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Todd Terry 1967 - now

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It was into this exciting and transitional environment that a young, would-be producer walked up to Vega and handed him a cassette. "This guy came up to the booth and said, 'My name is Todd Terry. I just wanted to give you these new jams.'" The night was drawing to a close, so Vega had a quick listen to the track that was about to turn Terry into New York's hottest house producer. "I was like, 'Wow! This is powerful!'" With its quick-fire sampling techniques and harder beats, 'Party People' introduced an edgy, hip hop aesthetic to the Chicago house sound, and Vega wasted little time in securing a reel-to-reel copy. "There was an instant reaction on the dance floor," he remembers. "I was playing 'Party People' six to nine months before it came out, so I got everybody into that sound."

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, Todd Terry's immortality as a dance icon is assured. - John Bush for http://allmusic.com

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Todd Terry brought sampling to house music with tracks like Royal House - Can You Party (1986/1987)

• - 'Running Away' - Roy Ayers (polydor) - " This Came Out In the early eighties. It's got one of those great choruses that always sticks in your mind and the bass is a good groove."
  
  
• - 'Mainline' - Black Ivory (mercury) - " Leroy Burgess Sang On This And The Group Was Rocking" Patrick Adams, Leroy Burgess
  
  
• - 'Aint Nobody' - Rufus & Chaka Kahn (warner bros.) - "This Brought Me Into A More Melodic Type Of Thing - A Funky Beat Type Vibe. I Definitely Play This Record Out."
  
  
• - 'Jingo' - Candido (salsoul) - " I Think This Came Out Around '81. A Friend Of Mine Was In A Record Pool And He Got Sent It And I Begged Him For It.......I Don't Think He Really Knew What It Was, Especially As It Was A White Label DJ Promo. He Wouldn't Have Given It To Me If He'd Have Known. It's A Latin Percussion Type Thing - No Verses."
  
  
• - 'Don't Make Me Wait' - Peech Boys (west end) - " This Came Out In 1980 although I didn't Get It Until A Couple Of Years Later. It Was A Big Record Both On The Radio And In The Clubs. The Singer, Bernard Fowler, was great; he rocks those kind of records."
  
• - 'Just Us' - Martha Wash (rca) - " This Came Out In '93 And Was A Remake Of An Old Song She Did - She Used To Be In A Group Called 'Two Tons Of Fun'. I Like This One More; It's Faster - The Old One Was Slow, 112 BPM, You Couldn't Mix It With Anything - This One Is Brought Up By 10% At Around 122 BPM."
  
  
• - 'Walking On Sunshine' - Central Line (mercury) - " This Came Out In The Early Eighties, It's Another Sunshine Record - I Like These Sunshine Records. Its Has That Dance Groove - Raw Sounds Over A Skippy Beat With A Swing To It. It's Not Really Straight, It's Like A Swing Groove. If I Am Playing In Florida, And If It's A Classic Set, I'll Play That." Larrry Levan mix!
  
  
• - 'Do I Do' - Stevie Wonder (mowtown) - " I Went Into A Store In Brooklyn And Bought This In The Early Eighties. He Made This A Club Record, Not A Radio Record. It Has Dizzy Gillespie On It - It's Like A Jam Session. Its Has A Go od Feel: Great Hooks And Lots Of Great Melodic Sounds."
  
  
• - 'Everybody Loves The Sunshine' - Roy Ayers (cbs) - " I believe This came out earlier ghan 'Running Away. It's a groovy type track. You can almost feel the high strings in it - It's a summer record."
  
  
• - 'Watching You' - Slave (coalition) - " This came out around 1983. It was like a New York roller skate record. Not that I roller skated - I didn't want to break my legs. I play this in a classic set."