Influential grime producer Rodney Price, better known as Terror Danjah, died yesterday, a label representative has confirmed. Beloved for his tactile beats and cartoonish, neon-lined flourishes, the East Londoner was a leading producer of his generation and a grime lynchpin, releasing on Hyperdub and Planet Mu and through his own label, Hardrive. No age or cause of death were immediately available.
Born in Forest Gate to Jamaican parents, Price got his break DJing jungle raves in the 1990s before turning his attention to music production. He joined N.A.S.T.Y. Crew—the vaunted grime collective featuring Kano and D Double E—before embarking on a prolific series of projects culminating in Hardrivethe landmark mixtape that gave his label its name. Between standalone releases on Hyperdub and Planet Mu, he lent productions tinged with the reggae and soul of his childhood to an increasingly diverse pool of artists, from Wiley to Kelela and IAMDDB; in 2014, he collaborated on a single with Four Tet. He is credited, alongside DaVinChe and Scratcha DVA, as a pioneer of R&G, the R’n’B/grime hybrid genre advanced on early tunes like Sadie Ama and Kano’s “So Sure.”
In 2019, when Price fell into a coma due to a stroke, artists across grime and electronic music paid tribute, with Hudson Mohawke and ScratchaDVA among those touting his influence. Price never made a full recovery, but after he emerged from the coma, he released two more records, Invasion and the EP Red Flag.
In tribute to the late producer, Kevin Martin, a.k.a. the Bug, wrote on X that Terror Danjah was a “fantastic producer, big hearted person and criminally underrated outside of grime circles.” Big Zuu added that he was “a very kind soul who always had time for the mandem and just wanted to see us win,” a sentiment echoed by Mr. Mitch: “Anyone that met him could tell you about how infectious his spirit was.” HudMo again paid tribute to “one of (his) faves,” while Planet Mu called him, simply, “the best ever grime producer.”
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