Ghettotech
Encyclopedia
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
. It combines elements of Chicago's ghetto house
Ghetto house
Ghetto house, or booty house, is a type of Chicago House which started being recognised in its own right from around 1992 onwards. It features minimal 808 and 909 drum machine-driven tracks, and sometimes sexually explicit lyrics....
with electro
Electro (music)
Electro is a genre of electronic dance music directly influenced by the use of TR-808 drum machines, Moog keytar synthesizers and funk sampling...
, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, techno, and grafts the perceived raunch of Miami Bass
Miami bass
Miami bass , is a type of hip hop music, that became popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Its roots are directly linked to the Electro-funk sound of the early 1980s, pioneered by Afrika Bambataa & The Soulsonic Force and later on by UK-based musician Paul Hardcastle...
as the vocal stamp of the music. It is usually faster than most other dance music genres, at roughly 145 to 170 bpm, and sometimes features pornographic lyrics. As DJ Godfather
DJ Godfather
DJ Godfather is a Ghettotech music producer and disc jockey from Detroit, Michigan.His most notable mix is the "Godzilla "....
puts it, "the beats are really gritty, really raw, nothing polished."
The spelling and indeed the use of the word "Ghettotech" is contentious, with many Detroit DJs and artists preferring not to use the term, although Disco D
Disco D
David Aaron Shayman, better known by his stage name Disco D , was an American record producer and composer. He started as a teenage DJ in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he helped DJ Godfather popularize the Detroit electronic music called "Ghettotech"...
is credited with developing the usage during his days as a teenager on the scene. Other spellings include Ghetto Tech, GetoTek, Ghettotek, and other names include Detroit Bass (sharing the title with Detroit area Electro), Booty Bass (sharing the title with Miami Bass
Miami bass
Miami bass , is a type of hip hop music, that became popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Its roots are directly linked to the Electro-funk sound of the early 1980s, pioneered by Afrika Bambataa & The Soulsonic Force and later on by UK-based musician Paul Hardcastle...
), and Booty Music (an umbrella term under which the genre falls).
Ghettotech was born as a DJing style, inspired by the eclecticism of The Electrifying Mojo
The Electrifying Mojo
The Electrifying Mojo is an American radio personality. He was a disc jockey based in Detroit, Michigan whose on-air journey of musical and social development shaped a generation of music-lovers in Detroit and throughout southeastern Michigan and Canada and was of importance to the development of...
and the fast-paced mixing and turntablism of The Wizard
Jeff Mills
Jeff Mills is an American techno DJ and producer.-Career:Starting in the early 1980s, Mills, using the name "The Wizard", was a recurring guest DJ on "The Electrifying Mojo" radio show on WJLB...
, with DJs mixing genres including Miami Bass
Miami bass
Miami bass , is a type of hip hop music, that became popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Its roots are directly linked to the Electro-funk sound of the early 1980s, pioneered by Afrika Bambataa & The Soulsonic Force and later on by UK-based musician Paul Hardcastle...
, Ghetto House
Ghetto house
Ghetto house, or booty house, is a type of Chicago House which started being recognised in its own right from around 1992 onwards. It features minimal 808 and 909 drum machine-driven tracks, and sometimes sexually explicit lyrics....
, Electro, HipHop and Detroit Techno
Detroit techno
Detroit techno is an early style of electronic music beginning in the 1980s. Detroit, Michigan has been cited as the birthplace of techno music. Prominent Detroit Techno artists include Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson...
. The general BPM of the mixing style increased over time, encouraged by the fact that the style was being DJed in strip clubs where the DJs jacked up the speed of the original tracks to make the dancers dance faster. This fast mix of different sounds influenced producers who started making tracks around 1994 which welded the styles together. Moving into 2011 Ghettotech is finding a strong resurgence with Techno and Tech House influences being combined with hiphop and party vocals.
Ghettotech is an integral part of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival
Detroit Electronic Music Festival
The Detroit Electronic Music Festival , and its successors comprise an annual series of electronic dance music showcases held in Detroit each Memorial Day weekend since 2000...
, an annual event. A Detroit Ghettotech style of dancing is called the jit. It is an improvisational dance that mainly centers around the fast movement of the feet but also arms and body movement dating back to the early 1950s jitterbug also known as the black bottom stomp. Chicago's equivalent dance style is Juke where the focus is on the footwork dating back to the late 1980s.
Other Articles
- "Ghettotech, The Bluffer's Guide" article at Stylus Magazine.
- "Ghettotech" article at Global Darkness.
External links
- 4 Player Records: Pan-European label Started in February 2004 by a DJ / Producer collective with members in Germany, Scotland, The Netherlands, Italy, and Sweden. Focused on releasing Detroit and Chicago influenced ghettotech, electro, ghetto house, and electro-bass club tracks.
- Booty.be: Belgian Promotion website for Booty, Ghettotech, LA Booteehop and Miami Bass. News section with latest related news. Events page and Music download section with mixes from Belgian artists and DJ's.
- DJGuy.info: Official website of DJ Guy and the Global Fire record label.
- ElectroBounce.com: Online music store and forum run by Detroit's DJ GodfatherDJ GodfatherDJ Godfather is a Ghettotech music producer and disc jockey from Detroit, Michigan.His most notable mix is the "Godzilla "....
and associates.