Brushes With Greatness: SohoJohnny Meets Jellybean Benitez

You might well claim that the EDM we know today began in the early when 1980s when up and coming Dance Queen Madonna signed with Sire Records and, unhappy with some of the production, had her boyfriend Jellybean Benitez engineer some tracks and produce “Holiday” for her eponymous debut album. It was the summer of 83 and the world changed. From Madonna’s sexual self-awareness to her youthful fashionista, her downtown disco NYC fervor, her religious obtuseness, and her proto-feminism, she began to change the rules for women in pop -though it was a long and controversial trip. And Jellybean wasn’t along for the entire ride…

Jellybean’s parents were Puerto Rican and he was raised in the boogie down Bronx where he borrowed his sister’s turntable, added it to his own, and started DJing. By the time he was introduced to Madonna, Jellybean was the resident DJ at the nightclub Funhouse and was on his way to a career mixing and or producing hits for the likes of Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson.

And, of course, he met SohoJohnny. To paraphrase Paul McCartney, when two greats meet it is a humbling experience!