DJ Deeon

Deeon Boyd (October 5, 1966 – July 18, 2023), known under his stage name DJ Deeon, was an American Chicago house DJ, credited with pioneering ghetto house and helping create the Dance Mania label.^[2]

DJ Deeon
DJ Deeon in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Deeon Boyd
Also known as	Debo
Born	(1966-10-05)October 5, 1966 Chicago, Illinois
Origin	South Side, Chicago
Died	July 18, 2023(2023-07-18) (aged 56)
Genres	Ghetto house[1]
Years active	1980–2023
Labels	Dance Mania

Early life

Boyd was born in Chicago in 1966. Growing up in a housing project in the South Side, he became interested in electronic music after listening to "Numbers" by Kraftwerk off their 1981 album Computer World, later discovering house mixes on WBMX.^[3]

Career

Boyd started DJing in 1980, with Boyd being influenced by Kraftwerk, John Rocca, and Soulsonic Force.^[4][5] He helped with the creation of the Dance Mania label with Ray Barney as well as creating the sound of ghetto house in the Chicago area.^[6]

Boyd released his debut EP in 1994, named "Funk City".^[7] After "Funk City", he released "Freak Like Me" in 1996, which is regarded as his most successful work.^[7] Boyd would continue to release music regarded as classics in the house genre, such as "Bomb 96", "2 B Free", "Wicked", "Back 2 Skool", "House-O-Matic" and "The Freaks".^[7][8] He was named in the Daft Punk song "Teachers" from their 1997 album Homework.^[9]

In 2015, the record label Numbers reissued four tracks from Boyd in the EP Deeon Doez Deeon!.^[10] In 2016, a remix of his track "Freak Like Me" by Lee Walker featuring Katy B and MNEK was released on Defected Records, reaching #80 on the UK Singles Chart.^[11] In 2021, Boyd released Destiny on the label Teklife, with the proceeds of the project going to DJ Rashad's family after his death in 2014.^[12] Starting from May 5, 2023, Boyd released four EPs over the span of 2 days, those EPs being "Bad Robot", "Glasgow to London", "My CPU" and "Space Age Digital Pimp".^[13]

Personal life

In July 2020, Boyd launched a crowdfunding campaign for his health issues, having no income from gigs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and no disability benefits due to his previous touring.^[14] In June 2022, he revealed through his Facebook account that he had gone through amputation and pneumonia and was in an intensive care unit. A GoFundMe had started to cover his medical costs.^[15][16] On July 18, 2023, he died of undisclosed causes.^[17]

Artistry

Boyd's style has been described as minimal and raunchy, a staple of the ghetto house genre.^[9] He personally described his work as "Get-freaky-with-a-stranger music. Girls kissing girls music. Stress-relief music."^[7] He was known for using the Roland TR-909 drum machine as the main backbone of his tracks, the instrument "pushed to the breaking point, asked to provide a waterfall of drum sounds".^[18]

Discography

Singles and EPs by DJ Deeon

• Funk City (EP) (Dance Mania, 1994) – incl. "House-O-Matic"^[7]
• "Freak Like Me" (1996)^[7][19]
• Work This M.F. (EP) (DiKi, 1997) – with DJ Puff^[20]
• "Feel Good" / "Akceler 8" (Caution, 1998)^[20]
• "2 B Free"^[7]
• "Let Me Bang" (Databass, 2003) – incl. "Ride This MF"^[19]
• "The Freaks" (Juke Trax, 2005)^[7]
• "Wanna Go Bang" (Drumcode, 2022)^[19]
• "Bad Robot" (2023)^[13]
• "Glasgow to London" (2023)^[13]
• "My CPU" (2023)^[13]
• "Space Age Digital Pimp" (2023)^[13]

Music with contributions by DJ Deeon

• "Work It" by Dance System – DJ Deeon contributed vocals^[7]