The 8 best Juke and Footwork tracks of all time
Juke and Footwork
Chicago house accelerated past the point of comfort and handed to dancers. Ghetto house became juke became footwork: 160 BPM, chopped vocal fragments, and triplet kick patterns written to answer a dancer's feet in real time.
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Cajmere / Percolator
One bleeping figure, endlessly repeated, that became a genre's shared vocabulary. Thirty years of Chicago records quote it, and a whole category of track is still named after it.
DJ Deeon / Freak Like Me
Ghetto house at its most reduced: a drum pattern, a bassline and a chant. Deeon made records that cost nothing and worked on any system, which is why they travelled so far from Chicago.
RP Boo / Baby Come On
A white label built on an Ol' Dirty Bastard sample, and usually named as the first footwork track: the moment the beat stops being four-to-the-floor and starts answering a dancer instead.
Traxman / Footworkin on Air
A Chicago veteran demonstrating how much melody the format can carry. Traxman's crate-digging is the counter-argument to the idea that footwork is only rhythm and shouting.
DJ Nate / Hatas Our Motivation
Made on a phone-era budget and released to an audience that had no context for it. The strangest record on this list, and the one that convinced Europe something genuinely new was happening.
Jlin / Erotic Heat
Footwork detached from the dance entirely, by a producer from Gary who never made tracks for battles. Two singles on a compilation before any album: all the rhythmic complexity, none of the samples, and a completely personal result.
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