Ghetto house fuses Chicago house with punchy claps, crude catchy lyrics and bass-heavy arrangements

Ghetto house is a Chicago dance style that fuses traditional Chicago house with punchy claps, smutty but catchy lyrics, and vocal samples — music DJ Deeon described as being ‘for the strippers, for the street’. It grew out of Chicago’s South Side: Deeon began by booming bass through housing-project parties and selling DJ mixtapes in parking lots, then produced his own tracks after acquiring a Roland TR-606 drum machine and a TB-303. The signature is rhythmic, bass-heavy arrangements with a raw, improvised MC style. Acceptance was slow — clubs were late to catch on, so Deeon threw his own gymnasium parties — but the sound went on to imprint on contemporary club music worldwide, making Deeon the ‘godfather of ghetto house’.

Examples

DJ Deeon’s 1994 ‘House-O-Matic’ (Funk City EP, Dance Mania) is a classic: four-to-the-floor kick, punchy claps, bass, and crude vocal samples — the ghetto house blueprint.

Assessment

Name three production/vocal elements that characterise ghetto house versus mainstream Chicago house, and name the two Roland machines DJ Deeon used to start producing.