Wednesday 20 April 2022

Duality of man: R.I.P Dezzie Dez AKA DJ Kay Slay

Biiiiiitch, stop talkin' that shit and trick Dezzie Dez his outfit
He wants some plaid Levi's like Lil' Slim told ya.
Belated rest in peace to Harlem's (drama) king of tartan turn-ups DJ Kay Slay AKA the artist formerly known as Dez. A legend in two games like Andrey Arshavin or wot? Or rather, a legend in two entirely separate lanes of Hip-Hop in two entirely separate eras. Personally, I can't listen to Duke Bootee & Melle Mel's The Message without hearing/seeing Dez and Kase2 rapping the song to each other on the train platform in Style Wars. Similarly, there's songs I first heard on Kay Slay mixtapes which would later sound incomplete without his ad libbed bellowing on them. To paraphrase the big man himself ONLY KAY SLAY COULDA DONE THAT, YO!

Kay Slay's own compilation albums often tended to answer questions which nobody had ever asked, questions such as what would Papoose, Yung Joc & Chamillionaire sound like on the same song? But wedged between the mismatched posse cuts of rappers who should never share song-space there were always exclusive gems. Here's ten nuggets of gold from them there DJ Kay Slay compilation albums.

50 Cent - 50 Shot Ya (2003)
Mobb Deep ft. Big Noyd - Get Shot The F**k Up (2003)
Cam'Ron ft. Chinky Brown Eyes - Harlem (2004)
LL Cool J - The Truth (2004)
Three 6 Mafia, Lil' Wyte & Frayser Boy - Who Gives A F**k Where You From (2004)
Three 6 Mafia ft. BG - Hood Drug Wars (2006)
Twista & Speedknot Mobstaz - Knock 'Em Out (2006)
Cam'Ron ft. Juelz Santana - Father Forgive Us (2004/2007)
Pastor Troy - Just Me (2007)
AZ, Raekwon & Ghostface - See The Light (2010)

Let's not remember Kay Slay's late-career for giving Papoose a second wind. Instead, let's remember Slay's late-career for being the only DJ to play A-Mafia songs on New York radio. Here's hoping Heaven got an easily accessible train yard packed with pristine wholecars for Dez to bomb. Here's also hoping Heaven got Black Rob waiting with a USB stick of unreleased songs Slay can bellow casual threats to bitchass DJ over.

11 comments:

Spartan said...

Damn! R.I.P. DJ Kay Slay

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Blew my mind in the early noughties when I found out Kay Slay was Dez.

step one said...

DRAMA KING! AKA SMACK YA FAVOURITE DJ! DAMN!

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

FALL BACK OR FALL FLAT!!!

hotbox said...

damn missed that ll cool j joint not bad for 2007 LL

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

2004 LL*

Early 2000s LL should have done more introspective songs.

Anonymous said...

Ezale finally dropped https://youtu.be/cOxrJcMfGj8

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Yeah, I saw. Waiting on the video.

L.A said...

Skeme just had a heart operation too.

When is that Dez pic from?

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Late 80s judging from his Cazals and Filas. I love that pic because it captures him in the transition from Dez to Kay Slay. It's from Phase 2's book.

Seen had some sort of operation too recently. Bad times for Style Wars allstars.

L.A said...

It is a great pic.