Born in Chicago and raised on Detroit's West side, Delano Smith represents one of the last of a rare group of Detroit's first house DJs. Perhaps it was the juvenile absorption of the sights and sounds around him during his first five years in the Windy City coupled with his experience during the new DJ craze of his high school years in Detroit that influenced Delano the most, or maybe it is simply that enigmatic link between music people in Chicago and Detroit, known to insiders as the I94 Connection. Regardless of the reason for his natural ear for the deep and groovy, Smith can lay claim to a legacy that most Detroit jocks cannot. He was one of the original young guns personally mentored by Motown's first DJ, Ken Collier. Though Smith may have taken an extended hiatus later in his DJ years, it is this direct link to the beginnings of the DJ in Detroit that has maintained his integrity today.