Brian Hieggelke

1.Bad Boy Bill (BBB) has managed to parlay a longtime presence in the Chicago house underground into the ranks of America's superstar DJs--the readers of BPM magazine voted him America's favorite DJ earlier this year.

2. After staking his claim for years with his "Bangin' the Box" series of mix CDs, BBB is taking it up a notch this month and releasing "Behind the Decks," a double CD mix that features a DVD with DTS and Dolby 5.1 surround sound mixes and visuals, videos, interviews, etc.

3. Although he hangs his hat around here, he doesn't play out too much due to touring (150 gigs a year) and studio demands--by our count this is his second hometown gig this year. That being said, he's never far from home on his records. "Behind the Decks" features songs by Chicago underground heroes like Paul Johnson, Harrison Crump, CZR, Alex Peace and BBB's touring opener Steve Smooth. Not to mention four of BBB's own tunes, perhaps from his indefinitely postponed artist's CD.

4.BBB live and in the mix is a high-energy hard house DJ with an old-school penchant for turntable tricks and a controversial style of self-promotional name drops over the music--"Bad Boy Bill is in the mix"--a tactic developed back in his early days on the legendary WBMX radio. Nevertheless, he's a skilled and frenzied mixer whose sets and recorded mixes alike possess an irresistible groove and energy.

5. BBB lives the good life. Especially among the ladies, apparently. Lotus magazine dubbed him "the Wilt Chamberlain of techno" and wasn't referring to his dunking skills. A profile in the latest issue of URB magazine describes him as house music's version of P. Diddy. Whether that's good or bad is for you to decide.

Bad Boy Bill performs at Spundae at Vision Saturday night.

(2003-09-17)

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