Experimental footwork producer Jana Rush recorded her breathtaking new album, Painful Enlightenment, while battling depression, but she’s careful not to romanticize that fact. “At that time, I couldn’t be consistent with anything. I could start something and good luck with finishing it,” Rush explains. “The loss of hope, it’s a strange and empty feeling, and […]
Tag: juke
Posted inMusic
Farewell to unsung house-music architect Rodney Bakerr
Rodney Bakerr led early Wax Trax! group Strange Circuits, ran underground label Rockin’ House, and wrote ubiquitous house-music rhythm patterns for Roland.
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DJ Drip builds his crowd with micro mixes on TikTok
East Chicago-born DJ Drip balances business studies at Columbia College with a rapidly growing music career.
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DJ Corey grew up immersed in footwork, and he’s learned it inside and out
Chicago producer DJ Corey is footwork royalty. His father, DJ Clent, got hooked on ghetto house in the early 90s, and by the end of that decade had established a career in the faster, more aggressive styles of juke and footwork. Clent began nurturing his son’s interest in music long before Corey could make tracks […]
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Traxman remixes ‘WAP’; bucket and mop not included
Traxman drops a juke remix of “WAP,” poster artist Frank Okay releases a solo album, and Teklife producer Heavee puts out a kaleidoscopic EP.
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As DJ Roc, Clarence Johnson has helped make footwork a global phenomenon
As DJ Roc, Chicago producer Clarence Johnson helped mold footwork and provided the support it needed to become an international underground phenomenon. He started making juke tracks in the early 2000s, but just a few years later he adopted the faster, battle-ready footwork sound. Johnson strengthened the footwork scene in 2005 by cofounding production collective […]
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Open the Circle teaches footwork because footwork saves lives
Chicago nonprofit Open the Circle works to spread a local Black dance culture that can knit together youth communities.
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Photos from DJ Clent’s Beatdown House Litnic
Some of the biggest names in ghetto house, juke, and footwork played for free at a relaxed party and cookout in Dolton Park.
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Baltimore rapper TT the Artist helps femmes celebrate themselves
Baltimore rapper TT the Artist brings her high-energy set to the Black queer space of Renaissance One on Thursday.
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Plugging into Chicago’s forgotten house venues
A tour and oral history of the long-gone spaces that birthed one of the foundational sounds in modern pop
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Psych-pop group Roommate play their first Chicago show in more than two years
Psych-pop group Roommate play their first Chicago show in more than two years, DJ Clent spins at another giant juke, footwork, and ghetto-house blowout, and more.
Posted inBlogs
DJ Clent wants you to juke like it’s 1999
Chicago footwork producer DJ Clent celebrates his 38th on Saturday with a Throwback Juke Party that features some of the best producers in underground-house history.
Posted inBlogs
Did you see the Twitter video of a mobile DJ at a Chicago Trump protest? Here’s the story behind the song.
DJ Chip made the ghetto-house cut “Aw Shit” with his neighbor in 1999, and last week it soundtracked a downtown inauguration protest.
Posted inMusic
Chicago label Deep Space Objects compiles a constellation of diverse electronic tracks
Chicago label Deep Space Objects compiles a constellation of diverse electronic tracks, Lord Mantis drummer Bill Bumgardner dies at 35, and more.