House music – identified by hard-hitting, deep bass rhythms and relentlessly pulsating synthesizer melodies – is the brainchild of the Chicago underground music scene and club DJs (such as DJ Wayne Williams, Alan King and the late, great Frankie Knuckles).
Every year in Chicago, tens of thousands of “House Heads” gather together to celebrate the genre at a music festival known as the Chosen Few Picnic — also affectionately known as “Black Woodstock.”
As official media sponsor for this year’s event, which takes place over the July 4 weekend on 63rd and Hayes Drive, JET thought it’d be fun to dig through the crates and take a little journey down memory lane, paying homage to house music and its long-reaching influence since it emerged in the 1980s.
Let’s take a look at a few artists who have clearly been bitten by the house music bug. Don’t blame us if you start chair dancing.
Jungle Brothers “I’ll House You” (1989)
This hip-hop group pioneered the fusion of jazz and hip-hop and was one of the first to use a house music producer. The single, “I’ll House You,” from their first album Straight Out The Jungle is widely known for being the first house song recorded outside of the Chicago music scene.
