By the time deep-house maestro Ron Trent met Lee Collins in the late 80s, Lee had been DJing for almost a decade, building a subcultural stature that few in Chicago’s dance-music scene could match. He’d started spinning at age 13, and he got a foothold in the scene back when house was largely confined to Chicago’s thriving gay nightlife.

“It was very underground, it was very cliquish, and it wasn’t for everybody,” Ron says. “Lee was not only a heavy record selector—back then, it was like he was mythical. We always had Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles; Lee was right under that tier as a young, heterosexual DJ that could hold his own amongst an older crowd and an audience of people that had more experience and were from a different place.”

Lee developed his skills by watching and in some cas

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