The last month continues to be traumatic for the Chicago dance music scene as DJ Rashad, one of the city's biggest names, was found dead at the age of 35 on Saturday afternoon. A friend found the DJ unresponsive at his home and he was declared dead at the scene. Police suspect a drug overdose—narcotics and paraphernalia were reported at the scene— but an official autopsy will be conducted on Sunday. His father confirmed to the Chicago Sun-Times that Rashad had a prescription for Xanax.
Rashad was the biggest name in Chicago's "Footwork" scene, which incorporated DJ's taking loops of more popular pop and hip-hop tracks and molding them into rapid-fire dance tracks. His work had come to more mainstream appreciation during 2013 thanks to his touring with Chance The Rapper, and SPIN featuring his EP I Don't Give A F--k as its no. 24 album of the year. Rashad was scheduled to drop a new EP, We On 1, on April 28, and there hasn't been any suggestion of plans changing.
"Music lost a legend today," Chance tweeted. "And he was my friend. Love you DJ Rashad. RIP."
April has been an awful month for those involved in the Chicago electronic music scene. House music pioneer Frankie Knuckles was found dead at the age of 59 on March 31, although most read about the news the following day.
Rashad was scheduled to play a show in Detroit on Saturday night at the Inhale Art Expo, along with DJ Godfather, who was among the first to confirm the news.
