Kashif Saleem (born Michael Jones; December 26, 1956 – September 25, 2016) was an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, record producer, artist, composer, author, director and educator from New York City. As a teenager, Kashif joined the funk group B. T. Express. He studied Islam and changed his name from Michael Jones to Kashif. He later signed with Arista Records enjoying success as a solo artist.Together with Stevie Wonder, he was considered a pioneer in urban music thanks to his specific synthesizer technology approach and the introduction of MIDI in his production.

Source: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashif_(musician))