RIP DJ Kay Slay
When people say they’re “hip-hop” or for the culture, very few have an actual track record of living all FIVE elements. This includes him being one of the forefathers of street graffiti throughout the entire city of New York.
Arguably the most important person in music of the 2000s to now, Slay thought of an idea with Cam’ron and Duke Da God to get something out to the streets without having the labels involved. In the past, we had seen artists featured on his DJ Clue and DJ Kay Slay mixtapes to promote new music from labels and drop freestyles.
However, the Harlem Uptown cats wanted to release an entire street album of new content to essentially do something the labels couldn’t think of from a hustling perspective. Give the listeners an audio sample of work, and they’ll come back for the official albums when they release.
That idea inspired essentially every artist to follow-up their blueprint, including: Drake, Future, Snoop Dogg, Nicki Minaj, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, T.I., Jeezy, Gucci Mane, Max B, Nipsey Hussle, Chance the Rapper, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Odd Future, Lil Flip, Joe Budden, Fat Joe, Eminem, Logic, Chief Keef, Young Thug, Gunna, Travis Scott, and Jay-Z (S. Carter Collection), etc.
With Slay, the Diplomats and Harlem, most of these artists wouldn’t have known how to move and eat – beyond signing these awful contracts that require an insane ROI.