Dance music pioneer DJ Dion, who popularized Chicago's "ghetto house" style with his groundbreaking productions, has died at the age of 56.
The manager announced the news on his Facebook page, with a representative confirming that Dion is "battling ongoing health and heart issues." He died safely in the hospital with his family."
Born Dean Boyd, a DJ and producer established himself in the Chicago house scene in the mid-90s with the EP Funk City in 1994. He has maintained the fast, raw sound that has driven the urban house sound since his 80s heyday and now sings the funniest, funkiest house songs at the top of the canon.
The most successful was Freak Like Me - in 2011. A mainstay of house collections since its release in 1996, but 2 B Free's sampler and super hardcore bands like House-O-Matic and The Freaks are also considered classics of the genre. He defines the work as escapist and sexually suggestive: "with strange music it's trash." Music for kissing girls. Music to relieve stress.
A new generation of producers have successfully sampled and remixed his work: Freak Like Me featured pop singers Katy B and MNK on Lee Walker's 2016 remix, Hi-Lo sampled 2022 freestyle techno hit 2B, and Boyd added vocals to another popular track Work It that same year. Daft Punk has cited Boyd as an inspiration in his songwriting career.
In 2020, she started a fundraiser to cover her medical bills and opened up about her long-standing health issues: “Poor education at a young age led to four heart surgeries, then cancer and chemotherapy, and finally my leg was removed. I cried like a baby. But I kept arguing, I said I didn't want a wheelchair, so they gave me a prosthesis and I've been wearing it every day since. He also suffered from diabetes. "Many micro strokes in 12 months" from 2018.
His health problems continued - in June 2022 he wrote on Instagram: "In the hospital, amputation, pneumonia, now in ICU with heart infection" - but his creativity did not change, and on May 27 he released new music.
She posted a photo of herself from her hospital bed on Instagram at the weekend and asked her followers to "pray for me".
Tributes have been paid online, including one with Chicago DJ Sluggo who wrote, "30+ years and so many fucking memories... you will be missed but never forgotten."
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