Terry Hunter was a man on a mission in 2009, burying DJs in an avalanche of hot tracks. His Mass Destruction collaborations with Kenny Dope and the blast of nine releases on his T's Box label made Terry, for us, the Producer of the Year.

After a quiet 2008, T's Box came on strong in 2009 with 9 releases, including "No It Wasn't Love", "Can't Control Me", "Muzik", and "Model Citizen". In addition to this, he also released a number of smash records with Mass Destruction, including "Get 'Em High" (featuring Mr. V) and "Somehow, Someway" (featuring Lidell Townsell).

Basically: a new production, featuring the top vocalists in House Music today, damn near every month the whole year long.

"This year, if I wasn't playing, I was in the studio," Terry says. "No hangin' around - just letting the music do the talking. I set out to build a profile with T's Box this year. It meant not being at every party and putting off a lot of things I would have liked to do. But this is what we do. We need to quit talkin' so much, quit worrying what the other guy's doing. We need to shut up and just make music!

"Kenny [Dope] and I are more than just collaborators. We're family. He's the godfather to my son. We have such a good time when we get together that when we were coming down to decide what would be on the Mass Destruction album, we were looking at 50 to 60 tracks! In the end we broke it down to 3 other projects as well. There's a project of soulful stuff, a project with kind of an '80s sound, almost like early Chicago tracks. And a disco/soul album that will be released in 2010.

"We also sat down to work with Marshall Jefferson, so get this: it's Marshall Jefferson, Kenny Dope and myself with Byron Stingily on vocals. It almost sounds like Ten City circa 1987 or 1988 meets a 2010 Kenny Dope/Terry Hunter track. You can hear that in 2010 as well.

"I don't do this alone, though, so I want to give a shout out to Goran and the Rosehip Fam, Nicole Palumbo, The baddest Enig, Joey Fernandez, Leonard Pt Sixx, James Edwards, The Chosen Few, Violator DJs, Kenny Dope, Jazzy Jeff, DJ V Dub, Mike Dunn, Emanuel, Dizz, Gene Hunt, Glenn Underground, and the rest of my chi-town fam."

Other producers that received consideration for our Producer of the Year 2009 included Lil Louis, Roy Davis, Peven Everett, Johnny Fiasco, Andre Harris, Ron Carroll, Stacy Kidd and Mike Dunn.

 

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:: posted dec 1 by terry matthew in features, best of chicago house 2009, december 2009 issue

:: related articles Blackstory: "No It Wasn't Love" May 2009 Terry Hunter pres. TnT - "Can't Control Me" February 2009 Headhunter: "Muzik" September 2009