Hip-hop producer DJ Shay, who worked closely with Griselda Records and the Black Soprano Family, has died, a representative for Griselda confirmed to Pitchfork. “U was there EVERY step of the way,” Westside Gunn wrote in an Instagram post, noting that DJ Shay was diagnosed with COVID-19 this summer. “It was an honor to help your dream come true for Buffalo hip-hop.”
In addition to Westside Gunn, DJ Shay frequently collaborated with Benny the Butcher, Conway the Machine, and others. He also founded the label Buff City Records. DJ Shay was 48 years old.
DJ Shay, who was born Demetrius Chawton Robinson, began DJing local events in Buffalo at the age of 10 after receiving a turntable for Christmas. “They had me in the kitchen, because I couldn’t be in the bar,” he said in an interview about his earliest gigs. He eventually started making beats and working with the early-’90s hip-hop group Brother/hood Nation. At the end of the decade, he launched a series of compilation albums called Unsigned City, which highlighted local artists.
Shay first became acquainted with Benny the Butcher and Conway the Machine in the 2000s and began producing, managing, and recording with them prolifically. “I knew 16 years ago that I had the two best rappers in the world,” he said in July 2020. “And today, I still say the same thing.”