Paul Johnson

Chicago native Paul Johnson earned a reputation as one of the most tireless figures in house music, issuing countless productions while guiding younger talents across the global club circuit. His output ranged from raw, jacking tracks laced with explicit rhymes to expansive, filter-drenched cuts built on repurposed disco loops, helping shape the direction of French house in the process. Long before Daft Punk opened their track “Teachers” with a direct nod to him, Johnson had already placed dozens of releases on Chicago imprints such as Dance Mania and Relief as well as European outlets like Djax-Up-Beats and Peacefrog; the latter two labels each issued a full-length—Bump Talkin in 1995 and Feel the Music in 1996. His widest commercial breakthrough arrived with the 1999 single “Get Get Down,” a Bohannon-flavored hook that climbed to the U.K. Top Five and reached the summit of Billboard’s dance chart. Although he spent his adult years using a wheelchair after a 1987 shooting left him paralyzed from the waist down, followed by later amputations resulting from additional health setbacks and a car accident, Johnson maintained an unyielding schedule of worldwide performances and new recordings until his death in 2021.

Born in 1971, he started DJing and making tracks while still a teenager. Early singles appeared on Chicago Underground and Nite Life, with his most provocative and sexually charged material surfacing on Underground Construction and Dance Mania. Both of those labels also documented the group Traxmen, which united Johnson with Gant-Man, Eric Martin, and Robert Armani. He further collaborated with Louis Bell under the name 2 Men on Wax. Several solo EPs reached Dutch label Djax-Up-Beats, among them the 1994 video-game-themed Psycho Kong. Peacefrog issued his debut album Bump Talkin in 1995, then followed with Feel the Music and the Hear the Music EP the next year; 1996 also brought Second Coming on ACV and The Other Side of Me on Relief Records. In 1997 Johnson co-founded Dust Traxx with Radek Hawryszczuk and handled A&R duties for the label, while simultaneously releasing a single on Crydamoure, the French house imprint started by Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. The pair had met two years earlier, and they honored Johnson by placing his name at the head of the influence roll call on their Homework album track “Teachers.”

Nite Life Collective put out We Can Make the World Spin in 1998, and Moody Recordings released his sixth album, The Groove I Have, the following year. Its lead single “Get Get Down” crossed several national charts, topped the U.S. and Canadian club listings, and earned widespread European radio play, prompting an expanded touring itinerary. Johnson issued occasional mix compilations, such as 2000’s Paradise @ El Divino Ibiza, yet continued to focus primarily on singles and EPs. Standout cuts included the Candi Staton collaboration “Doo Doo Wop,” later reworked with Chynna as “Doo Wap,” and the Billboard Top Ten dance-charting “Follow This Beat.” He appeared on Pascal FEOS’s 2010 track “Girlfunk” and returned to Dance Mania in 2014 with The Doobie Bruthas Project EP alongside DJ Lil’ Tal. Further 12-inches emerged on Bosconi Records and Moveltraxx. The 2021 release “Party All Night Long,” taken from the P.J. Classics EP, directly referenced the reopening of clubs after COVID-19 lockdowns. Johnson himself contracted the virus that year and passed away on August 4 at age 50 in a hospital in Evergreen Park, Illinois.