From: Chicago, USA

DJ style: House and techno

Best known for: ‘Brighter Days’, ‘Percolator’, ‘La La Land’

An undisputed icon of house music, it seems insane that Chicago’s Green Velvet only debuted in the Top 100 DJs poll in 2020. He charted again last year and is back again in 2022, but perhaps more noteworthy is another DJ Mag-related accolade that the artist born Curtis Alan Jones picked up this year. Back in July, Green Velvet was voted Best DJ in our Best of North America awards, seeing off the competition of Eris Drew, Jayda G, RL Grime and RP Boo.

Jones has been perfecting his craft for three decades, initially making his mark as a producer — under his Cajmere alias he turned out genre-defining tracks like ‘Brighter Days’ (with Dajae) and ‘Percolator’. But it’s as Green Velvet that he’s become most globally renowned, this year hosting his La La Land parties in LA and Miami and being booked for headline sets from Philadelphia to San Diego, Dublin, London and Vancouver. He’s played umpteen festivals, including Creamfields and Terminal V in the UK and the USA’s Beyond Wonderland, and kept up his Get Real project with Dirtybird boss Claude VonStroke, performing together in Austin, New York and at Peru’s Far Away Festival since last year’s poll.