{"id":223714,"date":"2026-02-14T14:52:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T13:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/?p=223714"},"modified":"2026-02-14T14:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T13:56:11","slug":"british-breakbeat-hip-hop-pioneer-simon-harris-passed-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/british-breakbeat-hip-hop-pioneer-simon-harris-passed-away\/","title":{"rendered":"British breakbeat &#038; Hip-Hop pioneer, Simon Harris, passed away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"223715\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/british-breakbeat-hip-hop-pioneer-simon-harris-passed-away\/simon-harris\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Simon-Harris.avif\" data-orig-size=\"960,1432\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Simon Harris\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Simon-Harris-686x1024.avif\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-223715 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Simon-Harris-686x1024.avif\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"955\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Simon-Harris-686x1024.avif 686w, https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Simon-Harris-362x540.avif 362w, https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Simon-Harris-768x1146.avif 768w, https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Simon-Harris.avif 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Renowned British producer,\u00a0 DJ, label owner, and promotor, <strong>Simon Harris<\/strong>, has unfortunately passed away on February 13th, 2026, at the age of 63. He was best known for his 1988 hit, &#8220;Bass (How Low Can You Go?)&#8221;, as well as co-founding <em>Music of Life<\/em> label, and producing most of its catalogue. Harris began his career as a mobile DJ in 1977, and would quickly be recognized for his mixing skills. In 1981, he met <strong>Froggy<\/strong>, with whom he founded <em>Music of Life <\/em>in 1986. The pair also dropped a string of releases, including &#8220;You to Me Are Everything (The Decade Remix 76\/86),&#8221; which reached #5 on the UK Singles Chart in 1986.<\/p>\n<p>Froggy soon departed from the label and Harris became the driving force behind it. He switched its direction to Hip-Hop and released some of the earliest British works. Artists such as<strong> Derek B<\/strong>. <strong>Demon Boyz<\/strong>, <strong>Asher D and Daddy Freddy<\/strong>, <strong>Hijack<\/strong>, and <strong>She Rockers<\/strong>, all released music under <em>Music of Life<\/em>. Through the label, he also released &#8220;Beats, Breaks and Scratches,&#8221; a compilation series which became an essential tool for DJs. Harris himself signed for <em>FFRR Records<\/em> in 1987. Throughout his career, he was involved in dozens of remixes, including the first official remix of<strong> Elvis Presley&#8217;s<\/strong> &#8220;Bossa Nova Baby,&#8221; and <strong>Prince&#8217;s<\/strong> &#8220;Most Beautiful Girl in the World.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>His contribution to the British breakbeat and Hip-Hop scenes was nothing short of monumental.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>May he rest in peace.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hmFqRpGL1T8?si=hCiS3a5Rwk0bdMPL\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Renowned British producer,\u00a0 DJ, label owner, and promotor, Simon Harris, has unfortunately passed away on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-videos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pG6fW-Wci","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}