You co-produced Frankie Knuckles' first recording in 1987, "You Can't Hide". How did this come about?

Frankie and Ronnie were both very inspirational to me, and they were both very supportive. They knew me from Importes and they knew I didn't give them any bunk records. I tried to give them the best music. And when I started making music, even before "Jack Trax" came out, I did some remixes. I did a remix of "Love Thang" by First Choice, put it on reel-to-reel and gave it to Frankie and Ronnie and they played it. I had little things I put together on my Casio keyboard with my Dr. Rhythm drum machine and they'd play those tracks. It was a sounding board. I didn't have access to the types of crowds that they had, of people who were very open to music.

So I wanted to give back to them. When I started making music, I pretty much dragged them into the studio. With Frankie it took about two years! I started doing music in '85 and it took me until '87 to finally drag him in. I was like "Frankie, you know music. You know what turns a crowd on. You need to get into a studio and produce some music." And he finally came in and we did a song together.

With Ronnie, it was kind of the same thing. I was working with this guy named Harri Dennis, Larry Heard and Robert Owens. We were doing this song "Donnie". We played an early version at the Music Box and Ronnie dug it and was like "Man, everybody loves this song." I said we were going into the studio to record it for real, so why not come in and mix it? He said, "I don't know how to do that." But it's just a bunch of knobs and buttons - we'll show you what to push. It's nothing you won't feel. So he came in and had a good time and definitely added to the record.

Who from that era do you think never got the attention that they deserve? I've heard you mention Andre Hatchett's name before and he's a big part of the DVD.

We did a whole section on Andre with clips from SummerDance. Andre is definitely one of the unspoken heroes of House Music. Leonard Remix Rroy - he's another big name. He's one of the guys that was starting to do early House Music, but then he joined the army. He signed up to serve his country when the music was taking off, so he never got the fame and recognition he deserved. Leonard was definitely House. Farley said Leonard was the first person he ever heard use the term "House Music". Leonard would sometimes take cartoon music like Inspector Gadget and throw beats behind it and remix it and play it at The Playground or The Candy Store (the same venue, but a different name). He also played at a club called the Rink Zone on 87th Street. It was a skating rink and on certain nights they'd turn it into a dance club. Leonard gave me a lot of my first opportunities to DJ at that club. He was incredibly creative, especially with creating music and doing tricks on the turntables. A lot of DJs were doing what's called "triples" where you can make something go by three times. Leonard was making "eights" - he could make something go by eight times. Before the Farley Jackmaster Funks of the world, there was Leonard Remix Rroy doing his remixes and his scratching. Just an incredible guy.

Another is Sherman "Shockin'" Oliver. He was another guy playing the Mendell circuit and doing the club parties. Another guy who for one reason or another stepped to the side and didn't get the recognition he deserved.

What we call "House" seems like a cyclical thing, like every generation finds it and makes it their own. You start with disco, then a few years later it's House, and then in the 1990s with Cajmere and his labels, the rave scene took off . . .

I think you hit it there. Once the young people start getting into it - you know, Cajmere was a little bit younger than us. He was appropriate for the 1990s and he was right there. House Music is not something you can do in a vacuum. You've got to be right there. You've got to have your pulse beating in time with the pulse in the street.

It's time for the "Third Coming", if you will. It's time for somebody who's out in the clubs right now, who's there almost every night, who's feelin' it and knows what their peers are feelin' to step up and start making their own music, or maybe making their own videos or writing their own zine - who knows? But it's time for somebody to really bring it back to life again and resurrect it again.

Do you think got the truth?

I think we did. I think we absolutely got the truth. I'm just waiting for other people to bring out more truth and bring out more beats. Because I still like the music, I still like goin' out every now and then and gettin' my jack on, and I want to hear some new music!