Remembering DJ Rashad

The first time I can remember seeing footwork, I was 18. I'd just started going out to hang in the city and my friend took me out to a party. At first it was just people standing around, and it seemed pretty lame. But then they circled up and started footworking—to music that wasn't at all made for it. I was super impressed. I wasn't at all a dancer, and I couldn't fathom how they were moving like they were. It was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen.

In Chicago, the presence of footwork is everywhere, but it's often at the edges of people's awareness, making fleeting appearances at shows and influencing other music while remaining a blind spot for many residents. I remember hearing the fast-paced ghetto house songs that would eventually give rise to footwork on the radio as a young kid and being a teenager at my first school dance hearing juke tracks like DJ Clent's “Bounce” and DJ Chip's “Bang Bang Bang, Skeet Skeet Skeet.” But spending my formative years outside of the parts of the city where footwork originated and for which it was being made, I would come across it rarely even as I remained aware of its existence throughout the early and mid-00s.

Chicago is, particularly with its dance music, a city frequently unaware of its own cultural value. But if Chicago hasn't always been watching in recent years, the outside world has, and the credit is due, in large part, to pioneering footwork producer DJ Rashad, who was found dead in his apartment by a friend on Saturday afternoon.

Endlessly prolific, with over 20 official releases in the past decade alone, DJ Rashad was a groundbreaking producer, who, especially in the past year, was just hitting the height of his career. Making music that hits hard and fast, that's at once dizzyingly complex and completely relentless, Rashad established his name in the underground Chicago party scene for years before finally rising to worldwide prominence. Many who make music as extreme as this, especially music for dancing, tend to be either completely ineffectual or completely irrelevant. By constantly working and refining of the sound he helped create alongside contemporaries such as DJ Spinn, Traxman and RP Boo, DJ Rashad escaped both of those trappings.

Rashad Harden, better known as DJ Rashad by fans, was born in Chicago on October 9th, 1979. A musician from the start, he became a multi-instrumentalist at a young age, mastering guitar, drums and keyboard early on. Dedicated to music as he was, he auditioned for WKKC 89.3 as a DJ at age 11, and he began spinning songs from scenes emerging in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. These styles of music—ghetto house and juke—influenced him and the sound that he would later help to create.

Besides being a DJ at as a preteen, he also became a prominent figure in the dance circuit, making a name for himself dancing with crews such as House-O-Matics, The Phyrm and Wolf Pac. By the time he entered high school, however, he’d moved on from dancing to focus fully on DJing. He started producing ghetto house tracks and what later became known as footwork when he met friend/longtime collaborator DJ Spinn at Thornwood High School. Together they moved through the landscape of the juke/ghetto house scene, DJing parties with other footwork luminaries such as RP Boo and Gant-Man, and Dance Mania acts including DJ Funk, DJ Deeon and Jammin Gerald. He was a member of Beatdown House clique before founding his own crew with Spinn, Ghettoteknitianz. Today that collective, better known as Teklife, still reigns supreme, with many veterans and up-and-coming producers on its roster.

Footwork as a genre began to leave its underground and mostly Chicago-centric origins in the late 2000’s, when label’s like Planet Mu began to take notice and release records by DJ Nate and Rashad, as well as the lauded compilations Bangs & Works Vol. 1 and 2. These compilations, along with constant worldwide touring by the genre's stars and continual redefition of its sound helped take footwork from being a niche genre that was mostly relatively unknown to being a very identifiable strand in electronic music’s DNA, with DJ Rashad at the forefront of it all.

As a Chicago native, seeing footwork rise to the place where it is now makes me feel incredibly proud of my city, especially as the genre continues to maintain a relatively low profile at home. Seeing it get picked up by the Internet and become a worldwide phenomenon—influencing artists like Addison Groove, Mouse on Mars, Nguzunguzu, and Sully, as well as cultures in the UK, Poland, and Japan—is amazing. And it's even prompting more people from other parts of Chicago to pay attention and incorporate what Rashad was doing. Rashad's influence in Chicago's dance scene in particular is already boundless, and it's just beginning to really surface. It's impossible for Chicago not to be completely proud of the work that DJ Rashad and his contemporaries put in for years just for the love of it, and it makes his loss, coming just as his international reputation was reaching its highest point yet, that much more crushing. But while I’m completely saddened by his sudden passing, being able to see the fruits of his labor every day and see the way he's changed things not just abroad but in his home city gives me hope. It reassures me that his music will live on, and that feels like the best tribute.

The last time I saw Rashad live was late 2013 with Spinn at the Mid in Chicago. It was my first time experiencing a footwork show where it seemed nearly everyone was losing their shit. Besides the footworkers going off in the front,which is standard, the crowd was eating it up. As far as I could see, there was almost no one just standing around. You really can't: If you are, you're in denial of what your body feels like it should be doing. That was Rashad's magic: He made music that couldn't be ignored, that rose above the label of dance music to being music that people actually would dance to.

We also reached out to some of DJ Rashad's friends and associates and asked them to share some favorite memories of Rashad. Here's what they had to say:

DJ Gant-Man
I have several memories of Rashad and I together. Some I can share, some I can't. (laughs) I'd say my best memories of us are being in the studio working on tracks.

It was so easy to make tracks with Rashad because he came prepared and could make tracks quickly. We'd have fun while making tracks. He made creating tracks fun like it was kids playing with toys, video games, and eating a lot of candy. (Laughs) When we made the track "Heaven Sent", I was messing around on the keyboard and luckily came up with a nice chord and a few synth lines. I didn't know if I wanted to turn what I had into a R&B or a House track. It sounded like it could have been for both. About an hour later Rashad comes over and hears what I was making and instantly said "Damn that shit cold". "Speed that up to 160". He made the beat and the track was complete in about 30 minutes. We played that track for hours just vibing to it. We fell asleep with the track on repeat and woke up with that look like "Maaannn this is a hit". We continued to play it about 10 more times then made a few more tracks that day! He was a beast with the tracks! (Laughs)

DJ Clent
RASHAD WOULD COME TO MY HOUSE AND WE MADE TRAX ALL DAY

RP Boo
I am so honored to have been a great motivational individual for my great friend Rashad. I can say that every time I saw him was always a spark. We'd chat about the music and how to just keep our fans grooving at all time. The first time I met him wasn't like a proper introduction at the place where I was spinning, but after the second time we connected with just incredible skills on the Turntables. And I wasn't even making tracks at that point. One of my moments: DJ Majik Mike was spinning, and I had just gotten my new Tascam 4-track and the "Chip is a Chicken Head" Track was playing while Rashad was standing next to him getting ready to play next. DJ Chip pressed the stop button as the set was going on and Rashad just turned and looked at him—and even Bat Man would have been like "POW"—Laughing.

My other one is the time Rashad and Spinn were on a 2012 Tour in Europe, and I secretly emailed him "AREA 72." He played it while out, and a couple of weeks later he gave me a update and told me the track was making good report. And I was like "okay." Then about a month later, finishing up while on "Tim and Barry Don't Watch That TV," Rashad played "AREA 72," just I didn't know. I got called from people asking about "AREA 72," and I was like, "I never played it, and how you know about the track [or as] a matter of fact the name….." It was a loud voice coming out "Wooooooooo Rashad just released it as a World Premier!" and I just begin to smile and shake my head…. Rashad…

People, this moment is how LEGACY came into the Future of Lives. He is still a great inspiration to my work and life… I was really like a young kid that was excited to see Rashad just standing in my presence. He will be dearly missed, and his music cannot ever be replaced… I Remember the first sentence he said to me. I looked [at him] with a frown. And I have, too, last text conversation between us, and when you see it in the time to come, it will put a smile on all [of] his fans!

J-Cush, close friend
Rashad's legacy will live on forever through in the hearts of his family, friends and fans. His time on earth was all too brief, but I am eternally grateful for every experience we shared—all the good and even the bad. I learned so much from him. He has moved the world both while with us and in his passing. I have lost my best friend and my mentor, and the world has lost the greatest talent. There is a void in my heart that will never fade.

A kind-hearted soul, everything that was his, was also yours. Rashad was not a petty person. He was there for everyone who needed him, whatever the situation. His loyalty was unquestionable and his passion was unforgettable. His music was so beautiful that it has touched people the world over. I have endless fond memories of Rashad as does everyone who spent time with him.

The most pertinent memory to mention was his the unwavering love he had for his son, Chad. Often, we would exclaim how ahead of his years Chad was and how Rashad was going to take his son out the violence that plagues Chicago. Chad was Rashad's driving force to pioneer and persevere. I can't even count the number of times when Rashad would make nine or ten trax in one day. Whenever he could get into the studio and make something, he did. Everything he was working for, and accomplishing, was in Chad's name.

Wes Harden, manager
DJ Rashad, DJ Spinn and I were having a celebratory dinner in New York earlier this year shortly after starting to work together.

All of a sudden a young boy that was no more than two-years-old wandered over to us from a nearby table and tugged on Rashad's shirt.

Despite us all having a big night concern and warmth washed over Rashad, and it's then when I knew that I was sitting across the table from one of South Side Chicago's biggest hearts.

Jermaine Collins is a writer living in Chicago. He's on Twitter - @composuresquad

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R.I.P. Frankie Knuckles, Pioneering House DJ

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