Another DJ Legend Passes Away: Grand Master Roc Raida

DJ Roc Raida Passes away at age 37 after complications with surgery

Picture of DJ Roc Raida on his Gold Technics Turntables
Which He Won defeating the worlds best DJs at the Technics DMC DJ World Finals Competition

New York DJ, Roc Raida had passed away this weekend at age 37.
The DJ - real name is Anthony Williams - won the 1995 DMC World DJ Championship and was a member of a turntablist group known as The X-Ecutioners.

“The legendary Grand Master Roc Raida has passed away this morning,” a representative for the DJ told media. “Family and friends will miss him dearly. Please give the family their privacy.”

Statement from Roc Raida's family, confirming the tragic loss. "Anthony Williams p/k to the world as The Legendary Grandmaster Roc Raida has passed away unexpectedly today September 19 2009. He is survived by his wife, three lovely daughters, mother and friends. Raida was recently in an mixed martial arts accident, something that he has been practicing for several years. Although he had under gone two surgeries with great success, was released to an inpatient physical therapy facility and was in great spirits the past few days. This morning he started to have complications and passed. The family asks for privacy at this time."

Roc Raida started DJ’ing at the age of 10 after being inspired by his father, who was a member of Sugar Hill Records group Mean Machine.

Click here to watch footage of Roc Raida performing at the 1995 DMC World DJ Championship.
He died on September 19, 2009. His last solo album was released in 2007 and is called, Beats, Cuts and Skits.

The X-Ecutioners formed as a DJ crew in the early nineties, originally calling themselves the X-Men and being comprised of 11 members. The crew changed their name due to trademark infringement and was reduced to members Rob Swift, Roc Raida, Total Eclipse, and Mista Sinista before releasing their debut album X-Pressions in 1997. Sinista later left the group shortly after the release of Built from Scratch in 2002, and Rob Swift left the group for personal and artistic reasons in 2005.

Since Swift’s departure, The X-Ecutioners have been scarcely heard of; however, the latest word is that the group has two new members, DJ Boogie Blind and DJ Precision. The X-Ecutioners have worked with many famous artists on numerous collaborations, including Kool G Rap, Cypress Hill, Mike Shinoda and they have also co-released an album with Mike Patton called General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners.

The X-Ecutioners contributed to a remix of Run-DMC’s ‘King of Rock’ on the Harmonix game Amplitude, and the DJ group’s song ‘Like This’ was featured in the videogame SSX 3.