Device That Made Me: Bruiser Wolf on the Tango Pager

Put simply, Detroit’s Bruiser Wolf (real name DeVaul Neal) is one of the most innovative rappers on the planet right now. Co-signed by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke; the late fashion designer Virgil Abloh (who gave the rapper some custom Off White sunglasses for this music video); and critically acclaimed rap surrealists such as Danny Brown (who recruited him to the Bruiser Brigade rap collective) and billy woods, this 44-year-old rapper’s ambling, wise soul flow carries the optimism of someone whistling on their way to work in the morning.

All the staggered, high-pitched vocals make you envision a slick talking cartoon wolf triumphantly taunting his enemies… or maybe even a jolly 1980s TV gameshow host, who has unexpectedly gone off script to tell an X-rated jape or two. From the moment you press play, it’s instantly clear this singular voice is unlike any other rapper out, which might explain why all his Instagram freestyles keep going viral. To quote one of Bruiser Wolf’s bounciest, most self-aware songs: “Nobody sounds like this. I got my own sound, I’m an instrument.” 

In this Adidas tracksuit-clad artist’s musical universe, concrete floor hustlers are re-framed as complex, Clark Kent-esque superheroes, "married to the game" in an "arranged marriage”—the humanity of every side of this transaction is carefully weighed up and considered. “Down on P-Rock all our daddies were hustlers!” recalled the fast-rising Detroit rapper of his derelict hometown of Plymouth Road during a refreshingly honest Zoom interview for Back Market’s Device That Made Me series. “But that didn’t make them bad people! They were all good fathers. It just felt like the only option; hustling was more like an arranged marriage."

Situated on the city’s West Side, Plymouth Road was for many years defined by the imposing tower from an abandoned Chrysler and American Motors automobile factory. It also suffered from social deprivation triggered by America’s Crack Cocaine era. By the mid-1990s, the optimism of MoTown had been replaced by empty car factories and the highest murder rate in America, while a lot of the White middle classes fled Detroit altogether, something the New York Times once described as “a tragedy”. There was one particular electronic device, however, which captured the perseverance that not only went into Bruiser Wolf’s own rap career, but also channelled inner-city life in Detroit across the 1990s: the Motorola Tango Pager. 

“Owning that pager,” Bruiser Wolf added, “was shorthand for: “I’m a hustler!” He pauses: “From Jay-Z to Sir Mix A Lot's "Beepers", the pager is something mentioned a lot by rappers, and I think that’s because it carries this hope that you can change the world with just a couple of messages.” Released in 1995, the Motorola Tango Pager boasted 14-day battery life, making it the perfect companion for those constantly on-the-go.

"A Motorola Tango Pager carries this hope that you can change your world with just a couple of messages; it mirrors hip hop itself" - Bruiser Wolf

While it hasn’t had as many songs dedicated to it as other Pager variants (see A Tribe Called Quest’s “Sky Pager”), it was a significant release due to allowing Two-Way Messaging for the first time, while also being able to store multiple messages. The Tango came into a receptive world, with there around 70 million global Pager users globally in 1995, and this device’s central idea of sending encrypted messages (with additional email and computer support) without the need to speak on the phone was way ahead of mainstream mobile phones.

As a device, the Tango was co-opted not only by the criminal underworld, who knew Pagers were harder to trace by the police, but also seen as the waist-clipped essential of any serious businessman, ultimately giving it a complex duality. From Fabolous to Brandy, most 90s and early 00s music videos (particularly in the rap and R&B spaces) carried some sort of visual reference to the Pager. Bruiser Wolf enthused further: “If you had a Pager back then, then it showed you were really about your business!” 

Bruiser Wolf would ultimately turn his life around, becoming a promising college offensive linesman, nicknamed “The Beast” due to his 330-lb frame, and later coaching little league football. It makes sense, therefore, that so many of his aspirational raps feel like receiving a fiery half-time pep talk. The fact the artist started his rap ascent in his late 30s, releasing his first full length album, Dope Game Stupid, back in 2021, gives his story a plucky underdog spirit; concrete proof ageism plays less of a role in hip hop culture nowadays.

“I feel like I am one of the oldest hip hop rookies ever!” he laughs. “It feels special what’s going on with my career right now.” Bruiser Wolf’s new album, PUSH & PAINT, might just be his funkiest yet, with producer Sheefy McFly’s warped, E-40-esque hyphy basslines inspiring Bruiser Wolf to reach vintage form. On the lead single, “Hater Not On Opp”, the sassy rapper deftly breaks down how kids are recruited to drug gangs (more on that later), while exposing lying rappers who use bots to inflate streaming numbers. Despite breaking out in rap at an advancing age, it feels like Bruiser Wolf is only just getting started—living proof that you can teach an old wolf new tricks. 

To celebrate the release of Push & Paint, Back Market spoke to Detroit’s most original contemporary rap stylist, Bruiser Wolf, focusing on how the Pager played a pivotal role in shaping his ambitious hustler's mindset, while also becoming an electronic device that inspired hundreds of golden era rap lyrics. The following conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. 

In doing the research for this feature I learned that the first basic Pager technology was actually trialled by the Detroit Police Department way, way back in the 1920s, so it seems your city has always had this connection with it as a device. What’s your earliest memory of the Motorola Tango Pager, specifically? 

BRUISER WOLF: The 1920s? That’s crazy. Maybe by the time I was really learning as a teenager, the pager wasn’t as popular anymore, but I still remember when it was vital in the streets because of my aunt and uncle! People would tell you to hit a specific Tango Pager up. They had the pager for their dogs, the pager for their girlfriends, and if someone wasn’t using the phone and only going through a Pager, well, you knew it was because of something top secret, right? I had friends who owned like 5 pagers! 

Can you remember how you, specifically, used to interact with the Pager? 

BRUISER WOLF: Me and my friends would argue on there, about silly shit. If you wanted to meet up, you’d put 7 on there, and then go meet someone on 7 Mile! Me and my friends definitely had our own coded language we used. You would meet up with your girlfriends via the Pager, too. 

To me, your song “Momma Was A Dope Fiend” is one of the most powerful and bluesiest rap songs of the 21st century. Even though you are sharing pain from watching your mother’s sharp decline, you still make room for jokes; such as a memory of pretending to your friends that your mom looked different, because she worked at the zoo. Why is maintaining that sense of humour so important?

BRUISER WOLF: I guess I was trying to add a bit of lightness, because that song has so much pain in it. With my music, there's laughing to keep from crying energy, you know? The Crack Era really changed Detroit! The violent crimes were sad, and you had the young boys on the corner selling shit, because they couldn’t get charged as adults. You were basically bred into drug dealing. Then your role models and parents were hooked on the drug, too. 

"I went from rapping over The Alchemist beats on YouTube, to The Alchemist producing my music" - Bruiser Wolf

A lot of my raps are about these sad times, but I am converting them to something funny in order to finally get over it. I remember going to college and other kids being surprised by my survival skills, but I felt like if you can make it in Detroit, you can make it anywhere!

I just wanna thank you for being the first rapper to use the word "nitwit" on wax. I also remember this bar on “Against The Odds”, where you said:"The odds were against me / I bent the roof until it fit me”. Is that your mission statement?

BRUISER WOLF: For sure. I always kept carving away. I think I am fortunate to emerge in hip hop when people are getting tired of all the raps being about money! They can hear I am different lyrically and what’s needed. I love being playful with words. And, because I came into the game later, maybe I appreciate it more. It’s kind of crazy to me that I went from rapping over The Alchemist beats on YouTube, to The Alchemist producing my music, you know?

Taking it back to the pager, but everyone from Biggie to 2Pac has referenced the Pager in their raps in some way. Why do you think the pager has resonated so much with hip hop culture? What does it mean to you, personally? 

BRUISER WOLF: Back then, the Pager was like how these motherfuckers look at the iPhone today! I guess people liked how private using the pager felt, opposed to yapping down a phone, and that resonated [with the anti-snitching stuff in rap music]. My auntie was one of the first Black women in Detroit to get the latest technology and then go sell it in a store; this meant we were spoiled, and she made sure we had Pagers and Nextels as a kid. In my hood, if you had a SkyPager it meant you really about business and being a hustler!

But it was the Tango what set it off with the two-way messaging. If you had pulled that motherfucker out, then everyone knew you were official! It carried this hope that you can change the world with just a couple of messages: the turntable did the same thing, and that's what hip hop is all about. The Pager is hip hop.