DJ Funk, the revolutionary Chicago producer who coined and helped create the ghetto home subgenre, has died, Resident Advisor studies, citing the late musician’s buddy and collaborator DJ Slugo. In line with a fundraiser for funeral bills, DJ Funk had been residing with most cancers. He was 54 years outdated.
Born Charles Chambers, in Chicago, DJ Funk lower his tooth on the Midwest underground rave circuit within the early Nineties. Alongside the likes of Traxman, DJ Assault, and DJ Deeon, he pioneered a brand new sound that combined sped-up home and Miami bass with raunchy name and response chants taken from hip-hop. The title “ghetto home” first appeared on Avenue Traxx II, one of many now-classic EPs Chambers put out on native label Dance Mania (which he later got here to personal) all through the last decade. In 1996, techno grandmaster Jeff Mills included the DJ Funk tracks “Work That Physique” and “Run (U.Okay.)” in his landmark combine at Tokyo’s Liquid Room.
Launched in 1999, Chambers’ album Booty Home Anthems—the primary in an eventual three-part collection—offered over 1,000,000 copies in the US, with “Pump It,” “Work It,” and “Work That Physique” extra turning into membership staples. He based his personal label, Funk Information, in 2006, the identical yr he remixed Justice’s “Let There Be Mild,” from their Waters of Nazareth EP. The remix wasn’t Chambers’ solely crossover with French contact; he’d beforehand been name-dropped by Daft Punk on “Lecturers,” the Homework lower that served as an prolonged shoutout to Thomas Bangalter and Man-Manuel de Homem-Christo’s influences.
Chambers acquired a lift of consideration in 2013, when his tracks “Home the Groove” and “The Authentic Video Conflict: Video Conflict II (Avenue Combine)” had been included on the compilation file Hardcore Traxx: Dance Mania Information 1986-1997. Ghetto home grew to become the progenitor of Chicago’s thriving juke and footwork scenes, and artists together with RP Boo and the UK’s Evening Slugs collective have taken to social media to pay tribute to DJ Funk and his lasting affect on their work.
In 2012, Chambers advised Crack, “I’m not attempting to be a super-producer, however what I do is simply make stuff that’s related to my life. I prefer to be on the present enjoying music that I’d truly prefer to be dancing to myself, the shit that’s gonna make me completely happy.”
