Hey, working on a master's thesis on booty/ghettotech (mostly Detroit side for the sake of specificity and proximity).
On the gender issue, ghetto gets more women in the audience than a lot of other electronic music genres... The DJs I've talked to all say that it's the female members of the audience that demand the nastiest tracks (of course they have a vested interest, grain of salt and all that). Counterintuitive and, hopefully, intellectually productive avenue.
The Chicago stuff all but died out before it got big, although it's experiencing something of a resurgence as "juke." There was a juke show on one of the hip hop radio stations when I lived in Chi (2 years ago) -- Trey the Chocolate Jock, playing juke and bass-heavy hip hop hits (Ciara, Still Tippin). Good stuff. The record store in my neighborhood had a few bootleg CD-R mixtapes floating around. Gant-Man is probably the most successful juke guy at the moment -- he had an official remix of Beyonce's Check On It, which is a first for Chicago ghetto. DJ Slugo is also still active in Chi. DJ Funk is doing stuff now with Ed Banger which most people probably know about; he also resurrected Dance Mania and has released a new EP on it -- let's keep our fingers crossed for a reissue flood!
The Detroit stuff seemed like it was going to get big around 1996-2000, but it never really happened. Detroit is sort of notorious for scene politics and hatoration, which might have had something to do with it; my theory is that Detroit simply doesn't have the economic base to sustain its creative community which leads to fighting over scarce resources. The first thing every ghettotech DJ who made money did was get out of Detroit. I'm trying to trace the really early stuff (pre-Twilight/Databass), which was all released on tiny labels, mostly out of Buy-Rite Records. You can practically hear the seams where they sewed together Detroit electro and Miami bass, which is nice genealogically. There's a fan forum at forum.dickride.com where some Detroit DJs post (DJ Nasty, Starski, DJ Dick), as well as lots of Europeans working the booty bass angle (DJ Koyote and some others). Stuff is much bigger in Europe than it ever was in the states, particularly France, Belgium, and the UK. I keep wanting to make some snarky connection to the Venus Hottentot.
I love Bmore stuff, know very little about the scene though. Maybe if I turn the thesis into a book (hah!). Weirdly, Spank Rock left me sort of cold... I think I wanted something "trackier," or alternatively, better songs! Stylistically it should be right up my alley.
Also, the dances! Each regional niche has its own dance -- check youtube. Chicago's got the juke, Detroit's got the jit, and in Baltimore they rock. There was a juke vs jit competition last weekend in the D, but I had to work and I missed it.
Recommendations to add:
DJ Deeon is one of my favorite Chicago guys. He's on the dirtier side lyrically, which I know turns some people off. I like "Freaks", "Yo Mouf", "House-O-Matic", (he likes using kid voices), "Da Baddest Bitch" is a great anthem.
Aaron Carl doesn't make ghetto exclusively, but I enjoy "21 Positions" and "No No." Interestingly (at least for my work) he is openly gay, and records his own vocals, which puts a new spin on the dirty lyrics/misogyny/heterosexism line. He pitched his voice up on 21 Positions to sound more feminine, a deliberate playing with signifiers of sexuality.
Erotek and Aux 88 make good quality Detroit techno bass, and often show up in ghetto DJ sets, though not strictly ghetto (oh genres!).
Out of Bmore, I will add Blaqstarr, who has made some interesting stuff -- Check out "Get My Gun": weird vocal harmonies, backwards-masking, nice and raw.
First post, handshakes all around. I've lurked on and off (mostly in the Thought and Politics sections) for a few months.