Simon Harris, influential British hip-hop producer and remixer, dies aged 63

Influential British hip-hop producer and remixed Simon Harris has died at age 63.

Friend and Street Sounds founder Morgan Khan announced the news of the “visionary music producer”‘s death on Facebook on 14th February. “I am in utter shock, devastated to hear that Simon Harris has passed away. My deepest condolences to his family”, he wrote. “I have known Simon for four decades and he has been both a friend and inspiration. Simon was an innovator and one of the first UK curators of hip-hop. I was privileged to have licensed and distributed his Music of Life record label in the ’80s.”

“Throughout my career, the ups and downs, Simon was always there for my calls and never judged”, Khan continued. “…Simon was always humble and always tried to help in any way he could regardless of his fame and success. Ask yourself why Prince allowed Music of Life to facilitate the release of his 1994 UK No. 1 single, ‘The Most Beautiful Girl in the World’,”

British Hip-Hop reports Harris passed on 13th February. A friend of Harris’ posted on X saying that he had been battling leukaemia. 

Born in 1962, Londoner Simon Harris got into mixing as a mobile DJ out of Essex and became a radio DJ for Radio Forest Hospital Radio in the ’70s. In the ’80s, he began promoting hip-hop and rap in the UK in the ’80s, founding his influential Music Of Life label in 1986 with Froggy. There he promoted and mentored artists like Derek B, Hijack, MC Duke and Demon Boyz, around the same time he released the key series Beats, Breaks and Scratches, which led to Pete Tong signing him to FFRR in 1987.

Harris’ 1988 single ‘Bass (How Low Can You Go?)’, off his debut solo LP of the same name, was his biggest hit — landing him the 12th spot on the UK singles chart and a performance slot on Top of the Pops. He also remixed tracks for the likes of Prince, Heatwave, James Brown, Grace Jones, Joyce Sims, Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley, Roy Ayers and the first official Elvis Presley remix.