ve had the occupations of being a janitor, obviously, security guard, barber, hit songwriter. What would you share, if you could whisper as a father coach to young Black men who are on a journey and don’t necessarily look at themselves with pride, but instill a pride in them to keep going. Keep your head up, don’t fall for the trap of you know, glitter or debt — I would say both glitter and debt. What would you whisper? Give them three tips to understand. This is just a moment in time.

CD: It absolutely is man. And that’s a beautiful question that you asked me, and to answer it is some of the information I used to get from Cadillac Jerry. He said, “Man, even if you are a janitor, be the best janitor, make sure that don’t nobody wax them floors as good as you do, whatever you doing, because it actually all ties into things.”

I’ve been working, man, since I was 14. I’ve had a job as a paper boy. I’ve had almost every job that a man can have. Okay, and every one that I’ve had if I wanted to go back and get the job, I could get it now, because I always did it the best way that I could do it. I always learn. I always been a good soldier. I’ve never been one of them guys to say, “Oh, I’m not gonna do this. I’m not gonna do this” when I’m working.

So, my thing is, No. 1, try to be the best at whatever you doing. Never stop dreaming. I never stop dreaming, man. I used to be singing and humming songs when I was mopping them floors. I’ve written a when we did “Soulful Moaning,” I was mopping the floor, came up with the baseline in my head while I was mopping the floor. And, lastly, you gotta keep your integrity man, especially in the music business. It can take you through some weird things, man, and you just gotta understand who you are and make sure you stand on what it is, and don’t let nothing change you. Regardless to what trend you might see, you really have to search within yourself, because the music don’t even sound right to me if you not being yourself. The people can tell, man. The ears can tell. You know what I’m saying? So, those three things I found to keep me, man, and I’m holding on to them things until my eyes are closed.

How Cadillac Dale knows he has a hit

MS: Well, let’s talk about big record. When you have a big record in your head before you pass it on — obviously, you’ve been recognized — but what is your musical process? When do the the heavens open up and you and the angels begin to co-create and collaborate inside your mind? For those young people who really need to be able to be themselves. How does your process go? Because you just said you were working on the floor when the moaning was coming, but obviously you were communing when you were doing some work, so share that process, and how those gifts come to you and you receive them and hold on to them.

CD: Every situation is different. Usually, when I know that the song is worth me continuing with, I personally, I get this emotional feeling, man, where it almost make a tear come in my eye. And that’s when I really know that, okay, we on to something. And I know that is because I’m really in tune with the music. I learned that the different keys that are played, when your ears hear it, it makes you feel a certain way like this. Sounds that you could play this gonna make you feel happy. There are sounds that are gonna make you feel sad or different things like that. So, I really am really in tune. And I also keep my ears open to hear different conversations. You know it could be. It’s so many things, man and I used to think that I was crazy when I thought that. But as I start studying music and listening to some with some of the great said it made sense, and I’ll give you a perfect example: Isaac Hayes was doing a song with Sam & Dave, and they had took a break. And he was doing something. He said, Okay, hurry up, man. Come on, he said, Okay, hold on. I’m coming. [Starts singing the Sam & Dave song, “Hold On I’m Coming”]

Actually, I want to go back when so many different songs that I’ve written, and being in motion. And when I recall the initial part of that Soulful Moaning song, we made that over the phone cause my man, the the other guy. I was in the group where he called me with an idea, and he was humming the song over the phone, and I ran to my keyboard but and laid the bass line. But by the time we got to the studio I had some other parts in my mind, and I was coming up with that as I was working, so I always have to be in motion. But the key is again, and I’ll ramble sometime, but I wanna get back.

My process is really trying to be in tune to what the music is saying to me. Like I’ll get tracks from people. I don’t have no idea what I’m gonna do on that song as I listen to the music the music kinda guides me. Is this a spiritual song? Is this a sad song? Is this a love song? The music speaks to me. As long as you willing to listen, the music will always speak to you.

MS: Well, let’s examine this other song. Cause your whole painter. When you talk about “Soulful Moaning,” you literally, this young rapper has grabbed a cultural Detroit moment and taken a piece of the soul of Detroit and let the world hear it. But you painted a picture. What was that picture that you had in mind? And what age were you at when you were really writing that, and painting that picture for us to understand that our souls do moan as we move through.

CD: Big Shawn sampled Soulful Moaning. So for moment, this recent song is a song called whatever. And that’s a deep story, sir, that sort the song. Whatever was a song that I wrote about, you know it was like a hip hop, love song, talking about me being uninhibited with my wife, you know we can do whatever. That song never really got the attention that it should have gotten until 30 years later, and I was about, maybe in my thirties when we did it. It was really a hip-hop, soul song. And when my man, when their producers found it, they found it on the Internet, they did things with it that I hadn’t even imagined.

Hey, man, I wish I would have thought of that a while ago and came up with it. But yeah, he he definitely found this piece of of something straight-up Detroit culture, because, you know, that’s what I was into hip-hop as well as R&B. Soul music, and he took it to a whole ‘nother level. So, it’s almost like that song is a brand new song, and from an artist’s point of view, I had to kinda keep drilling that in my head because I’m a writer man, I just keeping it moving. But the whole world had never heard that song. So to the whole world, it’s like they just got this time capsule of this song that was made in 1995 that nobody heard. Bam! and to this day, even from from what he did with it. Amen! That’s that song is doing well, people. I got thousands of streams every day on the original song, which is amazing to me.

MS: So, hum that song and tell the community just in your mind the new song. ‘Cause it’s your record obviously it’s your words. See, the beauty of having those words is, no matter what you do is the base of the concept. Whatever you know, and it’s still to me. Big ups to the D when you set it in the way you set it in the way you position it. It’s kinda like, if you haven’t been in Detroit. It can’t be whatever like you can.

CD: I’ve done this.

MS: Understand, I could be 5 [foot] 2. But I’m it’s gonna be like, whatever man you know, my team would rather pick me up than the to let you just think it’s gonna you’re just gonna walk by me like, and I’m 5-2, and you can be 6-8. But if you’ve never been on Jefferson at midnight. I want you to understand. I can give you something because I’m from the East Side, and I didn’t make it to Jefferson all the time, you know.

CD: He’s bad, too, Bro.

MS: I’m just saying you know it. You’ve never been on that way. It can be whatever.

CD: That’s the facts.

MS: Love is very deep.

CD: For sure, for sure. So on the hook of the of the song was, “We can do whatever, whatever you wanna do when it comes to loving you” then the the part that my man sampled was “Now I don’t like no whips, and chains. You can’t tie me down, but you can whip your loving on me, baby!” And he looped it, man, and just took it to a whole ‘nother level. Every time I turn around, man, his song is on a radio. It’s an amazing thing, and it is straight East Side all day.

MS: Yeah. And what I love is that it’s a collaboration of culture. For the young songwriters, you have given us a breath of once again demonstrating that culture, particularly Black culture, is timeless. If nothing else, what I respect about the record — ’cause clearly, we ain’t whips and chains — but the idea of collaborating on our love and expanding gives life to something that you had given life to 30 years ago. So, for you in this moment, as you continue to make, how have you thought about collaborating? Because you got Big Shawn. You got Kim. I don’t know if you and Kim have collaborated yet, but you got the D is such a strong beacon of hope for those who know it. Obviously, your girl CeCe [Winans] is killing the gospel chart. She won’t give up No. 1. Yet what’s that like to be in a musical garden as a songwriter?

CD: It’s a beautiful thing. I collaborate with a lot of artists. Man, we were looking at at my catalog. I got so many songs. And again, man, a lot of these songs a lot of people haven’t heard because I hadn’t been at that level, you know, to have it exposed like that. So many artists, I would say. I’ve collaborated with most artists from Detroit. I haven’t done anything with Kim.

Most of the stuff that I’ve been doing [is] with a lot of hip-hop artists, because, even though you know, I sing these songs, I started off as a rapper. So I was always in tune with that with with that community. And I’m working on a on a project now, man, the whole album is just me and a bunch of different people that I’ve collaborated with. I got a main song. I don’t know if you remember the movie. Man! What is it? “Daddy’s Little Girl.” My man, Charles “Gator” Moore, saying he’d say on the soundtrack. I got a song that I’m doing with him. That’s amazing. And a couple of other different artists Aaron Taylor. Aaron Taylor is a what do they call it? So he’s a white guy, but he remind you of Oh, Ron Banks, he he hit notes like Ron Banks. So this project I’m doing with them is called “All the King’s Men,” and I’m deeming myself as the king. You know what I’m saying, but it’s a beautiful whole collaboration. Album is not one song am I doing by myself every song I’m doing a collaboration with with these artists and these artists, most of them, if not all of them, are from Detroit. Because I do carry that flag. I’m really really for Detroit. And I think I’m in a position to be able to carry this and let the world hear.

MS: With, you know, closing out the idea of being there. Obviously you got the BET Awards and and recognition coming up your way. When you think about your legacy and you wanna imagine yourself telling young hustlers speaking at a Howard or speaking at a Wayne State University, Michigan, or Morehouse, if you’re gonna tell young brothers about enjoying the ride of life musically, what would you say about music, the gifts that music has given you, and what would you like for them, the future generations, to give themselves in the future as a gift to themselves?

CD: Hmm, man, you ask some good questions, and because this music I believe it’s one of the most powerful forces on earth. I know when I was younger, I wish that someone would have explained that to me. You know, that this is not just fun and games that you have in front of you. This is a gift and use this gift correctly. Respect this gift.

I’m not saying for everybody to be self-righteous with this. I’m just saying, understand whatever you do with this gift, understand that it’s a gift and use it to the best of your ability and understand –especially anybody that’s that’s from this region, from Michigan or Detroit. I lean on this thing called Motown, because this was this was something that had never happened before, and I had an opportunity and still have an opportunity to talk to to guys that help build that like my man Joe Harris, from the Undisputed Truth is, my guy, I talk to him all the time. I miss talking to Clay McMurray, the things that they that they told me, man, and the stories, and even McKinley Jackson, Proof’s father, the things that these guys may share with me. I wish I would have met them when I was younger so I could have more insight on it. I’m blessed that I get that. I have this understanding now, but if I had a chance to be in front of some young brothers and sisters that was pursuing this, I would definitely tell them that you have a powerful thing on you. Understand that, and use it accordingly.

MS: Boom! Well, Cadillac, yeah, I wanna thank you for coming on rolling out music. Big respect for Soulful Moaning. Still, my all-time favorite.

CD: Right on.

MS: And what up to all those individuals from the D to know that this mad respect for this creative genius, and we thank you for being who you are. Continue to shine bright for the entire world to see. Thank you so much.

CD: Thank you, brother.