04/28/2025
I went to my first club event in 1996. I was instantly hooked by the unique vibe, atmosphere & feeling of belonging I had when dancing with a packed crowd. I felt like I had arrived. At the time I fell in love with the sounds & flava’ of house music, progressive house, tech house & what was then called “euro trance” that was being pounded out the speakers of clubs in Manhattan like Twilo, Soundfactory, Limelight, Exit & Vinyl (which later became Arc) circa 98’ - 2002. Being the good addict I am, I was 💯 hooked. At 16 going every weekend sometimes all weekend & other spots during the week like Centrofly, the pyramid etc. I would go to Tower Records in the city and and cop the latest grooves & to this day I remember the logo being synonymous with sick house music that was always in my deck shout out to & that entire crew for paving the way, always raising the bar & being an inspiration for myself and others. In 98’ we went down to the South Jersey Expo Center to a “massive” (what we used to call large scale capacity raves) thrown by this crew from Philly called “Local 13” who was notorious for throwing huge shows with excellent professionalism. So we went down to this party (which FYI was called “Whistle”) & there were 14,000 fu***ng ravers & club heads in the South Jersey Expo Center. Just like those “Nirvana” moments I had experienced on the dance floors in the clubs & raves in NYC… What I loved the most was,this was pre 2000 and we were doing it right! It didn’t matter if you were black, white, gay, straight, purple, green, in a wheel chair whatever, if you were there u were special. These were special times, special events and I’m grateful to have been apart of that era. Moving forward, I bought my first pair of Technic’s in 2000. I started Funky Element Productions LTD in 2001. We threw small & large scale events in clubs & warehouses all over NYC. Fast forward to 2011, we stopped throwing shows & focused specifically on music, Funky Element Records is born. Me sober since 2006 pays off with a top ten & two #1 best selling tracks in one year. Now 2025, the question is, can we do it again?
