Issue # 9: The Boom & Bust Cycles of House and Club Music
“The underground and mainstream, they need each other. They feed off each other, and it's a constant cycle.”
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This is another reported story was originally queued to be published at a Mic who unfortunately recently laid off most of its editorial team, and I am choosing to share it here instead of trying to place it at another publication. This will not continue to happen this frequently, I just happen to have a backlog of unpublished material that I do not feel like shaping to another media establishment’s editorial voice after getting it to working shape. I may have a few more after this, but in general, I will try to keep this on a monthly clip, keeping people apprised of some of my work that I have been doing, as well as some brief original thoughts.
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On to the story.
The first half of 2022 came to a close with new releases from two of the biggest artists in the world: Drake and Beyoncé. Honestly, Nevermind and “Break My Soul,” respectively, have infected the zeitgeist with club- and house-influenced sounds that catapulted us into summer and onto the dance floor. They seem to be a sure sign of house music’s resurgence — though that’s not entirely surprising. House has always ebbed and flowed, dating back to its origins in Chicago’s queer music scene. Over the years, it has continued to be in dialogue with the mainstream, influencing and shaping popular sound from the margins . In the credits for Renaissance, Beyoncé attributes her introduction to the world of house music to her Uncle Jonny. “He was my godmother and the first person to expose me to a lot of the music and culture that serve as inspiration for this album,” she wrote on her website. “Thank you to all of the pioneers who originate culture, to all of the fallen angels whose contributions have gone unrecognized for far too long.” With one simple statement, Beyoncé crystallized the burgeoning moment of house renaissance we’re in and gave the genre’s originators their due.
These boom and bust cycles have happened every decade since the late 70s when Frankie Knuckles, Jesse Saunders and others from the upstart Trax Records formed the foundation that would explode into an international club phenomenon. In the early 90s, the dance takeover was led by Crystal Waters, CeCe Peniston, and Robin S, the latter of which “Break My Soul” invokes heavy influence in its artistic style. Home bases such as the legendary Club Zanzibar – home to Paris Dupree’s ball made famous in the film Paris is Burning — established the more soulful Jersey sound, with noted alums such as Larry Levan and David Morales taking up DJ residencies, the latter having collaborated with Mariah Carey on many of her late ‘90s and early aughts club remixes such as “Dreamlover,” “Fantasy (Sweet Dub Mix),” and “The Roof (Back in Time—Morales Funky Club Mix).” And of course it is impossible to talk about the Jersey scene without mentioning Whitney Houston, whose dance mixes are an entire disc of her Greatest Hits double album. Even the recent twenty-five year anniversary re-releases of Mariah’s Butterfly and Janet’s Velvet Rope albums both came with additional club mixes of iconic tracks — in short, if you are a diva worth your salt, you will enter the time-honored tradition of having your great works transformed and mixed for the thumping 808s of a club beat and a dance floor.
With the new millennium came the resurgence of hip-house – artists deftly rapping over house and club beats to make a fresh sonic experience that appealed to multiple Black demographics. Before Azealia Banks would storm the musical scene with her all-time classic offering of Broke With Expensive Taste, melding skillful raps to house production with enthralling vocal performances, the Baltimore club scene established a strong foothold at the vanguard of this wave – artists like Rye Rye with 2006’s “Shake It To The Ground,” and even faster paced and frenetic Jersey Club rap with more contemporary artists like BadManrill. As Lawrence Burney pointed out in a recent story for Vulture, “Baltimore club’s mid-to-late-2000s run enjoyed a level of global impact that artists and fans of the city’s present-day scene are desperately longing to experience for themselves.” And indeed, that is easily seen in Rye Rye’s trademark “what” being repeatedly looped throughout Drake’s “Currents.”
We can credit a confluence of factors with helping create the current fertile ground for mainstream house music and all of its derivatives. There’s the looming recession — an economic state that historically correlates with music oriented toward the dance floor and a renewed interest in the club scene . But even before inflation became everyone’s least-favorite buzzword, artists started dipping their toes back into the house pool. Cardi B and Megan thee Stallion’s 2020 mega-hit “WAP” was anchored around a loop of the classic ‘90s Baltimore club hit by Frank Ski, “Whores in This House.” The popularity of shows rooted in queer culture, like Pose and My House, gave way for projects like HBO Max’s Legendary, a voguing competition show that heavily features the house-influenced subculture of ballroom music. Producer and DJ Kaytranada’s one-of-a-kind collaborations, remixes, and parties are not only prominent in the mainstream, but highly sought-after experiences, with notable standouts such as his mix of Teedra Moses’s “Be Your Girl;” Staten Island-raised DJ ACraze would have similar success with the release of “Do It To It (Feat. Cherish).”
TikTok’s growth during the pandemic was also a boon for the house resurgence. Its core function as a tech apparatus aligned with the best trends in club production. “Taking these little tidbits from the internet or pop culture, and just kind of making a crazy concoction out of this shit,” Burney pointed out in conversation with Mic. “That is the basis of club music culture.” Jersey artist Cookie Kawaii had an early breakout hit on the application with the engrossing-but-brief “Vibe(If I Back It Up),” with over 1 million TikTok videos being created to her song later translating into nearly 100 million Spotify streams. “Drake wouldn’t even have made ‘Sticky’ if he didn't hear Shake Dhat,”Burney added. “People keep talking about like ‘Sticky’ is Jersey – no, ‘Sticky’ is Philly.” Not only is the song a Philly club record by Zahsosaa and DSturdy of the Philly Goats, it became a trending sound on TikTok. “I was affirmed in that because Drake actually linked up with those kids recently in the club and was dancing with them.” In an interview with Okayplayer, Philly producer Jabril Evans expressed his lack of surprise that popular trends found the current Jersey and Philly club scenes appealing. “Everybody loves to dance,” Evans shared. “It’s not like sad stuff that people are used to. It’s a new time, and it feels new to everything on TikTok and that’s why the people love it.” Now, superstar and Philly native Lil Uzi Vert has joined the wave, working with Synthetic and Jersey club producer MCVertt to drop his newest track, the sickeningly trip-inducing two minute synth-heavy ride, “Just Wanna Rock”, which initially broke on Tik-Tok.
No discussion of contemporary house is complete, of course, without acknowledging the transformations and innovations taking place by artists in South Africa. The country has established a dynamic afro-house sound and more recently, amapiano, taking the Western world by storm. Drake is no stranger to playing with South African trends – he collaborated with Black Coffee on his 2017 project More Life, refashioning the popular South African DJ’s 2008 house anthem "Superman" alongside Jorja Smith for “Get It Together” – but it was the hard-fought efforts of South African DJs based in the United States who worked to create an avenue for the genre to flourish as they brought the newest hits in from across the Atlantic, such as Kadija Bah, also known as DJ AQ. “I would go up to a DJ and be like ‘yo, do you have any South African tracks?’ They would play the oldest shit in the book, child,” she tells Mic. “I love me some Brenda Fassie [whose solo albums were released in the ‘90s and 2000s] but come on.”
DJ AQ began actively incorporating South African house music into her sets across the city, making mixes and throwing braais – South African barbecues – with her South African-led collective, Tropical Jawn, in Brooklyn Bridge Park to introduce people to the cultural scene, going full-time in 2019 with the support of longtime friends such as Everyday People and Dreamville Records’ DJ mOma. “I was in the street one day, and I just heard South African music blasting out of a radio station. I was like, ‘Oh my fucking gosh, is that 105.1 playing South African music?’” she recalls. Indeed it was; Master KG’s hit “Jerusalema” had taken over in 2020. There were also key songs that helped propel the momentum of amapiano in the club scene – Juls’ “Soweto Blues,” De Mogul SA’s “Oe Batla Kae,” Pencil & Zingmaster’s “Tshwara,” and Kwiish SA’s ”Iskhathi” are good examples. AQ adds, “TikTok really blew it out the water,” with songs like Goya Menor & Nektunez’ “Ameno Amapiano Remix” and Busta 9292’s “Gqoz Gqoz” becoming viral on the app. Within her label selectHer, she works to educate people on the rise of amapiano and qgom and its distinctions as well as a separate weekly show on Rise Radio, as someone who was essential to establishing its presence and foundation stateside.
Club music has also had a consistent wave in the Latinx scene in recent years. Karol G is currently sitting at Number 4 in the Hot Latin Songs Chart with the Afro-House record “Provenza”, produced by Ovy on the Drums, and international superstar Bad Bunny has been injecting house trends into music, notably in the track “El Apagón” off of his chart-topping album Un Verano Sin Ti, which is currently getting attention for the political messaging in support of the issues facing Puerto Rico in the music video. In July 2021, J Balvin and Skrillex sampled Classic ‘90s Latin House Hit "In de Ghetto” by David Morales (featuring vocals from none other than Crystal Waters) for “In da Ghetto,” and club mixes of J Balvin and El Alfa’s 2019 collaboration with Major Lazor for “Que Calor” are common crowd pleasers. If Miami-based duo Black V Neck’s recent release, “Tego” is any indication – sampling Tego Calderon’s classic “Pa’ Qe Retozen” — there is much more to come.
Time will tell how long this current wave will last; the hope is, however, that while it is currently burning bright on the dance floor, the artists who are both responsible and essential for some of the biggest hits and innovations will be able to reap some of the benefits. It seems to already be happening: Rye Rye is working to get credited for her sample on “Currents” and Robin S is getting overwhelmed with novel inquiries to engage with her 90s hit, post “Break My Soul.” “I’ve always wanted club music to have its moment, but it’s had its moment. It’s had a lot of moments, “Burney points out, who has always seen club music as a counterculture. “Something made a turn for the worse when Chicago blew up so crazy off of Chief Keef because every scene uses that as a measuring stick of how ‘on’ their city is…you set yourself up for failure when you think that’s the only way to track progress for a scene, as a big splash.” In this respect, I am inclined to agree, recalling a recent quote from AfroPunk Festival cofounder and filmmaker James Spooner in an interview with Melissa Harris-Perry: “The underground and mainstream, they need each other. They feed off each other, and it's a constant cycle.”