Juan Atkins Dies At 64; His Cybotron Sound Powered Missy Elliott’s “Lose Control”

Juan Atkins, the Detroit producer who helped create techno and whose work with Cybotron became part of Missy Elliott’s “Lose Control,” has died at 64.

His agency, Greensmith Artists, confirmed his death to Resident Advisor on November 1. The agency said he was found unresponsive in a Mexico City hotel room before a planned appearance at YuYu Cine Club and was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital.

For Hip-Hop listeners, one of the clearest routes into Atkins’ catalog was Cybotron’s “Clear.” Its electronic pulse became the foundation for Elliott’s 2005 single “Lose Control,” carrying a record from Detroit’s early electronic scene into another generation’s clubs and playlists.

Elliott produced the single herself. AllHipHop’s 2005 review of The Cookbook pointed to its electro-funk sound, a connection that went back more than two decades to Cybotron’s 1983 recording.

Atkins formed Cybotron with Richard Davis in 1980. The pair drew from Kraftwerk and Parliament-Funkadelic, using synthesizers and electronic percussion to blend funk with a vision of the future.

Born in Detroit and raised in nearby Belleville, Atkins met Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson before the three became known as the Belleville Three. Their records helped turn Detroit into a center for electronic music, with a sound that traveled far beyond Michigan.

Atkins also built a home for that music. He launched Metroplex in 1985 and released “No UFOs” as Model 500 that year. His “Techno Music” later appeared on the 1988 British compilation Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit, helping establish the name that followed the music around the world.

In a 2024 Rolling Stone interview, Atkins remembered how Detroit listeners encountered the sound before they knew it as techno.

“Nobody knew that it was techno music. Especially the Black kids in Detroit. All they knew was that this was a new sound.”

He continued recording as Model 500 and Infiniti and worked with Moritz von Oswald as Borderland. His career also included years onstage at Detroit’s Movement festival.

Saunderson remembered a more personal part of that history: Atkins helping him finish his first record, “Triangle of Love.”

“Juan was the originator of Techno, a true visionary who opened the door for so many of us, myself included,” Saunderson wrote on Instagram.