Nile Rodgers

Nile Rodgers' partnership with Bernard Edwards in Chic produced a string of major hit singles, which inspired a whole generation of dance music. His influence, though, goes much deeper through his studio work amid collaborations with leading artists as wide-ranging as Madonna, Diana Ross and David Bowie. From New York, his career began as a session guitarist and he gained invaluable experience touring with Joe Raposo's Sesame Street band and playing with the house band at Harlem's famous Apollo Theater, backing the likes of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King, Betty Wright and Maxine Brown. He met bassist Bernard Edwards in 1970 and they formed the group New York City, who went on to have a hit with I'm Doing Fine Now and toured extensively, opening at one point for the Jackson 5. They then formed The Boys with drummer Tony Thompson, followed by the Big Apple Band, playing with Ashford & Simpson, Luther Vandross and others and. Finally, in 1977, they changed their name to Chic and struck gold. They went on to have a string of huge international hits like Le Freak, I Want Your Love, Everybody Dance, My Forbidden Love and Dance Dance Dance, which gave crucial impetus to a new boom in disco music. As a result other artists sought to replicate the unique rhythmic grooves they created and, after producing the Diana Ross album Diana (including the hits Upside Down and I'm Coming Out) they produced many other acts, including Sister Sledge's No 1 hits We Are Family and He's The Greatest Dancer. They subsequently indirectly inspired hip hop when the Sugarhill Gang sampled them on the first hip hop hit, Rapper's Delight and Rodgers went on to become one of the hottest producers around; working on David Bowie's Let's Dance, Madonna's Like A Virgin and Duran Duran's The Reflex, along with albums for Mick Jagger, Sheena Easton, Jeff Beck and the Thompson Twins. In 1987 he formed a new band Outloud, wrote film scores (including Coming To America), produced Eric Clapton, Cathy Dennis, Michael Jackson and the Stray Cats and had further hits with the B52s. By 2013 he was having hits with younger dance music acts such as Daft Punk, Avicii, Chase & Status and Felix Da Housecat.

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