A rhythmic detective has emerged in Yellow Springs, solving musical mysteries and bringing people together through the power of hip-hop.
Kylle Harewood, known by his musical moniker X the Detective, has turned a simple beat machine into a community-building force, with his Wednesday night sessions at The Gulch Saloon becoming a haven for freestylers and hip-hop enthusiasts.
The narrative of X the Detective’s musical odyssey unfolds like a gripping novel.
“Everyone calls me X the Detective because I detect the beat like a detective from another perspective,” Harewood told the News in a recent interview.
Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Harewood recounted his epic trek to Yellow Springs: “I was on a mission to walk to Denver [Colorado] for peace, inspired by my friend Lawrence Wright, aka MC Mix-O’s call for action.”
According to Harewood, his friend Mix-O wanted to walk as a demonstration of peace and had hoped for a large turnout to accompany him on the trip. In the end, only Harewood joined him on the journey, and the two set off for Denver in September of 2016.
On the way to Denver, however, the duo discovered the village of Yellow Springs and made some great friends. Although he never made it to Denver, Harewood’s journey took him to other places, including Atlanta, where he cared for his dying father.
In 2019, he found himself back in Yellow Springs. This time, he came armed with a beat machine that he’d purchased with some of the money he inherited after his father’s death. Eventually, Harewood started taking his beat machine every day to the back patio of the Gulch with a little speaker.
“I started playing beats, and people were bothered for like a minute. But for every two people that were bothered, 10 minutes later, it was like six people that wanted me to keep playing beats,” he said. “For almost two years, I braved all seasons, making people freestyle and spreading hip-hop vibes.”
However, not everyone was a fan of X the Detective’s beats booming through the streets.
“Somebody kept calling the cops, complaining about my music being loud,” he said. “The last summer that just passed, I was not able to play my beats out on the back patio at all — but that didn’t deter me. Around September when the opportunity arose to play indoors, I seized it.”
And seize it, he did. Earlier this year, Steve Edington, the owner of the Gulch, agreed to set X the Detective up on Wednesdays from 9 p.m. to midnight.
Attendance was sparse at first: Harewood said the first four Wednesday nights only had an average of three people in the audience.
“I honestly felt like people were trying to boycott me or something — I thought maybe people didn’t want to hear my music in the Gulch,” Harewood said. “But after that, oh my goodness, it turned into something better than I could imagine.”
By Truth Garrett
