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Kirk Degiorgio

Kirk Degiorgio was born in Stepney, East London in the late 60's. Raised in a family who loved a wide range of music - and one which could claim a hugely famous pop-star cousin in Marc Bolan of T-Rex - Kirk got early exposure to music from artists such as Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Sly Stone, Roxy Music, etc. His mother Janet Feld was a young 'mod' who devoutly followed The Kinks, The Who, etc around the venues of London.

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Carl Craig

Carl Craig is a Detroit-based producer of techno music, and is considered to be one of the most important names in the Detroit second generation of techno producers and DJs. Like many of his peers, Carl Craig has approached techno using inspiration from a wide range of musical genres, including jazz and soul. Carl Craig has released many successful albums under a large number of aliases, such as BFC, Psyche, Paperclip People, 69, Designer Music and Innerzone Orchestra.

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Moodymann

Moodymann is the moniker under which Kenny Dixon Jr produces and DJs. He is a techno/house musician based in Detroit. He has created a thoroughly hybrid form of techno/house dance music via his innovative use of reworked riffs, samples and grooves taken from that city's historically influential jazz, soul, funk and disco scene. Some call it cut-up Detroit house. He offers a friendly wink backwards at the innovative early 1990s rave scene musicians through his extensive use of old movie sound track samples, mainly culled from the old blaxploitation and b-movie genres.

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Derrick May

Derrick May, also known as Mayday and Rhythim Is Rhythim, is an electronic musician from Belleville, Michigan U.S.A. He was born an only child in Detroit in 1963 and began to explore electronic music early in his life. Along with his Belleville, Michigan high school friends Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson, commonly known as the Belleville Three, May is credited with developing the futuristic variation on house music that would be dubbed "techno" by Atkins.

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Phat Kat

Phat Kat (a.k.a. Ronnie Cash), (b. Ronnie Watts) is a rapper from the east side of Detroit. His career began in the mid 90's as part of 1st Down, which consisted of Phat Kat on vocals and Jay Dee on production. The group was short lived however, possibly because of insufficient support/promotion from their label, Payday, but the two continued to collaborate on many occasions afterwards, starting with an appearance on "Fat Cat Song" and it's remix, from Slum Village's Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol. 1). He also appeared on Jay Dee's Welcome 2 Detroit on the song "Featuring Phat Kat".

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Rick Wade

One of Detroit's best kept secrets, Rick Wade has been producing late night tracks and tapping into the essence of deepness since the '90's. Known for their universal appeal and appearing on over 20 different labels worldwide, soulful, timeless grooves are his signature. Growing up in Buchanan MI, 1 hour outside of Chicago he was influenced by Chicago radio station WBMX and the Salsoul material and local stations that played the likes of Al Green and Isaac Hayes. Rick remembers:

Kenny Larkin

Profile: With the deluge of techno artists from all over the world making headlines, it's easy (although very wrong) to forget that techno was created in Detroit, Michigan by African-American visionaries like Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins and Derrick May. From there Kenny Larkin began his music career in 1990 after serving two years in the U.S. Air Force, where he was repairing computers. Hanging out at local Detroit clubs like The Music Institute and The Shelter, he soon hooked up with Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva records under a variety of monikers, including Dark Comedy, Pod and Yennek.

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Black Milk

There are multiple artists with this name: Black Milk, is a hip hop producer and MC Curtis Cross from Detroit, Michigan. In 2004 he formed B.R. Gunna with Young RJ, and Fat Ray, and together they released Dirty District: Vol. 2, a follow up to a compilation released in 2001 by Slum Village, which he had contributed production to. Black Milk released a solo album, Sound of the City, the following year and in 2006 he signed a record contract with Fat Beats Records. In the fall of 2006, he released an EP, entitled Broken Wax. March 13, 2007 he released a second album, Popular Demand.

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Kevin Saunderson

Kevin Saunderson (born in Brooklyn, New York on May 9, 1964) is an American electronic music producer. At the age of nine he moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he attended Belleville High School and befriended two students, Derrick May and Juan Atkins. Saunderson, with Atkins and May, (often called the "Belleville Three"), is considered to be one of the originators of techno, specifically Detroit techno.

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