The American songwriter – whose real name is William Perry Jr – is best known for creating party anthem Cha-Cha Slide which topped the charts in 2000 and is still as popular decades on.
Perry’s first and only hit record, “Casper Slide Pt. 1” – also known as “Cha Cha Slide” – was created by Perry for his nephew, who worked as a personal trainer at a Bally Total Fitness in 1998. After the song grew in popularity as an aerobic exercise at fitness clubs and PE in schools, Casper created a second song in 2000, titled “Casper Slide Pt. 2”, which was picked up by Elroy Smith at Chicago’s radio station, WGCI-FM.
The song became a hit in Chicago in 2004, when the city’s M.O.B. Records record label became involved as well, helping Perry create a whole compilation album with other Chicago-based artists to promote the dance. “Cha Cha Slide” was later picked up by Universal Records.
Perry made an appearance as a DJ in a season 6 episode of Orange Is the New Black, in Crazy Eyes’ hallucination of the prisoners and guards line dancing to the Cha Cha Slide.
In January 2016, Perry was diagnosed with kidney cancer and neuroendocrine cancer. After an unsuccessful surgery the same month, he began chemotherapy. In an interview in July 2018, he stated he was in remission. In 2019, Perry stated that he beat his kidney and liver cancers and said he was a changed man, stating “that was God’s way of just slowing me down just a little bit.” By 2023, the cancer had returned, causing substantial cachexia.
