Frankie Knuckles ‘Godfather of House’ dead at 59

The DJ, producer, and remixer, known as the Godfather of House Frankie Knuckles, died Monday afternoon at the age of 59.

According to the New York Daily News, the official cause of death has not been released, but some reports suggested that it may have been from complications related to Type II Diabetes.

Knuckles was born in the Bronx borough of New York City and later moved to Chicago, where he popularized house music in the 1980s.

Rolling Stone noted that Knuckles had a number of dance hits including Your Love and Baby Wants to Ride, with Jamie Principle; Tears, with Satoshi Tomiiee and Robert Owens; The Whistle Song; and remixes of Chaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody, Sounds of Blackness’s The Pressure, and Hercules and Love Affair’s Blind.

Knuckles also worked with other stars including Diana Ross and the late Michael Jackson.

He won a Grammy in 1997 and was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2005. What would be his final album was released one year earlier.