chicago

Born and raised in the western suburbs, Derrick was into music from a young age, but during his teens Chicago´s house scene sucked him in for good. Before long Derrick became a strong presence in Chicago´s underground dance scene. "When I got my driver´s license at 16 my sneak ability was validated," he laughs. "I was a fierce bedroom jock for a long time. After you mix for the love of it for six or seven years, you get it pretty tight and you can take it on the road." Derrick got by working at dance–music specialty stores like Gramaphone and gigging at parties.

For an international audience reawakening to the influence of Chicago house during the 1990s, Curtis A. Jones acted as quite a renaissance leader. Besides donning his straightahead house guise Cajmere and a flamboyant, neon-haired acid-house alter-ego named Green Velvet for several of the most memorable underground house tracks of the decade (including "Preacher Man," "Answering Machine" "Brighter Days" and "Flash"), Jones helmed the two most respected labels in the new school of Chicago house, Cajual and Relief.

The Arrivals are a four piece from Blue Island, Illinois, Southside of Chicago. They write songs about everything and nothing, sometimes all at once. They sound like Mission of Burma trying to write Kinks songs, though most people have their own f-ed up description that may be just as valid. They've toured with Dillinger Four(with whom they now share a bass player), The Soviettes, Toys That Kill, Rise Against, Tiltwheel, Vena Cava, Grabass Charlestons, and The Lawrence Arms.

South Side born Earl Smith, one of the youngest members of the Ghettoteknitianz crew has been part of the footwork culture before he even hit his teens. Cutting his teeth as a dancer for the Creation Crew, he eventually tried his hand at making music and was taken under the wing of DJ Rashad and DJ Spinn who taught him the fundamentals of how a track is made. Yo can catch him cutting his records at almost all of the weekly battles that go on in the city of Chicago.