DJ Disciple

David Banks (born September 2, 1965), known by his stage name DJ Disciple, is an American DJ, house music producer and author from Brooklyn, New York. For much of his early career, he worked in London and was influential in the rise of UK garage music. Stateside, he was considered a cornerstone of New York City's house music scene. Disciple co-wrote the book The Beat, the Scene, the Sound: A DJ's Journey through the Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of House Music in New York City with Henry Kronk. Banks was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1965, the youngest of four brothers. His father, a World War II veteran, played piano with Miles Davis and his brother Stanley played bass with George Benson. Another brother, Larry, is also a musician. Banks grew up in the Farragut Projects and attended the Greater Refuge Temple in Harlem, where he played drums. Neighbors of the family included Strafe and Shannon's bass player Rusty Taylor. Grandmaster Flowers, Jocelyn Brown, Puffy Combs, and Mary J. Blige were friends and colleagues of Banks' brothers. He graduated from Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in 1984 and attended Baruch College to study accounting. He later switched to studying journalism. In college, Banks worked at Baruch's college radio stations. He was originally a gospel DJ and chose his name as a reminder that "only what you do for Christ shall last." In 1987, he began working as a radio host and mixer for WNYE FM, where he hosted The Best Kept Secret. He gained a reputation for debuting music before its official release date. Among that music were the songs "Follow Me" (1992) by Aly-Us and "Beautiful People" (1994) by Barbara Tucker; he also aired music by Todd Terry, Louie Vega, Roger Sanchez, and Todd Edwards. His show was one of the first that featured women doing mixes. His 1995 remix of Plutonic's "Addicted" was not commercially available until 2001. His first professional DJ gig was at Studio 54, followed by his first nightclub gig at The World in 1989. He then became the resident DJ of Wild Pitch and alternated with Larry Levan and DJ Basil at David Mancuso's Loft Space, the Choice in Lower Manhattan and made appearances at The Pyramid Club. Disciple was hired several times by two Phi Beta Sigma brothers to DJ their Hunter College parties, where he, with the help of the duo Slick & Smooth Productions caught the attention of Leonard Gabbidon and Stan Dennis. Gabbidon subsequently hired him to close shows for Jomanda, Liz Torres, Main Source, Special Ed, Run DMC, and Brand Nubian at the Syracuse Greekfest in 1989–1991. Dennis hired him to play at the Jones Beach Greekfest, while other fraternity brothers recommended him for parties at St. John's University and The City College. In 1991, he worked as the Friday night resident DJ at Club 280 in New Jersey, then at Club Zanzibar following Tony Humphries' departure. The Best Kept Secret's popularity got him a spot as a regular mixer for Japan's World Dance Traxx Part Bay FM. With connections made through Roger Sanchez and his mentor DJ Camacho, DJ Disciple began to tour in the early 1990s. He played widely in the United Kingdom at clubs and venues including Lakota, Ministry of Sound, Notting Hill Carnival, Southport Weekender (1995–1997), Cream, and The Zap, among others. Between 1993 and 2001, he played at Ministry of Sound at least twice a year; three times a year (1994–2004) at To the Manor Born in Sedgefield; and annually (1994–2010) at Notting Hill Carnival. Across the pond, he appeared at Sona in Montréal twice a year between 1998 and 2004. He played on Kiss FM London's The Zoo Experience twice a year between 1993 and 2003. DJ Magazine included Disciple on their list of Top 100 DJs worldwide in 1993 and did his first featured interview the following year. He debuted his first single, "When the Music Stops" on Muzik Pushers in 1993. The song quickly became a club hit in Italy and was picked up by D:vision Records. He performed at the Angels of Love club in Naples, Italy that same year. Disciple produced The Street Experience EP; three of its songs stood out in particular. "On the Dancefloor" hit the UK singles charts at No. 67. "Steal Away" featuring Dawn Tallman was included by Erick Morillo on a Ministry of Sound compilation and "Burning" was licensed to Deconstructed Records in the UK. Meanwhile, the Hard Times club in Leeds established a label in 1994. One of their first releases was DJ Disciple remixing Robert Owens and Michael Watford performing "Come Together". In 1996, he lent his vocals to Basement Jaxx's "Slide Slide" on their EP3 (Atlantic Jaxx). The first hit for Disciples' own label, Catch 22 Recordings, was "Put Your Hands Up" (1998) by the Black & White Brothers, which he mixed. Disciple debuted as a journalist in Streetsound magazine in their July 1993 issue for his article "Unreleased Tracking - DJs Want to Know". In 1997, when Josh Harris acquired Streetsound, Disciple became the first American to vlog internationally on the internet under a new website called Pseudo.com. DJ Disciple was one of the DJs who comfortably played across both the house and UK garage spectrums. He was embraced by the UKG scene and played guest sets at all the legendary London garage clubs such as Twice as Nice in the Arches in Southwark as well as playing the Gass Club, Horny at Legends, and Cookies & Cream in Vauxhall. When the speed garage duo Double 99 (Tim Deluxe and Omar Adimora) sat down to make "Ripgroove", they initially built a drum pattern on an E-mu SP-1200 drum machine using samples from a disc DJ Disciple had given to Liken on a recent trip to America. His UKG anthems include "Keep On Movin", a track by the Banji Boyz featuring Brown Girl (alias of Angie Brown; "2 the Bone" by Grant Nelson featuring DJ Disciple himself and his remix of Plutonic's "I'm Addicted". Other UK garage collaborations include "Don't Shut Me Out" (DJ Disciple feat. Mary Gold), "Dangerous (DJ Disciple 91.5 Mix)" (Tuff Jam feat. Mr. X), "Steal Away (R.I.P Remix)" (DJ Disciple feat. Dawn Tallman), "Takin' It Back" (R.I.P feat. DJ Disciple), and "Desire" (with Jeremy Sylvester). Disciple left WNYE FM in 1997 to host the Transatlantic Mix on Kiss 105 in Yorkshire with Tony Walker, which later expanded onto the Galaxy Network across the UK in 1999. In 1998, Disciple made regular appearances at Spy Bar, one of the first bottle service venues in New York. During the golden age of bottle service, Disciple worked at Pangea, with Walter Kim at Rehab and Quo, Jamie Muholland and Jayma Cardoso at Cain, Versace Mansion in Florida, Rocco Ancarola at Pink Elephant,  and the Made Italy parties held at Green House. Disciple was also the monthly resident DJ at GBH (Great British House) with promoters Tom Dunkley and Alejandro Torio moving from Vanity to Cheetah and then finally Centrofly. In 2001, he began writing about his experiences on the website Trust the DJ, which eventually gave way to his CD Trust the DJ DS01, which detailed notable clubs he had played around the world. In 2000, DJ Disciples' first full-length album My True Colors was released on Catch 22. The album included "It's Easy" which reached No. 96 on the UK Singles Chart, "Wannabe" featuring Taka Boom, "Yes" by Suzy (licensed to Ked Kandi)  and his 2002 single "Caught Up" which hit No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, and was nominated for a Grammy that November and appeared on the Queer as Folk soundtrack. "You" was remixed by Roger Sanchez in 2001 and "Keep It Up" was a collaboration with Robbie Rivera. In 2008 Disciple had success doing his own Next Level Party events in Brooklyn, New York with a mixture of Poetry. Guests included The Martinez Brothers, Wunmi, Ursula Rucker, Last Poets Abiodun Oyewole, and the local community of DJs. Disciple filmed The Next Level Party Documentary as a seven-part series made online via YouTube. While taking a break from traveling and producing music in 2012 Disciple was still able to make appearances at Cielo,