Rick Wade

One of Detroit's best kept secrets, Rick Wade has been producing late night tracks and tapping into the essence of deepness since the '90s. Known for their universal appeal and appearing on over 20 different labels worldwide, soulful, timeless grooves are his signature. Growing up in Buchanan MI, 1 hour outside of Chicago he was influenced by Chicago radio station WBMX and the Salsoul material and local stations that played the likes of Al Green and Isaac Hayes. Rick remembers: "I've always been into the music first. I loved the way they (WBMX) would blend two songs together and make it sound like one. I didn't even know what a DJ was back then. I just wanted to blend songs together...When I went to the record store those songs were only available on 12" vinyl, then I needed turntables to play them and then I needed a mixer if I wanted to blend them... At parties I had the records and I had the turntables so I became the DJ almost by default." While attending the University of Michigan, Wade had the first house mix show on the college station WCBN called 'Journey to the Land of House'. Other presenters were impressed with his material and mixing skills and soon asked him to prepare mixes for their own shows. Some time around 1991 Rick was working on a mix for Brendan Gillen's 'Crush Collision' show and ran out of tracks that he wanted to include. Having always a love for and producing hip-hop Wade turned to his studio to create a track that would fit the mix perfectly and hasn't looked back since.