“BIG SHOES is all about fitting the shoes that came before you and filling the shoes that will come after you. Taking the best from those who led and teaching those who will follow in your footsteps how to lead.” - House Shoes
BIG SHOES deals in legacy. The legacies we inherit, carry on or betray, and the legacies we leave behind for others. House Shoes and Big Tone know about legacy. The Motor City titans came up in a time when Detroit Hip-Hop experienced a super-bloom of creativity and innovation. In their own ways, they took on a mantle for the city and it’s music scene. They bled for it. They lost friends and pillars of their city. Then, they grew up and created families of their own. Still, they’ve pressed on and continued.
Tone and Shoes have been friends and collaborators for a lifetime. BIG SHOES is a chronicle of their experiences, together and alone, carrying out the heavy and heralded legacy of being a Detroit musician. This reconciliation of the pain their journeys have faced includes a recognition of the growth brought about as a result. BIG SHOES is also a family reunion, with a litany of guests, witnesses and friends.
This isn’t a Hollywood tale of triumph, it’s a bittersweet story of blessings and baggage. Our protagonists don’t end the album in loud and garish opulence, they complete a cipher. Where they began dealing with the weight of the lineage they carry on, we leave the story with our two auteurs in control and at peace with the patrimony they’ve built--and continue to build.
BIG SHOES is fully produced by House Shoes with Big Tone handling the mic, with family appearances from Denmark Vessey, Blu, Quelle Chris, Jimetta Rose, 87 and MoSel.
