Taylor Character attributes her early exposure to house music legends like Frankie Knuckles and CeCe Peniston to her late mother. When Character, known professionally as HoneyLuv, decided to leave her Navy drone mechanic job in 2020 and pursue music full time, she says her mother was skeptical at first. But as a house head herself, her mother began to appreciate HoneyLuv’s craft.
Now, as HoneyLuv compares those classic cuts from the Eighties and Nineties to the latest house music releases, she says there’s something missing.
“A lot of labels don’t have soul in their music,” says the 29-year-old artist, who has rapidly become one of the genre’s ascendant stars. “Especially the top ones that people go to on Beatport.”
That’s why she’s launching a new label of her own this summer, 4 Tha Luv. “That’s the main focus,” HoneyLuv says. “Having that essence of what it was in the beginning before commercial [music] took over.”
HoneyLuv, who’s known for her breakout tech-house hit “365 (Thr33 6ix 5ive),” is among a subset of Black artists reclaiming dance music, and she aims to pay respect to the originators of the Chicago-born sound that she loves.
“4 Tha Luv is for the love of house music, which means loving what started this — so loving the people who put it together, loving the LGBT community, loving the Black community that created this music, and knowing that history,” HoneyLuv says.
The label, two years in the making, follows the launch of her 4 Tha Luv party, which debuted March 21 during Miami Music Week. With New York house veteran Dennis Ferrer, underground dance trio Mason Collective, Afro-house newcomer Kitty Amor, and soulful house DJ Will Clarke on the lineup, HoneyLuv says she handpicked artists who play what they feel rather than artists who aim to crowd-please.
It’s all part of her vision of paying her dues to the genre’s founders and paving a road for house music newcomers. “That was another reason that fueled me,” HoneyLuv says, reflecting on why she’s starting her label. “This can be something that really has people think differently about house music — because when you think of it, you think of Calvin Harrises and Diplos.”
Before house music was a commercial phenomenon, its beat pulsated through underground Chicago clubs frequented by Black and queer partygoers in the 1980s. HoneyLuv tapped into those historic roots during her 4 Tha Luv set, incorporating affirming vocals and a kick-drum pulse, along with salsa rhythms that nodded to Miami’s Latin culture. As she played for an intimate crowd in Wynwood, she dropped a remix to Trick Daddy’s “Take It to da House” and snippets from her newly released track “This Is My Life,” featuring house music’s megaphone, Roland Clark.
HoneyLuv says she freestyles from a playlist of songs when she’s onstage, instead of relying on a predetermined track list: “I feel like if I plan something, it just doesn’t feel natural.”
House music pioneers like CeCe Peniston and Frankie Knuckles are still HoneyLuv’s idols, and she has collaborated with genre veterans like Clark and Harry Romero. To Ferrer, HoneyLuv is like family, and he sees her as holding the flag for house music’s next generation.
“We all need caretakers and people that keep things going from one generation to the next generation, like gatekeepers,” Ferrer tells Rolling Stone. “So she signifies a new generation of gatekeepers. She’s taking what’s from the past and bringing it forward.”
HoneyLuv’s efforts to shatter barriers haven’t gone unnoticed. A few months ago, she graced the cover of DJ Mag’s December issue, which called her a “fresh face” with an “old soul,” and took home the magazine’s Breakthrough Producer award. At the start of 2023, she made BBC Radio 1’s Dance Future Stars list, and in 2022 she was named an “Up Next” artist by The New York Times. On March 29, she released “Right Spot,” a Chicago deep cut about pleasing a woman (followed by a Ferrer remix April 5).
Ahead of her label announcement, she was slated for an opening set at Ultra Music Festival, a moment she had manifested for years: “I remember when I first started DJ’ing, I made a [Instagram] story and I was like, ‘Ultra Here I Come,’” she says. Due to severe weather and strong winds, the Miami festival shut down its first day this year and postponed its opening on day two, leading to the cancellation of HoneyLuv’s set.
“I was really sad about that. I just wanted to show my versatility of what I could play,” she says. “Next year, that’s all I can hope [for].”
