DJ Kay Slay attends the Tycoon Pool Party hosted by 50 Cent at Bar Code on August 18, 2019 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
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DJ Kay Slay to Be Honored With Street Naming In New York

DJ Kay Slay to Be Honored With Street Naming In New York

Published Mon, July 17, 2023 at 4:40 PM EDT

The late DJ Kay Slay will be honored with a street naming on New York in August 13, according to a social media post by his brother Kwame Grayson.

"Monumental for the Grayson family East Harlem and East-River projects!" Grayson captioned the post.

The reveal ceremony will be hosted by Papoose, Jarrod "General" Whitaker and Ladi Kutz with special invited guests 50 Cent, Remy Ma, Busta Rhymes, LL COOL J, Fat Joe, Tony Yayo and more. The event takes place at East 105 St & 1st Ave. NY, NY and begins at 11 a.m. EST.

Kwame Grayson

Kay Slay, born Keith Grayson, died on April 17, 2022 after battling COVID-19. Kay started as a graffiti artist who originally tagged as "Spade," and he was featured in the seminal 1983 Hip-Hop documentary, Style Wars.

“My main name is 'Dez TFA,'" the young graf artist explains in the doc. "But the name I started out with was 'Spade 429.' After awhile, you get tired of writing the same name, and you want to expand. I wanted a nice small name that I could get up everywhere and do it quick. I took the 'D' and 'E' from 'Spade' and I wanted to use a letter that no one else hardly used, so I took the 'Z.' After 'Dez,' I started adding pieces on like 'Dezzy Dez.' That’s how graffiti goes.”

Kay Slay witnessed the rise of Hip-Hop’s elements firsthand, and when Graffiti took more of a backseat to the culture's more musical elements in the mainstream, Kay took an interest in DJing. Slay told Gary Suarez of FORBES in 2019, “I didn’t set out to be a DJ, It was something fun that I enjoyed doing.”

After a prison stint in the late 80s, Slay was released in 1990, and credits DJs Kid Capri and the late Lovebug Starski for motivating him to take his DJ career seriously. In 2003, Slay released his first major label project, the highly acclaimed and successful Streetsweepers Vol. 1 on Columbia Records.

In 2004, ...Vol. 2 was released. In 2004, Slay became head of Shaquille O'Neal's DEJA34 label, where he released The Champions. He signed Papoose and co-founded Straight Stuntin' Magazine in 2005; and he hosted "The Drama Hour" on Hot 97 for twenty years.

More recently, Kay Slay pulled off the incredible task of assembling what started as twenty-five MCs for 2005's "Rollin' 25 Deep"—which morphed into "Rolling 50 Deep," and finally, "Rolling 110 Deep" in 2021.

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