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Teklife (commonly stylized as Teklife57) is an electronic
music collective Musical collective is a phrase used to describe a group of musicians in which membership is flexible and creative control is shared.Liisa Ladouceur"Collective Souls" ''This Magazine'', November/December 2004. The concept is distinct from that of ...
and
record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...
from
Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. The group was founded by Rashad Harden (
DJ Rashad Rashad Hanif Harden (October 9, 1979 – April 26, 2014), known as DJ Rashad, was a Chicago-based electronic musician, producer and DJ known as a pioneer in the footwork genre and founder of the Teklife crew. He released his debut studio ...
) and Morris Harper (DJ Spinn) in 2011 in the city's suburbs, but rapidly gained traction among international audiences for pioneering the
dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...
genre
footwork Footwork may refer to: * Footwork (cricket) *Footwork (dance) *Footwork (genre), a genre of electronic music, also known as juke *Footwork (martial arts) Footwork is a martial arts and combat sports term for the general usage of the legs and ...
(also known as Chicago juke), a sped-up derivation
Ghetto house Ghetto house or booty house is a subgenre of house music which started being recognized as a distinct style from around 1992 onwards. It features minimal 808 and 909 drum machine-driven tracks and sometimes sexually explicit lyrics. The templat ...
which itself had been a local flavour of
house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...
.


Etymology

As early as 2003, the group began releasing music as GhettoTeknitianz (shortened to GhettoTekz) with members identifying as Architeks. The name was later changed to Teklife in 2011, when some members of the group raised concerns over "losing opportunities from the word "Ghetto" in their name". A 2016 study titled "The Sonic Ecology of Footwork" suggests that the term "Teknitian" implies a desire for the music to be viewed "as a means of production for an "urban ecology" ..that is manufactured in the relations between dance, sound, territory, race, and class". The number 57 is often featured as reference to the longtime collaboration with French
visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...
and close friend of the group
Ashes57


History


Early years

The group's founders met as teenagers in 1995 during their time at
Thornwood High School Thornwood High School is a public high school located in South Holland, Illinois, United States. It was built as part of Thornton Township High School District 205. It opened in 1971 to accommodate overcrowding at other District 205 schools, Tho ...
, when Harper had first noticed Harden mixing at the Markham Roller Rink alongside fellow Teklife veteran DJ Gant-Man. They bonded over music production with a particular focus on sampling on an
MPC MPC, Mpc or mpc may refer to: Astronomy * Megaparsec (Mpc), unit of length used in astronomy * Minor Planet Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory ** ''Minor Planet Circulars'' (MPC, M.P.C. or MPCs), astronomical publication from the Minor ...
as much of the music they listened to at house parties was being released by Dance Mania Records. The label, whose roster included Gant-Man, had been particularly known for remixing popular tracks through a time-stretching technique of layering sampled vocals over a faster tempo averaging around 140 beat per minute, translating into what was the era's ghetto house movement. Rashad and Spinn became involved with other members in the late 1990s and early 2000s at the Battlegroundz on 87th street in
South Side, Chicago The South Side is one of the three major sections of the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Geographically, it is the largest of the sections of the city, with the other two being the North and West Sides. It radiates and lies south o ...
, where
footwork Footwork may refer to: * Footwork (cricket) *Footwork (dance) *Footwork (genre), a genre of electronic music, also known as juke *Footwork (martial arts) Footwork is a martial arts and combat sports term for the general usage of the legs and ...
dancers faced off against one another to the beats produced and played by the duo. Many members that later joined the collective like DJ Earl and DJ Taye had been or continue to be dancers from the Battlegroundz. House had long been the music of choice played at these events until Ghetto House emerged on the scene as dancers expressed a desire for faster rhythms. Eventually, dancers requested something even faster, "something crazy, something unexpecte

as DJ Rashad recalled in an interview with Red Bull Music Academy in 2011, so they implemented the syncopated rhythms and 160 BPM standard tempo; both qualities which have now become staples of the footwork genre. In parallel, the release of RP Boo's "Baby Come On" in 1997 is often cited as one of the earliest juke tracks; a sub genre of ghetto house and direct predecessor to footwork. Today, the terms juke and footwork are used interchangeably. The collective gained international recognition in 2010 on the release of ''Bangs & Works Vol. 1 (A Chicago Footwork Compilation)'' on British record label
Planet Mu Planet Mu is an English electronic music record label created and run by Mike Paradinas. The label started out as a subsidiary of Virgin Records then Paradinas set up the label independent of Virgin. After releasing intelligent dance music, the ...
, which served as a spark for the formation of Teklife in 2011. In 2013, DJ Rashad released his debut album '' Double Cup'' on
Kode9 Steve Goodman, known as Kode9 (born 1973) is a Scottish electronic music artist, DJ, and founder of the Hyperdub record label. He was one of the founding members of the early dubstep scene with his late collaborator The Spaceape. He has releas ...
's London-based
Hyperdub __NOTOC__ Hyperdub is a British electronic music record label and former webzine based in London, founded by Kode9, Steve Goodman, a.k.a. Kode9. The label was formed in 2004, and grew out of the UK's early dubstep scene. Artists signed to the l ...
record label, which was met with critical appraise. Reverberations of the same sound that Rashad pioneered can now be felt across the world, with footwork becoming a popular style for producers and dancers as far as Japan and parts of Russia. The Battlegroundz format has also been replicated overseas, such as in Tokyo as Battle Train. The collective itself has subsequently grown to include members from outside Chicago like
DJ Paypal DJ Paypal is a footwork producer. Born in North Carolina, they reside in Berlin and are a member of the Teklife crew. They have often performed live with their face hidden for reasons of anonymity. Their 2015 debut album, ''Sold Out'', was release ...
, and from a variety of countries such as Slick Shoota from Oslo, Norway and Feloneezy from Belgrade, Serbia.


Teklife Records

Teklife Records was formed in July 2015, a little over a year after DJ Rashad's unexpected death left many in shock and mourning at the loss of one of the genre's innovators. ''Afterlife'', the label's first release, is a posthumous compilation of tracks by DJ Rashad and his collaborations with other Teklife members–most of which had been left unfinished or unreleased by the time of his passing.


Discography


Albums

* DJ Rashad, ''Afterlife'' (2016) * DJ Earl, ''Open Your Eyes'' (2016) * Taso, ''New Start'' (2016) * DJ Manny, ''Greenlight'' (2017) * Traxman, ''Tekvision'' (2017) * Heavee, ''WFM'' (2018) * Traxman, ''Tekvision Vol. 2'' (2019) * Boylan, ''Renegade'' (2019) * Sirr Tmo, ''Juke Me Baby'' (2020) * Gant-Man, ''Distorted Sensory'' (2021) * Slick Shoota, ''Function'' (2021)


Compilations

* ''Teklife VIP'' (2016) * ''On Life'' (2017) * ''On Life Vol. 2'' (2018) * ''Teklife VIP XX'' (2020) * ''On Life Vol. 3'' (2022)


Members


See also

*
List of electronic music record labels This is a list of notable electronic music record labels: 0–9 * 3 Beat Records * 12k * 430 West Records * 8bitpeoples A–C D–F G–L M–O P–S T–Z See also {{portal, Record production * List of record labels * List of indep ...
* The Era (dance crew) *
Chicago house Chicago house refers to house music produced during the mid to late 1980s within Chicago. The term is generally used to refer to the original house music of DJs and producers from the area, such as Ron Hardy and Phuture History and origins D ...


References


External links


Official site

Teklife Discogs
{{Authority control Electronic music record labels American record labels