Original copies of Me & E’s Rap have sold for hundreds of dollars, but Canadian archival label Mixed Signals is about to burst that bubble.
Tag: Steve “Silk” Hurley
Posted inMusic
Remembering Benji Espinoza, champion of Chicago house music
Benji Espinoza’s work for Quantum Distributors and the D.J. International label helped boost house into its exalted place in the global pop pantheon.
Posted inMusic
Life was just a party: Prince’s 1999 and Chicago house music
Prince could hardly have avoided influencing Chicago house, whose earliest, most ardent fans were queer Black and Brown kids.
Posted inMusic
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
Posted inMusic
Chicago producer Larry Sturm worked with Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley and Naked Raygun—just for starters
His influential career took him from house and punk to gigs for the likes of Prince, Destiny’s Child, and Michael Jackson.
Posted inMusic
Chicago label Still Music rescues decades of house history from a south-side storage locker
Dance-music fiend Jerome Derradji Still is restoring dozens of decaying reel-to-reel tapes featuring unissued tracks and mixes from the genre’s early giants.
Posted inMusic
Groundbreaking Chicago house artist Steve “Silk” Hurley headlines a special Friday version of Queen at Metro
The history of house music would be incomplete without southeast-side native Steve “Silk” Hurley. After landing a regular DJ gig at south-side house hot spot Sauer’s in the early 80s, he was inspired to make his own tracks, and the work he produced throughout the rest of that decade played a critical role in informing […]
Posted inMusic
Entertainment lawyer Jay B. Ross fought for the people who made the music he loved
An expert negotiator, he went to bat for stars as big as James Brown and Muddy Waters, but he also clawed back royalties for countless forgotten artists who’d never gotten their due.
Posted inBlogs
Barbecuing, jacking, and other sights from the 2017 Chosen Few Picnic & Festival
The view from the crowd during the annual house-music extravaganza in Jackson Park.
Posted inMusic
Gossip Wolf premieres Soft Candy’s new garage-psych single
Gossip Wolf premieres Soft Candy’s new garage-psych single, the 3 Yards Bangin’ House Fest returns to the southeast side, and more.
Posted inBlogs
The inaugural 3YB House Fest celebrates the southeast side’s house-music history
What started as an informal gathering for house heads back in 2004 has grown into a single day celebration of the important musical figures who grew up on the southeast side.
Posted inMusic
How the USA fell for EDM, chapter one
In these excerpts from his lively and meticulous new book, The Underground Is Massive: How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America, longtime Reader contributor Michaelangelo Matos chronicles the three-decade ascent of EDM.
Posted inMusic
How Chicago house got its groove back
Chicago house music is the sound of global pop today. In the 90s, though, it was on life support—until a new wave of producers got its groove back.
Posted inMusic
Held Back by the Old School
Chicago house producer Traxx could make better music if he put less stock in 25-year-old production techniques.