The first thing I chopped was a [jazz fusion group] Return To Forever jam. Was there an old Roland sampler, the MS something? Whatever. It was big, it was grey, it had a red button on it. I chopped up ...

Jah Shaka’s legendary dubs, spiritual message and chest-rattling soundsystem have come to symbolize a deeper meaning in sound. Coming from Jamaica to London in the late ’50s, Jah Shaka’s young life ...

The Red Bull Music Academy couch has played host to many great musical minds, but few can touch the late Don Buchla. A true pioneer in the field of electronic music, Buchla started producing his first ...

Growing up in New York City in the ’70s, Louis Flores came to hip-hop like so many other Latino kids his age: by rushing to contribute as it sprung up around him, first as a dancer and then as a DJ ...

You’ll have to look at the small print on records to find the name of Russell Elevado, but be assured he’s there, on some of the most innovative soul records of the ’90s and ’00s. As engineer, ...

Dave Smith is a synthesizer designer and tech visionary of the highest order. He created the first polyphonic synth, the Prophet-5, which has become the obsession of everyone from Parliament to Arcade ...

Trevor Horn started small and became huge. He spent his early career as a session musician, playing bass on cheap and nasty albums of hits covers, before producing mostly forgotten sides by John ...

Erykah Badu is a legend and perhaps the most capricious artist in modern soul. Hailed the queen of neo-soul on her arrival in 1997, with the multiplatinum Baduizm, she shrugged off the apparent demise ...

Chez Damier has devoted his life to dance music. After starting out in Chicago, he set up fabled Detroit nightclub the Music Institute with Derrick May and Alton Miller, looked after the business ...

Bernie Worrell first came to prominence as a founding member and musical director of Parliament-Funkadelic, radically charting the course of emerging keyboard technology during the golden age of ...

Hardly known a year before, Clams Casino finished 2011 as the name on everyone’s lips. His work with A$AP Rocky pushed him there, but before that he’d been making ...

The Arabian Prince has been making robots shake their shit since the early ’80s, producing his own tracks and playing live shows with the Egyptian Lover, World Class Wreckin’ Cru and the LA Dream Team ...