DJ Icey

When DJ Icey laid eyes on Beatport.com’s debut ad in URB magazine, he practically had a heart attack. There on the page, advertising a digital-music distribution service he’d recently considered licensing his catalogue to, was a photograph of a record crateŠon fire. News flash: Vinyl doesn’t hold up well under extreme temperatures. Icey promptly phoned Beatport and halted any potential involvement dead in its tracks. Crowned the “King of Funky Breaks” over a half-decade prior to Beatport’s initial sales pitch, the DJ made a name for himself at a hedonistic Orlando nightclub called the Edge, just miles from the self-proclaimed “Happiest Place on Earth” (Disney World, for the slogan-impaired). Upon hearing one of Icey’s Zone Records releases in 1996, British jock and A&R guru Pete Tong swiftly inked a deal with him. Although the popularity of dance-music downloading is heating up, don’t expect vinyl purists like Icey to be left out in the cold; there’s still a significant market for his kind.