About DJ Rashad

Rashad Harden (October 9,1979 - April 26, 2014) was a quintessential figurehead in the evolution from ghetto house to Chicago juke to footwork and one of the artists to have to consistently pushed the evolution of the Footwork genre forward. He was born in Hammond, Indiana and moved to the deep south suburb of Calumet City soon after. Rashad started out as a dancer in middle school cutting his teeth with some of the most respected dance groups including House-O-Matics, The Phyrm, and Wolf Pac. He quickly thereafter took up DJing with some of his first public gigs around 1992 at spots like his sixth grade high school club Jubilation. He met his longtime ally DJ Spinn during homeroom at Thornwood High School in 1996, and they quickly began producing tracks at each others' houses. During this era, they DJ'd parties with the likes of RP Boo, DJ Clent, Gant--Man and others. His first release to make it to vinyl was the track "Child Abuse" on Dance Mania (mislabeled as DJ Thadz) in 1998. Following the release of his single "Itz Not Rite" (Planet Mu) and his inclusion on the Bangs and Works album (Planet Mu) in late 2010, he was constantly in demand around the world and spent the majority of his time on the road touring the world as a DJ, more often than not in tandem in with his lifelong friend, DJ Spinn. He was involved in many Footwork cliques - including Beatdown House (founded by DJ Clent), the Ghettoteknitianz (with DJ Spinn) and Teklife. As a producer his crowning achievement was the October 2013 release of his album Double Cup on Hyperdub Records featuring collaborations with DJ Spinn, Taso, DJ Phil, DJ Manny, DJ Earl and Addison Groove. His last performance as a DJ was at Vinyl Club in Denver, CO on April 24, 2014. He passed away two days later.