DJ Kay Slay tragically passed away at the age of 55 last year, but his memory continues to burn bright in the Hip Hop community, as a new tribute shows.
On Friday (November 3), 200 of the culture’s finest MCs hopped on an hour-long joint to honor his legacy. The nearly-endless list of contributors includes names such as Snoop Dogg, Bun B, Ice-T, Paul Wall and Raekwon, to name a few.
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Whereas the video release of Rolling Deep 200 bundles every contribution into one lengthy segment, the record drop has been chopped up into 16 cuts.
Watch the audio-visual package below:
The dozens-of-rappers-on-one-song conceit was something Kay Slay did repeatedly throughout his life. He went from 25 MCs in 2010 (something he actually did twice) to 50 a decade later to a mind-blowing 110 in 2021.
The new homage has been released a year and a half after Kay Slay succumbed to complications stemming from COVID-19. Soon after his death, DJ Vlad expressed regret over not pushing Slay to get vaccinated, opining that it could have saved his life.
The media personality interviewed actor Michael Jai White late last year, during which the two began talking about health and upkeep. Amid a discussion on obesity and the food consumed in America, Vlad brought up a conversation he’d had with the Drama King just one week before the latter caught the virus that would ultimately take his life.
“To this day, it still bothers me,” the YouTube host began. “DJ Kay Slay, who had been my friend for like 20 years – my last text message with him, we were talking about some interview stuff. He was helping me book somebody. And I’m like, ‘How you been?’ He’s like, ‘I’m good, just trying to stay out of the way of this COVID thing.’ I’m like, ‘Okay! Are you vaccinated?’ He said, ‘Nah, the vaccine don’t work for the variants. I’m gonna wait until all the variants are done and I’m gonna take the vaccine then. Maybe.’
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The 50-year-old explained that he wanted to say something but decided not to because he’d tried convincing others before and it didn’t work. He also felt that it was Slay’s decision to make.
“One week later, he got COVID,” Vlad continued. “Went to the hospital. He was in the hospital on life support for months; ultimately died. And it’s like, if I had said something, would it have changed? Would he have been like, ‘I respect Vlad. Let me go ahead and get vaccinated.’ That vaccine would have saved his life.”
