After over ten years of work as a producer and nearly twenty years of making electronic music, Mr. De' has a sound drawn from a number of funk-based urban sounds, blending them together into a composite whole that emphasizes up-tempo booty shakin' over the chin-stroking styles of techno. Following the release of his debut album and the continuing success of Electrofunk Records, Ade has solidified his position at the forefront of Detroit dance music.
Among the post-industrial decay of the once mighty Motor City Detroit he began to revel in the enriching world of music, first learning to play the piano from his mother, a gospel singer and piano teacher. Soon he began toying with drum machines and turntables, producing skeletal hip-hop tracks as a young teen.
Today, Mainor is the originator of pure ghettotech. At the helm of Electrofunk's distribution arm, he also controls the destiny of his fellow ghettotech peers in Detroit as they try and spread their sound outside of the city. Whether or not the rest of the world is ready for this Detroit-bred, post-modern style of urban music is an unanswered question, but there is no questioning the fact that Mr. De' may just be the most important man in that crusade.
Starting 2005, Ade Mainor is now the President of Submerge Recordings.