Funkadelic’s “(Not Just) Knee Deep” is the best dance song ever recorded, maybe even the best song ever recorded. Upon deployment on any floor, dancers and wallflowers alike compulsively blurt out ...

Juke Bounce Werk co-founder DJ Noir speaks to footwork originator DJ Clent and his son DJ Corey about the past, present and future of the impactful sound that has spread around the world Some are born ...

I'm a sucker for grass-roots electronic music scenes. Being in a part of the Midwest that is more defined by towns than cities, it's fascinating to me how the sounds and niches change from one place ...

After the sudden death of footwork’s most prominent artist – DJ Rashad – last year, the genre had to take stock. A year on older heads and new players are pushing Chicago’s rapid-fire sound to new ...

Launched in 2024 by a group of 160 BPM enthusiasts, Korea’s “only” footwork event is building a bridge between Chicago and Seoul – all while encouraging clubbers to get a sweat on Functions is our ...

We need to be upfront with you. The Reader is free. Producing it isn’t. And without your support, we can't continue. So we need you to chip in, even if it’s just a few bucks. The average donation is ...

RP Boo and the late DJ Rashad are widely regarded as the pioneers of footwork. They have toured around the world several times over, – DJ Rashad played in Europe as early as 2008 – and both have ...

Footwork is functional music at its core. It’s all in the name. Its purpose is to propel acrobatically nimble dancers into motion and send their feet flying. Drawing from the deep bowels of house and ...

I am at Battle Train Tokyo, the first official footwork dance tournament in Japan. It's being held at Kata, a gallery in the capital's Ebisu district. Sixteen dancers have signed up in the hope of ...

DJ Rashad hovers over his laptop at a Lit City Rave hosted by New York venue 285 Kent in fall 2012. Credit: Wills Glasspiegel Spinn had been looking forward to the festival for months, but, as he says ...