Derrick May, also known as
Mayday and
Rhythim is Rhythim, is an
electronic musician from
Belleville, Michigan U.S.A. He was born an only child
[1] in Detroit in
1963 and began to explore electronic music early in his life. Along with his
Belleville, Michigan high school friends
Juan Atkins and
Kevin Saunderson, commonly known as the
Belleville Three, May is credited with developing the futuristic variation on
house music that would be dubbed "
techno" by Atkins.
May's career started in 1987 with the release of a record called "Nude Photo" (co-written by Thomas Barnett), which helped kickstart the Detroit techno music scene. A year later he was following it with what was to become one of techno's classic anthems, the seminal track "Strings of Life," which was named by Frankie Knuckles.[2]
May has not released any original solo recordings since 1993, but has also produced numerous remixes and has re-worked his older material for video game and movie soundtracks, including, most recently, music for the new film of the popular combat video game Tekken.[3]
For one year, in 2003, he was given control of Detroit's popular annual electronic music festival, originally conceived by Carl Craig, now operated by Paxahau. He named his event Movement, replacing the Detroit Electronic Music Festival along the city's riverfront.
