Ghettotech (also known as Detroit club) is a genre of
electronic music originating from
Detroit. It combines elements of Chicago's
ghetto house with
electro,
Detroit techno,
Miami bass.
Overview
Former Detroit music journalist for the
''Detroit Metro Times'', Hobey Echlin describes ghettotech as a genre that combines "techno's fast beats with rap's call-and-response." It features
four-on-the-floor rhythms and is usually faster than most other dance music genres, at roughly 145 to 160 BPM. Vocals are often repetitive, crude, and
pornographic. As DJ Godfather puts it, "the beats are really gritty, really raw, nothing polished."
[XLR8R TV Episode 13: Detroit Ghettotech. 14 Aug. 2007. .]
Ghettotech was born as a DJing style in the late 1980s, inspired by the eclecticism of
The Electrifying Mojo
The Electrifying Mojo (born Charles Johnson in Little Rock, Arkansas) is an American radio personality. He is a disc jockey based in Detroit, Michigan whose on-air journey of musical and social development shaped a generation of music-lovers in D ...
and the fast-paced mixing and turntablism of
Jeff "The Wizard" Mills. DJs would mix multiple genres including
jungle,
ghetto house,
hip hop,
R&B,
electro and
Detroit techno.
The music of
2 Live Crew
2 Live Crew is an American hip hop music, hip hop group from Miami, Florida, which had its greatest commercial success from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. The group's most well-known line up was composed of Luther Campbell, Luke Campbell, Fr ...
is also cited as influential to the genre.
A Detroit ghettotech style of dancing is called the jit. This dance style relies heavily on fast footwork combinations, drops, spins and improvisations. The roots of jit date back to Detroit
jitterbugs in the 1970s. Chicago's equivalent dance style is Juke, where the focus is on footwork dating back to the late 1980s.
Ghettotech was an integral part of the
Detroit Electronic Music Festival, an annual event.
Key record labels
*Twilight 76
*Databass
*Electrofunk
* Jefferson Ave
*Motor City Electro Company
* Intuit-Solar
References
Further reading
"Ghettotech, The Bluffer's Guide" article at Stylus Magazine.
article at Global Darkness.
"Ghetto tech"by Ethan Brown article.
*
External links
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{{House music-footer
Music of Detroit
Music of Chicago
Bass (sound)
House music genres