mike dunn started djing around 1983 in englewood, on the south side of chicago, working park district parties and house parties with two reel to reels running alongside the turntables. his first record, Dance You Mutha, came out in 1987 on westbrook records. in the same years he was engineering sessions for marshall jefferson and armando, which is how a lot of the first wave of chicago house actually got made.

on 18 march 2026 the city of chicago honoured him at daley plaza, adopting a resolution for a body of work that by then covered close to forty years. 5 magazine covered the ceremony.

It's a beautiful thing to come from nothing and be something

mike dunn to 5 magazine, 6 april 2026

the alias that travels furthest is MD X-Spress. God Made Me Phunky arrived under that name in 1994 and never went away, and defected put out a remix package of it on 14 may 2021 with versions from Eats Everything, harry romero and the vision. the spoken word delivery on it is the thing people copy and cannot quite land.

My House From All Angles followed on 1 december 2017, his first album since 1990, released through moreaboutmusic and his own Blackball Muzik. defected gave him a volume of its house masters series in 2020. glitterbox recordings has been the other steady home, and Strut Cho Phunky Stuff (Sho' Nuff) landed there on 12 march 2021.

he founded Dance Mutha in 1988 and restarted it in 2024, opening with the Tracks From The Beginning Vol.1 ep on 5 july 2024, built from tapes he recovered from the late eighties. Acid Madness followed on the label on 30 may 2025. his voice fronts Bump, credited to the brothers macklovitch, Tony Romera and a-trak, out 24 october 2025. most recent is Phunky, a rework built with ahmed spins for DFTD on 24 july 2026.

two festival bookings are confirmed for summer 2026. he is on the bill for arc music festival at union park in chicago, which runs 4 to 7 september 2026, and he plays phono lake festival on the sloterpark island in amsterdam on 12 september 2026, a one day programme built specifically around house originators.