Andrew Veeder on May 6th, 2014

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On Saturday, April 26, Rashad Harden, aka DJ Rashad, was found dead in Chicago due to complications stemming from a blood clot in his leg. He was 34. The Chicago-area native was both dancing and DJing by the time he was in middle school, and he eventually helped develop the electronica genre of “footwork” used in dance battles, influenced by ghetto house and juke, and often a rapid-fire 150-160 bpm pace with lots of invention. His 2012 album “Teklife Volume 1 – Welcome to the Chi” brought footwork into the mainstream and infused it with hip-hop and R&B samples, while his 2013 follow-up, “Double Cup,” gained international notoriety. His latest release, the “We On 1” EP, came out posthumously on Monday.

This Thursday, DJ Rashad and DJ Spinn were scheduled to perform at the Bootleg Theater. In the wake of his passing, there will instead be a memorial event. “This is the natural time and place for his friends and fans to gather, acknowledge, commemorate, and do a little footwork to honor the life of Rashad Harden,” organizers said in a press release. An all-star roster will be performing in his place along with DJ Spinn, including the Gaslamp Killer, J. Rocc, Kingdom, Peanut Butter Wolf and TASO. The event is free, but donations of any size are encouraged, with all proceeds going to his family.

Check out a few of DJ Rashad’s greatest hits after the jump:

||| Stream: “I Don’t Give A F*ck,” “The Way I Feel” feat. DJ Manny, and the inadvertently morbid “I’m Gone”