SHAKE: A benefit for Anthony “Shake” Shakir

We are coming together as a community to celebrate Anthony “Shake” Shakir with a fundraiser to help improve his life, and have set up this GoFundMe for people who can’t attend the March 1st benefit, but still want to support Shake.

For far too long Shake has been in long term care for his multiple sclerosis (MS), which has kept him from doing what he loves most, and how he made such an impact on the world — his DJing and visionary music production. The music of Anthony “Shake” Shakir has had such a lasting impact precisely because he saw beyond boundaries and expressed a true iconoclastic spirit that is simultaneously purely Detroit and universal. A single EP from Shake could have 4 songs in 4 totally different genres, with each one not only excellent, but inspired and innovative. His ability to see beyond the rules and categorizations to the core essence of what makes this music so exciting is why his influence endures. Shake would simply say “I am just a humble farmer, trying to raise the best beats in the world.”

Shake’s rise to DJ fame began when he was just in high school, when he won the Mixer Dome on the Electriyin’ Mojo’s radio show. His techniques were advanced, combining techno mixing with hip hop flair, rocking doubles with ease, combining things that no one ever expected. He worked for Metroplex, eventually releasing a record there, made edits for Transmat (such as early Carl Craig records) and wrote lyrics for Octave One’s debut hit single. He released both house and wild techno on KMS and its sublabels. Later he would release music on Daniel Bell’s Seventh City, and co-found Frictional with Claude Young, eventually running that label himself for many years. The amount of incredible Detroit labels that he had direct influence on is as wide ranging as his taste, including Puzzlebox, Interdimensional Transmissions, NSC, and FIT, as well as international labels such as Tresor, Rush Hour and Disko B, along with so many more.

To support this fundraiser in person, join us on March 1st at Tangent Gallery in Detroit. On this night, we have so many of his friends and peers, as well as people he influenced, performing in tribute to him. This is a night we want to celebrate Shake, and his impact on music, and help him get back to doing what he loves. We will start at 9pm and go until 4am with two rooms including artists from the very beginning of techno to the cutting edge of now, people who have toured with him and made records with him in many different eras, who all wanted to perform in his honor. Come support Shake, and experience the bliss of music beyond boundaries by some of the world’s finest sonic renegades.

** Contributions made here are donations only. To attend the benefit, purchase a ticket on RA, or buy a ticket at the door on March 1st at Tangent Gallery between 9pm and 4am. Event details here.