Influential Detroit DJ Mike Brown has died following a cancer diagnosis.
As report, the news was announced by the the Charivari Detroit festival and confirmed by his friend Pat Lee.
Last year, Lee set up a crowdfunding page for fans to help with funds towards cancer treatment for the DJ.
Though no official cause of death has been revealed, Lee said that Brown died on Sunday, January 14 and was undergoing kidney dialysis and waiting for an organ transplant.
The GoFundMe page has now been relaunched following Brown’s death to help his family with medical bills and funeral costs.
A post on the page calls Brown “one piece of a puzzle that has helped shape the soul of Detroit through friendship, music, supporting culture versus divide, and most importantly, creating balance thru communities.”
Of his illness, it adds: “He has been struggling thru kidney dialysis with prayers from all for a transplant while throughout, dealing with cancer. It breaks so many hearts to see this Strong Individual, friend to all who have been blessed to know this gentleman, and family member to many who consistently puts himself aside. One who cares more about his 89-year-old Father.”
DJ Mike Clarke said of Brown on the fundraising page: “Mike Brown was one of the artists at the start of the Detroit electronic music scene. Although too young to understand the scene, Mike had a very strong impression on me during those early days in the late ’70s thru the early ’80s.
“As I grew older, was blessed to work in collaborations as he has become a very dear friend, close to heart from bridged souls throughout the years. He is what you would call the quiet, cool one. Proteus and glad to know him and call him my older brother.”
Brown was most notably a member of house collective Direct Drive in 1970s Detroit. He is considered a key figure in the rise to prominence of house and techno from the Michigan city.