Then what do you think about someone like Ron Carroll saying "House Music is Dead"?

I can understand why he said that. The core of it is not dead, but the name - I don't really associate with it anymore because so many people have taken it and bastardized it and turned it into something I don't even know anymore. It's not even from me anymore. What a lot of people are making and marketing as House now doesn't fit the criteria of what the core is. It's fixated and one thing, not the amalgamation that it really is. It's mechanical, and that's not real.

Part of that is due to the marketing machine out here. Part of it is due to the people who don't know what it is trying to market it or whatever. But the core of it is still alive and doing very well. It's going through the changes that it's always going through, whether we're talking about jazz, latin, afrobeat - all these things that are the core of what House music, dance music, has always been throughout time. It's not about the genre, it's about the feeling. Same with the dance, it's about what you feel.

Now don't get me wrong. There's a frequency that happens on the dancefloor. For instance, in New York, for about the first year, I might get out for a little while and do my thing, but really I'd sit back watching because there's a vibration there. They're doing some of the wildest shit and you'd think you were watching an Alvin Ailey performance, but they're not even touching. If you ain't got that vibration, you can come in and immediately fuck it up. And I know from being out there and having someone come in that's not on the right frequency and messing up the whole thing and they [the dancers] are fierce about it. They'll knock you right on out, 'cause the thing is, a lot of these people have been dancing since 1975 doin' their shit. For them, this is their sanctuary, their sacred space, and if you ain't ready for the temple [laughs]...you need to cleanse yourself!

You gotta get baptized before you can preach...

And that's real shit. So everything takes time and people want things right away, instant gratification. Instant DJ, instant dancer. No. Things take time to perfect and that's really the bottom line but some people think they can doubletime shit. "I got what you got in doubletime. It took me half as long and I'm your equal as a dancer, DJ, producer..." but that's not the case. Things take time. There are kids from the Powerplant/Warehouse era who can get out there and groove and fit right in out in New York, but now those who came after or never experienced that are just putting out this aggressive kind of thing versus finesse. And as time has gone on, it's gotten more aggressive. So now when people who understand that finesse frequency dance, it turns into a show and the spotlight comes out and that's some country shit.

Some people might think I'm being elitist or a snob or whatever. It's not that. I just know better. And what am I supposed to do - lower my standards? That doesn't fly in school, so why here?

Unfortunately, I think there's a lot of the Willie Lynch "divide and conquer" mentality permeating our House culture. So if we use any criteria for judgment, discerning quality from garbage, we are told that we're elitist or condescending or alienating.

And you know this - another thing the supposed Old School tactics taught (though I hate to use that term) is that it forced you to be on point. Back then, if your shit wasn't correct and wasn't official, then motherfuckers would let you know and you would immediately feel like you had to get your shit together. "I need to do my homework or brush up on something." You could feel it. That's something I kind of miss about the '80s. People were big on being individuals and now we just follow trends, i.e. people who follow "House". They follow the moniker without knowing much about it really.

You mean like "knowing House" but never thinking The Clash would fit into a Hardy set, or what break of certain songs are the heat, not the hype?

You know! I mean I hate to keep bringing up the New York thing but that's why they have a strong, fortifiable scene and market for what they have. They kept the story going and not just the little pieces of what they really don't know - like people talking about "back in the day" and they weren't even there. It gives them appeal to others, but it's the blind leading the dumb. It's a shame. It's destroying the scene here.

The way I figure, only so many people of a certain demographic would have really been at LaRay's. I was in my pre-teens and too young to get in. Growing up on it is different from being there, which is different from learning about it, don't you think?

I was too young too, and I'm 33. I didn't go to the original Warehouse. I got reports but you talk to people younger than us and they'll try to tell you about the Muzik Box or "back in the day" at the Power Plant. I know about three DJs who went to Ron Hardy's funeral - myself, Terry Hunter and Armando, and John who drove us there. The rest were some of the staff from the Muzik Box, 'cause it was down in Springfield. I've had so many people come up and tell me they were there, telling me shit that I know didn't happen. He [Ron Hardy] was actually the first DJ I ever heard in about 1984-85, and it was at a Mendell party, and the only reason I got in was a nextdoor neighbor's brother was able to get me in 'cause I had a moustache. It really blew my mind. I got to talk to him a couple times after that. He told me he played my track and that blew my mind, too. You know, he was really a hero of mine.