Boo Williams

Boo Williams is the alias of Willie Griffin, a DJ and producer born on Chicago's South Side on 20 July 1967. He has been part of Chicago's house music world since 1981, when he first stepped up to the turntables, growing up listening to blues, jazz and disco under the watchful influence of the city's founding generation - among them Frankie Knuckles, Gene Hunt and Ron Hardy.

Too young for The Warehouse, he got his house music education at the Music Box, absorbing Ron Hardy's raw edits and the early productions that would become future classics firsthand. A childhood collaborator turned lifelong friend, Glenn Underground played a pivotal role in shaping his path, and the creative spark between the two helped both become influential players in the Chicago dance scene and well beyond.

Williams was a founding member of the Strictly Jaz Unit alongside Underground, and the two continue to record together. His production alias credits are wide: he has also worked as Mandrake, Moon Man, Quik Blend Boo and Willie Snickers. His body of work sits in its own genre of classically deep house and original techno, marked by a unique sense of swing and rhythm. Like Glenn Underground, jazz, blues and soul played a central part in his musical upbringing, and he has never shied away from threading those influences directly into his productions. Over three decades he has moved from peak-time house and driving techno to Ron Hardy-style disco edits, always anchored to the South Side Chicago sensibility that defined him.

His label credits span Peacefrog, Cajual, Relief and Rush Hour. "Mortal Trance," released in 1997 on Residual Records and later picked up by Amsterdam's Rush Hour, is considered one of his stone-cold classics. His "Midnight Express," originally released on Relief Records in 1995, became an exemplar of peak-time Chicago warehouse sound. A later highlight, "The Big Score" from 2016 on Strictly Jaz Unit Extensions, a sub-label of Glenn Underground's Strictly Jaz Unit Muzic, showcases Williams on production, keyboards and drums alongside saxophonist Steve Graeber. Over the years, Chicago rooms including the Powerhouse, the Hummingbird, Club My House, Crobar, Smart Bar and the Warehouse have all seen him hold residencies and headline sets. Few DJs can claim their first gig was in front of 2,500 people - Williams closed a set for Ron Hardy back in the day, his soulful, disco-edged approach to house already fully formed. He remains one of the most quietly essential voices in Chicago house: prolific, consistent, and impossible to separate from the city that made him.