Chicago’s hip-hop scene went into mourning Saturday when news broke that WGCI on-air personality and virtuosic turntablist Timothy Jones, aka DJ Timbuck2, had died. He’d been fighting cancer for a little more than a year and had recently turned 34. Jones, who was also a member of Treated Crew, joined the WGCI team in 2004, and a few years later he launched a Chicago-centric show called GoILL Radio—he not only played new music by artists who rarely received radio exposure, he also brought young talents into the studio for live interviews. Through his on-air and nightclub sets, Jones helped the local hip-hop ecosystem grow, helping foster a sense of togetherness. This weekend Chicago not only lost a talented nightlife DJ and radio personality but also a guiding force—he championed the city and its artists and helped make the local hip-hop scene vital and unique.

In the late 90s, Khan lost interest in playing local clubs and decided to pass the baton to his protege. “When I chose to leave the circuit, I said, ‘Tim, I’m gonna give you all my gigs,’” he says. Jones still wasn’t old enough to get into a bar, but Khan helped with that too. “I’m the one that introduced him to a lot of people, and just to take any kind of prejudice out, I was like, ‘This is my brother,’” he says. “Everybody knows Tim as my brother.”

Jones’s devotion to his craft could rub people the wrong way. He’d show up to clubs with friends who served as buffers between him and anyone eager to make requests—he prefered to lock in and focus, without that distraction. Murphy heard complaints frequently. By the early 2000s, Murphy and his twin brother were so close with Jones that friends would call the DJ his “triplet.” When a clubber got upset about Jones blowing off requests, Murphy would hear about it: “Your boy’s an asshole, fuck your boy.” Jones was a perfectionist and unafraid to voice criticism, but he showed love to people who earned his respect. “I owe a lot of success to [Jones],” Salazar says. “Understanding how to navigate through the industry, how to carry myself—everything from my appearance to how I spoke.”

GoILL launched while Mic Terror was breaking out, and the show played his tracks “Hoopty Music” and “Juke Them Hoes,” which the MC changed to “Juke Them Girls” for radio. “I came up there and did my first mainstream radio interview with Tim, talking about ‘Juke Them Girls’ when we did the premiere,” Mic Terror remembers. He first saw Jones spin a DJ set in 2006, and they became friendly. “[Jones] was the young OG,” Mic Terror says. “He was one of the only big homies we really had.” Jones was part of Treated Crew before it became a formal thing, and helped shape its image.

The reupped Fake Shore Drive Mixtape is just one of many tributes that flooded the web Saturday. Seyferth uploaded a mix he says Jones made for Sean Combs, aka Diddy—Seyferth is the only other person to have a copy of the adventurous mix, which blends soul, classic rock, and the Wild Style theme. Photos of Jones’s smiling face circulated on Instagram, Chance the Rapper posted a video from his GoILL appearance with Caleb James, and Kanye West sent out his condolences on Twitter.

R.I.P. DJ TIMBUCK2. He was an amazing person and talent. My prayers go out to his family.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) December 20, 2015