DJ Casper, creator of the 'Cha Cha Slide,' dies at 58

DJ Casper, the disc jockey whose song “Cha Cha Slide” drew an entire generation of middle schoolers to dance floors, has died. He was 58.

Casper’s wife, Kim Brandshaw, confirmed the news of his death to TODAY.com, sharing that he passed away on the evening of Aug. 7 at 8:34 p.m. local time.

Born William Perry Jr. in Chicago, Illinois, Casper produced “Casper Slide Pt. 1” — which came to be known as “Cha Cha Slide” — in 1998.

According to Variety, Casper was inspired to create the song for an aerobics class led by his personal trainer nephew. In 2000, after the song caught on in Chicago, Casper released “Casper Slide Pt. 2.” The song spent five weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, according to Billboard database.

The song has lived on as a dance floor staple, shepherding pre-teens and adults alike through staple moves like “slide to the left,” “slide to the right,” and “reverse, reverse.” At school dances, quinceañeras, weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs, Casper’s lyrics got even the most shrinking of violets to put their hands on their knees, “cha cha real smooth” and “get funky.”

Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2018, Casper noted that he wasn’t entirely surprised by the popularity of his song after he made a cameo in the Netflix series “Orange Is The New Black.”

“I’m not really surprised. The song got real hot around 2004. And, I mean, today, they’ve been playing it like it’s brand-new,” he explained. “You can hear it in every stadium, every sporting event. They played it at the Olympics. You hear it everywhere, so I’m not really surprised. I’m just happy it’s still going, but I’m not surprised.”

A since-suspended GoFundMe campaign from 2016 shared that Casper had been diagnosed with various forms of cancer and appealed to Chicago locals for help. According to the page, Casper had two forms of kidney cancer: renal cancer and nero-endocrine cancer.

In his interview with Variety, Casper spoke briefly spoke about his health.

“Everything right now with the cancer situation is stable and everything. It’s in remission,” he said at the time, explaining that he was enjoying travel.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com