Entertainment
DJ Kay Slay, maven of New York hip-hop, dies from Covid-19 complications
Kay Slay, whose actual identify was Keith Grayson, was a DJ at HOT 97. However he had been a star of the style for the reason that early Nineteen Nineties, when mixtapes he produced featured up-and-comers and famous person rappers like Jay-Z and later, Eminem.
His depth of expertise as a younger artist rising up in the course of the rise of Grandmaster Flash and the Sugarhill Gang, and later as a producer in his personal proper, launched him to main artists. He launched over 500 mixtapes in 10 years since his first in 1994, per earlier experiences, that includes artists going tit-for-tat with one another on tracks not often discovered on the radio.
His debut album, 2003’s “The Streetsweeper, Vol. 1” was the primary marketed to a nationwide viewers. It featured 50 Cent, Nas and Eminem, amongst many others, performing songs primarily produced by different artists, together with its followup. He additionally labored intently with the artist Papoose, with whom he left Jive Information to file independently.
‘The sport was boring till I got here round,” he informed the Instances in 2003. “I introduced the controversy again. I introduced the sport again to life.”
For years, Kay Slay hosted “The Drama Hour” on HOT 97, on which he interviewed numerous hip-hop stars and aired out (or infected) beef between rappers.
“A cultural icon, The Streetsweeper Kay Slay was greater than only a DJ, to us he was household and a significant a part of what made HOT 97 the profitable station it’s right now,” the station mentioned.