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.