Openwhyd: The community of music lovers

If you ask footwork dancers and DJs to pick their favorite track, DJ Rashad’s “Ghost” will top many lists. The song’s title and lyric refer to “the ghost,” a footwork move developed in late ‘80s Chicago on the West Side. That move and the idea of that move—an emphasis on gliding, on ghosting, on dance that defies the eye—still defines footwork. “Ghost” hinges on a sample of a sample—Rashad sampling Kanye sampling Diana Ross. “I’m still dreaming,” she sings, an echo of an echo that Rashad grounds with a sample of his own voice: “ghost, ghost, ghost, ghost.” The meaning of “ghost” dissolves into the word’s texture, into the way it hits your body. Later in the track, Rashad recognizes four crucial Chicago dancers: “Poo, AG, Q, Litebulb,” he repeats. “That was everything to me,” Litebulb told me. “To get your name on a Rashad track and to be listed with those guys, that changed my life and helped me launch my career as a dancer.”