House music innovator and ghetto house pioneer DJ Deeon, 56, has died.
An administrator of his Facebook page took to the profile to share the tragic news. “I am sorry to announce the legendary Artist, Producer, DJ, Label owner, and my friend Deeon ‘DJ Deeon’ Boyd gained his wings today,” the post reads. “The family thanks you for your support and will announce arrangements in the coming days. Thank you for your understanding.”
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Deeon’s cause of death has not yet been revealed, but less than a week ago he shared an image of himself in a hospital bed along with a caption that read, “PRAY FOR ME PLEASE.”
According to a recent fundraising campaign organized by the late producer, he endured quadruple bypass heart surgery, cancer, chemotherapy, series of strokes and a leg amputation. He attributed these issues to “years of ill education on my health in my younger years.”
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Deeon was among a group of genre-bending Chicago house DJs like Traxman and DJ Slugo. Together, they pioneered the minimal, low end-driven ghetto house genre.
He released successful singles like “Freak Like Me,” “House-O-Matic” and “Shake What Your Momma Gave Ya” in the mid-1990s and aughts. Daft Punk named Deeon a “formative lynchpin of dance music” in their 1996 track “Teachers” from 1996, per Pitchfork.
Fellow DJs and artists have taken to social media to pay tribute, including fellow Chicago artist The Blessed Madonna. “It would be hard to overstate his importance to Chicago and all of dance music,” she wrote. “He was also an extremely sweet guy who will be missed terribly. Damn.”
We at EDM.com express our sincere condolences to the family, fans, friends and loved ones of DJ Deeon.