Todd Terry

• Dance/Electronic

Terry's productions extensively used samples blending the sounds of classic disco, the Chicago sound, and elements of hip-hop. Terry began in the 1980s by DJing at parties in New York, playing Italian disco and hip hop, and later house music when it emerged in the middle of the decade. Much of Todd Terry's early work in the late 1980s is considered a milestone in the development of both progressive and modern deep house. Todd Terry has been responsible for releasing 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 by the mid 1990s. Todd's tracks "Something Goin' On" and "Keep on Jumpin'" were both UK Top 10 hits, with the vocals on the latter provided by Jocelyn Brown and Martha Wash. Freestyle diva Shannon was the featured vocalist on the UK top 20 hit "It's Over Love" in 1997, which also topped the Billboard Dance/Club Play Songs Chart in the US, as did "Just Wanna Dance"/"Weekend". "All right, All right" also was featured on the British import Chicago House compilation Jackmaster Volume 1 in 1987. In 1999, Todd Terry released Resolutions on Astralwerks Records, which successfully embraced the then still avant-garde drum 'n' bass aesthetic. He also mixes on the albums One Half of a Whole Decade and Live & Remastered. Terry also used several aliases such as Hardhouse, Swan Lake, Orange Lemon, Royal House, and Black Riot. He has also recorded as CLS, Masters at Work (with Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez & "Little" Louie Vega), Dredd Stock, House of Gypsies, Limelife, Hard House, Tyme Forse, and the Gypsymen (where under that alias, scored a number-one Billboard Hot Dance/Club play hit in 1992 with "Hear the Music"). Terry co-produced the song "Shake" on P.M. Dawn's debut album, Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience. The song ended with the repeated lyric "Everyone thank Todd Terry". He also produced "The House of Isis" from Isis' 1990 album Rebel Soul. In October 2004, "Weekend" by the Todd Terry Project appeared in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on House Music radio station SF-UR.