Carlos Sosa grew up in Puerto Rico, where he was raised on salsa and merengue. After moving to Chicago, where he worked in record shops, he adopted the alias DJ Sneak and immersed himself in club music. Recording for labels like Green Velvet's Relief and New York's Strictly Rhythm, he quickly became a standard-bearer for Chicago house, fusing raw, skipping drum programming with tribal percussion, relentless keys, and disco samples. Sneak's sound was a huge influence on Daft Punk, and the self-described "house gangster" continues to espouse a back-to-basics ethos in his sets and productions.