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Francis Warren Nicholls, Jr., who DJed as Frankie Knuckles, were lifelong friends from Harlem's early ’70s ballroom scene, where they both contributed musically and designed and made costumes and dresses. The two friends eventually met David Mancuso—a hippie DJ who held a particular interest in Black men, and entered a business and pleasure relationship with Levan.50 Mancuso founded the infamous invitation-only underground party The Loft, where Levan DJed for an elite and fashionable crowd of people well connected in the music industry, using state-of-the-art sound systems designed by Mancuso's friend and audio engineer, Robert Long.51 The Loft influenced
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