The Electrifying Mojo

The sparks that fired the great conflagration of techno in Detroit were in no small part provided by the Electrifying Mojo, a late-'70s and early-'80s DJ who made it his occupation to "save Detroit and the world from the musical blahs." Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, he joined the Air Force and began to DJ at his base in the Philippines. When he returned to the U.S., Mojo worked a few years in radio before deciding to enter law school at the University of Michigan. He worked as a college DJ, amazing audiences with an incredibly broad range of genres and artists. After college, he moved to Detroit and began to apply the same techniques to his off-hours shift on a local radio station, encompassing the Clash, Prince, the B-52s, Madonna, Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode. Techno pioneers Juan Atkins and Derrick May (among many others) listened and were introduced to a broad range of music, from punk to electronic pop. The pair began working for Mojo, producing lengthy mixes that then appeared on the show. While both Atkins and May moved on to record during the late '80s, the Electrifying Mojo continued to DJ, occasionally shuffling between different radio stations. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide