10 iconic Masters At Work moments

With a back catalogue of projects, remixes, productions, aliases and hats that act like house music’s own public library, Masters At Work have truly reached iconic status.

Louie Vega and Kenny Dope have been churning out all manner of bangers as a duo for nearly three decades. In that time they’ve shaped house music and its many sub-genres with crucial releases on Rhythm Section, Nervous Recordings and Defected to name a few, cultivating a golden era of house music in the process.

But it’s perhaps their transcendence of house that makes them outliers in the realm of traditional dance music legends. Their reputation as a production duo is second to none and it’s why the likes of Madonna, Michael and Janet Jackson and even Simply Red have wanted ‘the dub’ treatment from the Bronx pair.

So with such an extensive history to choose from, we managed to whittle it down to 10 iconic moments.

It takes guts to make music under the title Masters At Work. And if Vega and Dope hadn’t had the success they had, they would probably look a little silly. What’s more intriguing is the first few releases under the moniker weren’t actually by them, instead they were by fellow legend Todd Terry. In 1987, Dope loaned out the name to his mate who released singles ‘Alright Alright’ and ‘Dum Dum Cry’. A year later Terry introduced Dope to Vega in the studio, the pair struck up a partnership and subsequently took the name right back. Its fair to say the name change didn’t really harm either party though.