Todd Terry

More than any other producer, Todd Terry defined New York house during the '80s, a varied sampladelic smorgasbord blending the sounds of classic disco, the more introspective Chicago sound pioneered earlier in the decade, plus plenty of hip-hop attitude and sampling piracy. And with two of the most respected crossover remixes of the house era ("I'll House You" by the Jungle Brothers and "Missing" by Everything but the Girl), Terry more than earned his title "Todd the God" (or occasionally, simply "God"). Though he's often been accused of recycling his own beats and effects (in his production work as well as the DJ booth) a bit too often for his own good, Terry's immortality as a dance icon is assured. Born in Brooklyn, Terry began DJing in the early '80s while still a teenager, spinning hip-hop at school events and on the street with a team called the Scooby Doo Crew. He increasingly listened to Italian disco as well, and when the house sound of Chicago dropped in the mid-'80s, Terry the DJ made an official switch to house music. In league with fellow New York DJ/producer/remixers Little Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez, Terry borrowed the Masters at Work guise -- which Vega and Gonzalez would later popularize -- for one of his first big productions, the 1987 single "Alright Alright"; the single became a milestone on New York's early house scene. The Jungle Brothers, another crew of hip-hop heads who were beginning to stray into house, hooked up with Terry and the collaboration resulted in "I'll House You," one of the earliest and most high-profile fusions of hip-hop and house (popularized several years later by C+C Music Factory and Snap!). The added prestige transferred back to his own name for two wildly popular 1988 singles, "Weekend" and "Bango (To the...