Pioneering Ghetto House Artist DJ Funk has Passed Away at 53

The news follows the launch of a fundraiser to cover DJ Funk’s funeral costs as he battled stage four cancer in the hospital.

The Chicago house music community is once again reeling after the passing of one of its own. DJ Funk aka Charles Chambers, an artist who played an integral role in birthing the ghetto house sound, has died at age 53 following a battle with cancer.

Last month, Chambers’ daughter Shontae had launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover his inevitable funeral costs. The description noted that Chambers had been “bravely battling stage 4 cancer” and didn’t “have much longer left.” Then, on Thursday, March 5, she shared from Chambers’ personal Facebook profile that he had passed away.

“He fought like a true warrior from the beginning to the end,” reads the Facebook post. “I thank God for his strength and will power throughout this entire cancer journey. Now he is at ease resting peacefully.”

Charles Chambers got involved with dance music in the early ’90s in Chicago, where house music had risen from the ashes of disco in gay, Black, and Latino circles nearly a decade prior. His career broke through on the back of a series of EPs on the label Dance Mania closer to the turn of the millennium, not the least of which was Ghetto House.

The title came to be synonymous with a house music subgenre of which Chambers is widely credited as an originator. Ghetto house incorporates the offensive lyrics and higher tempos of the ghettotech sound popularized by Detroit artists like DJ Assault and DJ Godfather a few years prior, but set to a more straightforward four-on-the-floor rhythm.

Chambers released Booty House Anthems on his own Funk Records imprint in 1999. The studio-length album sold over one million copies in the US, prompting Chambers to release two sequels in 2006 and 2013.

In 2006, Chambers remixed “Let There Be Light” by Justice; his rendition landed on the French duo’s EP, Waters of Nazareth (Remixes). He is mentioned by name in the 1997 Daft Punk track “Teachers,” in which the two Frenchmen cite their various influences.

We here at EDM Identity express our sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of DJ Funk aka Charles Chambers during what can only be a difficult time.