No one can agree on who started rap, or who started rock, or even who started pop music in general. But music historians and fans alike can all agree who started the house music trend: Frankie Knuckles. And the world lost a musical original and a Godfather of the Genre when he passed away yesterday, at the age of 59, due to complications from diabetes.  

Born in the Bronx but raised in Chicago, Knuckles -- born Francis Nicholls -- began working as a DJ, playing soul, disco, and R&B at The Continental Baths with childhood friend and fellow DJ Larry Levan. In the late 1970s, Knuckles moved from New York City to Chicago, and when the Warehouse club opened in Chicago in 1977, he was invited to play on a regular basis. He continued DJing at the Warehouse until 1982, when he started his own club in Chicago, The Power Plant. 

According to The New York Daily News, DJs from all over the world sent their condolences and memorials to a true turntable legend. "I am devastated to write that my dear friend Frankie Knuckles has passed away today. Can't write any more than this at the moment. I'm sorry," wrote David Morales on Twitter. 

"A legend has fallen. All hail Frankie Knuckles an inspiration to us all," wrote award-winning spinner Vince Lawrence on his Facebook page. 

In 2004, the city of Chicago -- which became notorious in the dance community around the world for passing the so-called 'anti-rave ordinance' in 2000 that made property owners, promoters and deejays subject to $10,000 fines for being involved in an unlicensed dance party -- named a stretch of street in Chicago after Knuckles, where the old Warehouse once stood, on Jefferson Street between Jackson Boulevard and Madison Street. That stretch of street, called Frankie Knuckles Way, was renamed when the city declared 25 August 2004 as Frankie Knuckles Day. The Illiniois state senator who helped make it happen was Barack Obama.

In 2005, Knuckles was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame for his achievements.