Cha-Cha Slide Inventor DJ Casper Dead At 58

CHICAGO — The man who taught the world to “cha-cha real smooth” is gone, but his legacy as the inventor of the Cha-Cha Slide will live on at wedding receptions, school dances and other celebrations for years to come. Willie Perry Jr. — better known as DJ Casper — died Monday, his wife told WLS. He was 58.

"Casper was a fun-loving, giving person," Casper's spouse, Kim, said in a statement to the outlet. "He was a genuine, family oriented man. He loved Chicago with all his heart. He will be greatly missed.”

The Chicago native had battled kidney and liver cancer since 2016, WLS reported.

A staple at parties and gatherings across the world, Casper invented the Cha-Cha Slide in the Chicago neighborhood of Englewood in the late 1990s, according to WBEZ. It was originally intended to be an aerobics routine for his nephew, a personal trainer, WBEZ reported, but WGCI-FM picked up the song in 2000 and it took off from there.

“Everything hit all at once, Universal Records contact me, they wanted me to go on a tour and it started getting real crazy,” he told WTTW in 2018.

The song cracked the Billboard Hot 100 and, in 2004, it reached No. 1. in the U.K., according to WTTW. It has remained a dance floor standby for decades.

“I’ve gotten sick of the song a long time ago,” Casper said to WTTW. “But I don’t get sick of people enjoying themselves.”