DJ Casper, the Chicago artist finest recognized for the creation of the get together traditional “Cha Cha Slide” has died at 58. In keeping with ABC 7, Casper’s spouse confirmed to the station that he died on Monday (Aug. 7) after a seven-year battle with most cancers.
As legend has it, Casper (born William Perry Jr.) created his most well-known tune for his nephew — a Bally health coach — round 1998 as an aerobics train with the unique title “Casper Slide Pt. 1.” The road dancing monitor nonetheless, with its directions “To the left/ Take it again y’all/ One hop this time/ Proper foot, let’s stomp/ Left foot, let’s stomp/ Cha cha actual easy,” blew as much as grow to be a world staple of bar/bat mitzvahs, proms, weddings and any get together that wanted beginning.
In one in all his final interviews in Could, Casper — who acquired his DJ nickname because of his ubiquitous all-white stage outfits — informed ABC 7 that he by no means imagined “Cha Cha Slide” would grow to be a global smash carried out by individuals all around the world. “After I first did it, I did it as an cardio train for my nephew at Bally’s,” mentioned Casper, who launched the tune underneath the identify Mr. C the Slide Man. “From there, it simply took off. Elroy Smith from WGCI grabbed ahold of it.”
The latter is a reference to the DJ at WGCI-FM in Chicago who picked up a brand new model, “Casper Slide Pt. 2,” in 2000 and commenced enjoying it. The monitor turned a neighborhood hit in Chicago and in 2004 M.O.B. Data picked the tune up, which later led to a take care of Common Data and the monitor’s inclusion on the report, Cha-Cha Slide: The Authentic Slide Album.
“I’ve one of many greatest songs that performed in any respect stadiums: hockey, basketball, soccer, baseball; they performed it on the Olympics,” Casper informed ABC. “It was one thing that everyone may do.”
In 2016, a GoFundMe was introduced for Casper, revealing that he had been identified with liver and kidney most cancers and he informed ABC that he’d been reducing weight lately and regardless of shedding 60 kilos he was decided to struggle on. “I used to weigh 236 kilos, and I feel I’m about 60 kilos much less,” Casper mentioned in Could. “If you understand me, you understand I’m not going to cease. I’m going to proceed to go. I’m going to proceed to go till I can’t go.”
In 2018, Casper made an surprising cameo in Netflix’s ladies’s jail drama Orange Is the New Black, when Suzanne “Loopy Eyes” Warren sees visions of everybody within the psych ward doing the “Cha Cha Slide,” together with Casper, who’s dressed as a jail orderly working the turntables. He was additionally an on-air character on iHeart radio station V103 in Chicago and the creator of the streaming station Casper Basic Radio. In 2019, he introduced that his most cancers was in remission, however it later returned.
The DJ mentioned his legacy was that “Cha Cha Slide” would all the time function a joyful reminder of the ability of music to unify individuals with a constructive message. “Anyone that’s going by most cancers, know that you’ve most cancers and most cancers doesn’t have you ever,” Casper mentioned in Could. “So, carry on doing the ‘Cha Cha Slide.’”
Watch the “Cha Cha Slide” video beneath.
