DJ Rush

Few names in Chicago house carry the weight of DJ Rush, the stage name of Isaiah Major, born on 9 January 1970 and raised on the city's south side. Rush came up through the early Chicago techno scene, and his sound moved from house roots toward a harder, more minimal idiom, which places him within hard techno. He describes his own approach as 'Hard Energy', a blend that now pulls in jazz, disco and soul, and he sometimes DJs and MCs at the same time.

His run of milestones started in Chicago clubs such as the Music Box, the Powerhouse and the Warehouse, where he played sets lasting up to ten hours, and in 1989 he began the Gaucho party in a friend's garage. His debut single, 'Knee Deep', came out on Trax Records in 1991. After moving to Berlin in 1996, he broke across Europe in 1998 with 'Motherfucking Bass', and with Tina Panitzke he founded the booking agency and label Kne'Deep. In 2001 he replaced Jeff Mills as Groove magazine's readers' most popular DJ. Having moved to the Algarve around 2016, he continues to perform internationally, from Tresor and Awakenings to Tomorrowland and Sziget.