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STEPPERS

RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,783 Posts
edited June 2007 in Strut Central
Please to educate me about this Dusty Groove friendly buzz term. What is a stepper? Are there any comps I can peep? I have a general idea of what a stepper is but I need clarification.Feel free to post stepper audio.Thanks.
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  • NateBizzoNateBizzo 2,328 Posts
    Monster Stepper Synth Anthem!

    http://cgi.ebay.com/CHICO-Keep-On-Loving...1QQcmdZViewItem



    I think this is just another term for modern soul, no?
  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    are they using it in an r&b context or a reggae one?
  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    I thought it was specifically that kind of mid-tempo
    moder sound, like, say, "Out in the Night" by Serge Ponsar?
  • RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,783 Posts
    are they using it in an r&b context or a reggae one?

    SOUL STEPPERS. I BELIEVE IT'S PRIMARILY A CHI-TOWN THING AND THEY SLOW GLIDE TO LOGGINS AND MESSIN TRACKS.
  • El PrezEl Prez NE Ohio 1,141 Posts
    Steppers as in what you see them doing R Kelly's video for "Step in the name of love" here in Ohio we call it hand dancing most the of the steppers joints have a certain rhytmn to em...some oold school shit when cats throw on theie suits, gators etc and the ladies throw on their flyest(sp?) pieces also...
  • djkingottodjkingotto 1,704 Posts
    are they using it in an r&b context or a reggae one?

    SOUL STEPPERS. I BELIEVE IT'S PRIMARILY A CHI-TOWN THING AND THEY SLOW GLIDE TO LOGGINS AND MESSIN TRACKS.

    steppin is a style of dance that comes out of chicago. its mostly older cats and its sort of a "touch" dance, i.e. holding hands, swinging your partner and shit. check out "step in the name of love" video by r kelly...
  • djkingottodjkingotto 1,704 Posts
    Steppers as in what you see them doing R Kelly's video for "Step in the name of love" here in Ohio we call it hand dancing most the of the steppers joints have a certain rhytmn to em...some oold school shit when cats throw on theie suits, gators etc and the ladies throw on their flyest(sp?) pieces also...

    yeah, what he said.
  • bassiebassie 11,710 Posts
    most the of the steppers joints have a certain rhytmn to em

    four on the floor?
  • SupergoodSupergood 1,213 Posts
    I thought it was specifically that kind of mid-tempo
    moder sound, like, say, "Out in the Night" by Serge Ponsar?

    I always associated steppers cuts with somewhat more organic production and slower tempos than the Serge Ponsar cut you mentioned (this is electro-boogie, innit?). In my private mindgarten, something like Jeffree "Take My Love" is a steppers cut.
  • GuzzoGuzzo 8,611 Posts
    I thought it was specifically that kind of mid-tempo
    moder sound, like, say, "Out in the Night" by Serge Ponsar?

    I always associated steppers cuts with somewhat more organic production and slower tempos than the Serge Ponsar cut you mentioned (this is electro-boogie, innit?). In my private mindgarten, something like Jeffree "Take My Love" is a steppers cut.

    ditto.

    summer afternoon in the park type of modern soul
  • TREWTREW 2,037 Posts
    clarification.

    stepper's cut = dexter wansel "sweetest pain," although i did a westside house party memorial weekend the grown folks were stepping to deep house.

    if you wanna go to school, DGA has a few steppers dvd in stock.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    I thought it was specifically that kind of mid-tempo
    moder sound, like, say, "Out in the Night" by Serge Ponsar?

    I always associated steppers cuts with somewhat more organic production and slower tempos than the Serge Ponsar cut you mentioned (this is electro-boogie, innit?). In my private mindgarten, something like Jeffree "Take My Love" is a steppers cut, as is his "Love's Gonna Last"[/b].

    ditto.

    summer afternoon in the park type of modern soul

    Plus, the occasional crossover "white" song that happens to have a certain rhythm. Martin Denny's "Quiet Village," the Sopwith Camel's "Fazon," Loggins & Messina's "Pathway To Glory," America's "Tin Man" and the entirety of Donald Fagen's Kamikirad CD were all big with Chicago's stepper's crowds.
  • dCastillodCastillo 1,963 Posts
    JB's Monourail
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    clarification.

    stepper's cut = dexter wansel "sweetest pain," although i did a westside house party memorial weekend the grown folks were stepping to deep house.

    if you wanna go to school, DGA has a few steppers dvd in stock.

    Rhino has, or had, an entire volume devoted to stepper's cuts in their Smooth Grooves series. This was before R. Kelly had "Step In The Name Of Love" and was probably one of the first attempts I ever saw to get stepping to a nationwide audience. That, and the Love Jones movie.
  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
    I thought it was specifically that kind of mid-tempo
    moder sound, like, say, "Out in the Night" by Serge Ponsar?

    I always associated steppers cuts with somewhat more organic production and slower tempos than the Serge Ponsar cut you mentioned (this is electro-boogie, innit?). In my private mindgarten, something like Jeffree "Take My Love" is a steppers cut, as is his "Love's Gonna Last"[/b].

    ditto.

    summer afternoon in the park type of modern soul

    Plus, the occasional crossover "white" song that happens to have a certain rhythm. Martin Denny's "Quiet Village," the Sopwith Camel's "Fazon," Loggins & Messina's "Pathway To Glory," America's "Tin Man" and the entirety of Donald Fagen's Kamikirad CD were all big with Chicago's stepper's crowds.

    Yes. Dudes don't even know. It is impossible to overstate the depth. I'm talking Danny Wilson album cuts. Second-album cuts.
  • TREWTREW 2,037 Posts
    the Love Jones movie.

    BLUES & PANTS!
  • SupergoodSupergood 1,213 Posts


    Yes. Dudes don't even know. It is impossible to overstate the depth. I'm talking Danny Wilson album cuts. Second-album cuts.

    4 real? I've had this LP for ages but haven't played it all through... "Ballad of Shirley McClain" is nice, though.
  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts


    Yes. Dudes don't even know. It is impossible to overstate the depth. I'm talking Danny Wilson album cuts. Second-album cuts.

    4 real? I've had this LP for ages but haven't played it all through... "Ballad of Shirley McClain" is nice, though.

    I wanna say "Desert Hearts" is the cut, but it's been a while, so that may be off.



    IT'S A STEPPER
  • JoshDJoshD 215 Posts
  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
    You know, one of the great ironies of steppers' music is that while so many of the adherents hold it and themselves in direct opposition to hip-hop (see Ashy v. Classy, 1979-2007), there aren't that many other current schools of stateside music collecting that so closely resemble each other as that of the steppers enthusiast and that of the hip-hop-informed "crate-digger." In both cases, artist, genre, instrumentation, vintage, rarity, etc. are all secondary to the overall feel of a record. At their best, both have that same kind of true omnivorousness.

    I mean, folks shouldn't get the wrong idea: Steppers has it's bedrock tunes just like hip-hop has its James Brown and Kool and the Gang, and the weirdo shit that's been namechecked in this thread and elsewhere comprises a relatively small percentage of what gets aired, but even so, I think the viability--and, really, even the very existence--of that sort of open-mindedness is one of the things that energizes the music of both scenes.

    In my neighborhood record spots, It's not unusual to see hoodied-down twentysomethings who are looking for that one Chicago record with the break going elbow-to-elbow with sweatered-up fiftysomethings who are looking for that one Peter Cetera record with the stepper. It's a beautiful thing.

    I'm a relative newcomer, though. More of my real Chicago dudes in this thread really speaking on it, please. Even if it's just on some Weird Steppers' Tunes I Have Known.


    (Note to anyone who might feel that comparing the based-on-samplability crate-digging mindset to the based-on-playability steppers mindset is like comparing ground beef to prize bulls: I think you're putting too fine a point on it. The differences in actual application are miniscule compared to the similarities in abstract conception.)
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Paging Deej
  • SupergoodSupergood 1,213 Posts


    Yes. Dudes don't even know. It is impossible to overstate the depth. I'm talking Danny Wilson album cuts. Second-album cuts.

    4 real? I've had this LP for ages but haven't played it all through... "Ballad of Shirley McClain" is nice, though.

    I wanna say "Desert Hearts" is the cut, but it's been a while, so that may be off.


    After skimming through the Danny WIlson "Be Bop Mop Top" album last night (nice late 80's UK soul pop, BTW), I believe the song you're talking about is "Never Gonna Be The Same": it's got that mid-tempo 4 on the floor beat and a fairly soul-y chord progression in the verses. I could imagine steppers getting into this track.
  • cardovacardova 743 Posts
    In the UK there's a somewhat similar scene called 2 step (nothing to do w/ late 90's electronic music). The scene started in the early 80's when lovers rock selectors ran out of reggae tunes to play and started searching for soul tunes with a similar rythmic patterm. Starvue 'Body Fusion' fusion is a prime example. Just like steppers in Chicago it's typically an older black peoples scene.
  • deejdeej 5,125 Posts
    Paging Deej
    from a music nerd perspective i am woefully disconnected from this, something i would like to change : (

    but yes it is real big locally, my experience is basically one or two GROWN FOLX clubs that i've gone to in the past year + shit like going to a friends cousin's wedding, occasional wgci nights, etc.

    summerdance really needs to do a steppin' night in grant park this summer

    http://www.thesteppersalliance.com/

    realheadz
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Paging Deej
    from a music nerd perspective i am woefully disconnected from this, something i would like to change : (


    You sound white

  • deejdeej 5,125 Posts
    hah yes, also young
  • deejdeej 5,125 Posts


    chicago music nerds! can u i.d. the chi-town legend in this photo???
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts


    chicago music nerds! can u i.d. the chi-town legend in this photo???

    Scott Williams......
  • deejdeej 5,125 Posts
    i'm afraid i'm gonna turn into harveycanal or something if i keep this up so


    the one and only george daniels
  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    i'm afraid i'm gonna turn into harveycanal or something if i keep this up so


    the one and only george daniels

    Haha.....dude is in R.Kelly's video.
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