Aaron Smith

Chicago-based DJ, producer, and songwriter Aaron Smith has been making deep, soulful house music since the early 1990s. During that decade, he was most productive as part of UBQ Project, a collaboration with Terry Hunter which released several original tracks as well as remixes for Michael Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Masters at Work, and others. However, Smith became best known for “Dancin’,” a 2004 single that has been remixed and sampled several times over the years, eventually gaining viral popularity as a meme during the late 2010s.
Smith and Hunter began releasing music as UBQ Project in 1990; their first single, “Into the Night,” was co-written by Chicago house legend Ron Trent. The EP Volume II appeared in 1991, featuring the single “When I Fell N Luv,” sung by Kathy Summers. Additional UBQ Project singles appeared throughout the decade, with highlights collected on 1994′s All the Best full-length. Additionally, the duo remixed songs by dozens of house and R&B acts, including Zhané (“Hey Mr. D.J.” and “Vibe”), Michael Jackson (“This Time Around”), Full Intention (“America [I Love America]“), and more. Smith also issued a few solo singles, including “U Got Me Going Around” (1993) and “Keep the Love” (1996).
In 2004, Smith released a song called “Dancin’,” featuring vocalist Luvli. The lively, energetic tune gradually became a club and radio hit, particularly the remix by JJ Flores & Steve Smooth, and it reached Billboard’s Hot Dance Airplay chart in early 2006. Laidback Luke’s remix of the song was released in early 2012, but Krono’s 2013 mix became the song’s most popular version. Officially released by Ultra Records in 2014, the video was viewed several million times. The song gradually became a favorite of meme producers, and it was sampled by Don Diablo on his 2016 track “Cutting Shapes.” After the Krono mix of “Dancin’” was made into a meme referencing the video game A Hat in Time, the song exploded in popularity, receiving hundreds of millions of plays and hitting Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart in 2019. ~ Paul Simpson