Ten City Is A Utopia For House Music

Written by Jesse De La Peña on January 17, 2022

“House music is music for everybody.”
– Byron Stingily

Byron Stingily and Marshall Jefferson are the founding members of Ten City, a legendary Chicago group who have been putting house music on the map since the 1980s. To break down their newest album, 2021’s Judgement, the two virtually sat down with Vocalo host Jesse De La Peña in January 2022.

Stingily and Jefferson connected in 1985, releasing their first album under the name Ten City, Foundation, in 1989 — which peaked at No. 49 on Billboard’s U.S. Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart a little more than a month after its debut.

Ten City been making their impact on the house music scene ever since, and released their most recent album, Judgement, on June 18, 2021. They revisited two classic dance tracks from Foundation on the new album, “That’s The Way Love Is” and “Devotion,” refreshing them with modern tech and production elements.

“People … feel it’s a true representative of what Ten City should sound like in the year 2021, 2022,” Jefferson told Jesse De La Peña. “We’ve got just enough of old and new in it.”

For a special episode of DELAPEÑA LIVE! on January 15, 2022, Jesse De Le Peña chatted with Stingily and Jefferson about Ten City’s origin story, the evolution and meaning behind the group’s name, their Grammy nomination, the new album and how house music brings Chicagoans together.

Stingily and Jefferson also encourage new listeners to go back and rediscover earlier works from them and other house artists with roots in Chicago — and to stay on the lookout for new music and future performances.