In late October on the Mad Decent blog, Dirty South Joe of the New Jersey DJ collective Brick Bandits posted about a crew of Chicago DJs and producers calling themselves Ghetto Division. He said they were “creating their own lane in the club music game” and posted seven tracks by members Charlie Glitch, D-51, Maddjazz, and DJ Rob 3, aka Rob Threezy.
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Those factors, combined with fact that all seven tracks were bangers, got people buzzing. Writers and editors I know in New York, including my friend Julianne Shepherd at the Fader, got in touch to ask me what I knew about Ghetto Division. I said I had no idea—it was like they’d come out of nowhere.
It’s also a little weird to see club-music artists coming out of Chicago. Club music is Baltimore’s signature sound, but it’s never traveled far—the only other places with significant scenes are New Jersey (mostly Jersey City and Newark) and Philadelphia, where it’s known by the equally unhelpful name “party music.” Until 2000 or so, when Diplo and other genre-straddling DJs started adding it to their sets, most people had never heard it.
“I was 15 and going to my first raves,” Herrera says, “and I knew the sound. I thought, oh, what if I combine breaks and B-more and Philly and Chicago house and what I know? And mash it up with a little bassline and dubstep? That’s a new genre! It’s not even a genre, I think. I’m just making my own style.”
