Larry Levan
Lawrence Philpot also known as Larry Levan was born on July 20th, 1954.
His first pursuit was to become a fashion designer.
He is best known for his decade-long residency at the revolutionary New York City underground nightclub, Paradise Garage.
His innovation as one of the first DJs to use percussion, vocal arrangements, and dub effects to rework a song forged a path for Garage House (also known as New York house and Jersey sound) to fully rise.
Larry is often called the “most influential DJ” and the “first superstar DJ.”
He met fellow DJ, Frankie Knuckles when he was 15 through Harlem’s ballroom scene. They remained friends until his untimely death.
Larry started struggling with an addiction to PCP and heroine in the mid 1980s. He would sell his records for drug money and his friends would buy the valuable records back.
Larry died of heart failure on November 8th, 1992. He was 38 years old.
In 2004, Larry was posthumously inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame.