He wants some plaid Levi’s like Lil’ Slim told ya.
A 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.
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 (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.
