Paul Johnson

Best known for his Number 1 hit "Get Get Down," which topped the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in 1999, Paul Johnson was a house DJ and electronic producer for more than three decades. Born in Chicago, Illinois, on January 11, 1971, he began working as a self-taught producer during the late 1980s, creating tracks for a variety of Chicago-based house labels while still a teenager. Unlike most DJs in Chicago, Paul Johnson was wheelchair-bound, having been paralyzed from the waist down by a bullet wound in 1987. That didn't stop him from building a wide reputation as a beat-creator, and he continued working regularly for Dancemania, Undaground Therapy, Peacefrog, and other local labels during the early '90s. Albums like 1995's Bump Talkin and 1996's Feel the Music helped solidify his audience at home, while a shoutout from the French duo Daft Punk — who name-checked Johnson in the 1997 track "Teachers" — pointed to his growing popularity aboard. Even so, it was the hit song "Get Get Down" that truly turned Paul Johnson into an international act. Released as the lead single from 1999's The Groove I Have, "Get Get Down" topped the dance charts in Canada and the US, while also cracking the Top 10 in the UK, the Netherlands, Greece, France, and Belgium. Although Johnson never charted another hit of the same magnitude, he remained active for years, releasing albums like 2000's Paradise at El Divino, 2002's Liquid Blues, and 2004's Mix Connexion, Vol. 1. His health worsened throughout the 2000s, though, and by 2010, he'd lost both his legs. He contracted Covid-19 a decade later and succumbed to the illness on August 4, 2021, passing away at 50 years old.