DJ Rashad

Born in Chicago and raised in its suburb of Calumet City, Rashad Harden, who performed as DJ Rashad, emerged as one of the leading figures in footwork, the rapid and aggressive form of house music. From an early age he immersed himself in the city’s hard-hitting ghettohouse sound and was already producing mixtapes when he encountered fellow enthusiast DJ Spinn during high school. The pair launched their joint DJ performances across the city in 1996, and two years later they appeared on a split 12" issued by the Dance Mania label, though Spinn’s contribution was incorrectly credited to DJ Thadz. They maintained their partnership through the successive transformations of ghettohouse into juke and then footwork, establishing the Ghettoteknitianz collective in 2004. Multiple producers linked to that collective placed tracks on Planet Mu’s 2010 footwork anthology Bangs & Works, Vol. 1; the same imprint also put out Rashad’s Itz Not Rite EP that year and the Ghettoteknitianz 12" EP the next. Around 2011 the collective rebranded as Teklife and broadened its reach worldwide, drawing footwork artists from outside the Chicago orbit. Rashad issued the Teklife, Vol 1: Welcome to the Chi compilation in 2012, while his album Double Cup appeared on Hyperdub the following year alongside the EPs Rollin’ and I Don’t Give a Fuck. Double Cup proved a pivotal release for footwork, earning broad critical praise and signaling the style’s expanding artistic range as it absorbed elements of jungle and acid techno. In April 2014 Rashad was discovered deceased at age 34 in an apartment on Chicago’s South Side. Hyperdub followed with the Teklife compilation Next Life in November 2014, directing all proceeds to a fund established for his son Chad Harden, and then released Rashad’s 6613 EP in June 2015.