Vince Lawrence

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Vince Lawrence is an American producer and lyricist, born on 6 January 1964 in Chicago. He is regarded as one of the founders of house music. His father worked with Eddie Thomas of Curtom Records, and as a teenager Vince went on tour with funk musicians. There he saw synthesizers and keyboards at close quarters. He bought a Moog Prodigy and formed the band Z Factor, which in 1982 released the song (I Like to Do It In) Fast Cars.

Music and breakthrough

In Chicago, at the teen club The Playground, Lawrence met the DJs Jesse Saunders and Farley Keith. Together they made On and On, which is seen as the first official house music. He designed the logo of Jes Say Records by hand and wrote lyrics for Funk U Up, which was the first house song to enter the Billboard charts. He also co-wrote Love Can't Turn Around with Daryl Pandy, in 1986 a hit in Britain that set off the house wave there.

Influence

Lawrence came up with the name Trax Records, when the pressing plant owner Larry Sherman decided to press the records for free in return for a share of the profits. He took the singles to clubs in Detroit and New York himself. With Marshall Jefferson he made the EP Virgo Trax. Later he founded Slang MusicGroup, which made music for bands, games, television and advertising. Lawrence shows that house began as a matter of teenagers with a synthesizer, a pressed record and a dance floor that was asking for it.

Listening