R.I.P. DJ DUSK

djsheepdjsheep 3,620 Posts
edited April 2008 in Strut Central
2 years since the legend passed;/IMG>Never knew the man, had met him once in the late 90s in SF... but some of my best hommies always big him up, thought I would throw it out there for big man....peace.

  Comments


  • Controller_7Controller_7 4,052 Posts
    I've seen this picture many times now. I am sure I have read about how he passed and all of that, but I am blanking at the moment. I could google it, but maybe some people on this board can fill me in with something more personal.

    I know he was involved in the root down (isn't that right?) in LA.

    Knowledge me.

  • djsheepdjsheep 3,620 Posts
    A Farewell to Dusk
    In life and in death, the late L.A. hip-hop DJ taught us a lot

    By Mike Sonksen

    And I say one time for your mind, Los Angeles!
    If you're feeling all right, now make some motherfuckin' nooooiiiisssee!

    That was DJ Dusk. In the middle of one of his rockin' sets, he'd yell something like that into the microphone and make the room go crazy. Week after week, the charismatic host and resident selector of Thursday-night hip-hop club the Root Down, held at Little Temple in Silver Lake, captured the energy of a party like no one else. Even the esteemed Garth Trinidad, host of Chocolate City on KCRW (89.9 FM), told Dusk he was "my idea of the quintessential DJ. You represent the DJ past, present, and future with your methodic finesse, b-boy flair, and undeniable L.A.-based international swagger."

    A fixture in the L.A. hip-hop/soul/funk underground, the 31-year-old Dusk was also known to like-minded folks around the nation, and his presence was beginning to be felt internationally as well. But on April 29, this local legend heading for global stardom joined the long list of promising young artists who died before their time. That night, the man born Tarek Habib Captan was killed by a drunk driver while crossing Washington Boulevard with his girlfriend in Mar Vista. He had been spinning records at a quincea??era held by close family friends.

    "It was about 9:45 p.m., and he was walking me to my car," recalls his girlfriend, Rosalinda Kooyman. As they neared the center median, a car suddenly came speeding toward them. The vehicle struck Kooyman first, losing a mirror and deflecting her to the side. Captan took most of the hit.

    "I felt his hand push me, and then I saw his body fall on top of the hood," she says. "His body flew off the car, and the driver kept going."

    Captan died on impact. Among the eyewitnesses, one alert driver pulled in front of the car and kept it from leaving. Several people hauled the speeder out of his vehicle and beat him up. Kooyman's head was bleeding, but she remained conscious.

    "The last night of his life had been spent with his close friends and family," she says. "He was very happy; it had been a blessed night of dancing and laughing." Adds Felicia Mancil-Alva, mother of the girl celebrating her quincea??era, "He seemed to be in a really good place. He was overflowing with love, optimistic about the future and his family. His spirit was very positive."

    Conscious Roots
    Born in Liberia on December 1, 1974, to a Lebanese father and a German/Irish mother, Captan moved to La Habra when he was a child. He was the oldest of three brothers. Parents Habib and Janet Captan always encouraged him to explore music, and by age 11 he had turntables and a mixer. His vinyl collecting started early; Dusk rocked house parties while still a student at La Habra High School. He joined a crew of b-boys and graffiti writers called V.O.B. - Visions of Brotherhood - which aimed to promote racial tolerance through hip-hop. By 18, he'd started his own company of mobile DJing, Dusk Till Dawn.

    He attended UC Santa Cruz before transferring to UCLA, graduating in 1998 with a sociology degree. There he met Jurassic 5's Cut Chemist and organized the first national hip-hop conference. He later taught a UCLA Extension course titled "The DJ as the Post Modern Musician." His writing and photographs were published in magazines such as Urb, and he also hosted radio shows both solo and with female emcee T-Love.

    At first, Dusk's unique slang and overall flavor made folks wonder where he was from. "For the longest time I was convinced he was a Puerto Rican from New York," says close friend and Root Down cofounder Carlos "Loslito" Guaico. "Not just because of his smooth-operator and accent status, but for his understanding, love, and education for all types of music from hip-hop to house, funk, soul, reggae, and salsa."

    "In a town where so many people are trying to get over and brag and boast to get to that next stage, he let the music do the talking," observes the DJ Z-Trip, while Miles Tackett, cofounder of the Root Down and of the group Breakestra, notes that "Dusk was a practitioner of the philosophy that change starts in your own backyard." Over the past 13 years, Dusk had mentored hundreds of young people at the Mar Vista Youth Center - doing his part to give others the same gifts he had received.

    Heart and Soul
    Around 1994, the late, great DJ Rob One took Dusk under his wing, showed him around underground L.A., and introduced him into the Afrika Bambaataa-founded Universal Zulu Nation (which Dusk would help to revive 10 years later). In 1996, Dusk met Tackett, and the pair formed a trio with T-Love for a quick series of shows. Shortly after that, Dusk became the DJ for Lady Copper and Medusa's "Nappy at the Roots," still a monthly event, every second Friday at Fais Do-Do.

    By 1997, Tackett and Loslito had asked Dusk to join the Root Down, which over the last decade has been a vital incubator for a brilliant movement, hosting or nurturing such stellar West Coast hip-hop acts as J-5, Dilated Peoples, Black Eyed Peas, the Visionaries, Crown City Rockers, Breakestra, and the Rebirth. Dusk's personality and brilliant timing made him the club's heart and soul as he effortlessly mixed hip-hop, funk, house, reggae, cumbia, and the unexpected.

    "Very few DJs have Dusk's full spectrum of musical knowledge," says Loslito. "He knew how to keep people dancing and still take chances." That shows on Dusk's two internationally praised mix-CDs, Top Ranking Volume 1 (a tribute to Jamaican roots, dub, and dancehall) and the salsa-filled La Musica, meticulous productions loaded with rare global party-rockers shaped into carefully crafted musical journeys.

    Around L.A., Dusk "was always in the mix," says Z-Trip. "He was a diehard ... lugging crates, digging, making the party live." Dusk maintained an iron-man schedule of mixing around town several days a week, and, in addition to the Root Down and Nappy at the Roots, he was a resident at numerous other clubs. In a sadly ironic twist, his brilliant tribute mix to recently passed rapper/producer J Dilla aired on KCRW and BBC Radio a few weeks before Dusk's own demise.

    He was expanding beyond his beloved L.A., performing at Root Down New York City, with hip-hop soul DJ Sake 1 in the Bay Area, and at the Sundance Film Festival, along with high-profile shows on the rooftop of L.A.'s downtown Standard, at the El Rey with Z-Trip, and in the pavilion at the Getty.

    Dusk's fingerprints were even on his own memorials: Events in New York City, San Francisco, and L.A. (which included appearances by Bambaataa and hip-hop pioneer Kool Herc) were organized by the DJ's latest venture, Prima Lux. This trio of Dusk and partners Andrew Lojero and Pablo Like Picasso had over the last year been throwing roving parties and after-hours rooftop affairs that just got bigger and bigger. Indeed, Dusk himself had masterminded these three events, two months before his death, intending them as hip-hop history lessons. "Even his tribute party was about teaching and educating," says Kooyman.

    More than 500 people attended his funeral service, at Rose Hills in Whittier, among them members of J-5, the Beat Junkies, the Visionaries, and Dilated Peoples. Sixty white doves were released from his plot high on a hilltop and disappeared into the eastern sky - reminding those assembled of the bright light he shone on countless lives.

    "Dusk was always about family," says Loslito. "When Jurassic 5, Breakestra, Rebirth, Cut Chemist, or any local homey would travel the world, Dusk would always say, 'Go handle it and let the world know about L.A. I'll be here, holding L.A. down.' He's now world famous because he held L.A. down so strong."
    Yemsky

  • yo, I'm tryin to stay focussed sheep, but the avatar is hypnotizing me!

    Met Dusk once. Saw him spin/mc (not rap, but ya know, actually keep things properly hype on the mic without being annoying) several times at Rootdown, and what he did was truly original & inspirational. He had his own sound, and I openly admit to jacking multiple tracks directly from his sets (even if it took me a while to find em).

    this one I still play out almost every week and it never fails (if sequenced right)

  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    Met the brother once, one night when me, him, Miles and Matthew Africa were snowed in at Triple Crown in Brooklyn. We all sat around stranded in the blizzard drinking and playing records for an empty room. Nice dude, for sure. Didn't get to know him like that but a man's power and impact is truly felt with those he leaves behind. Rest In Power.

  • ostost Montreal 1,375 Posts
    Here's one of his mixes that he did when Jay De passed away, I often listen to it at work...
    http://legacy.kcrw.com/cgi-bin/db/kcrw.pl?tmplt_type=program&show_code=cc

    just click on the one that says "Dj Dusk"

  • street_muzikstreet_muzik 3,919 Posts
    Sadly, the only pics I have of Dusk are these crops of him rising up in '94 against immigrant discrimination and 3 strikes. (187,184).
    img436
    img435

    Always fighting the good fight. You're missed, my dude. MB for life.

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
    Rest in Peace

  • spelunkspelunk 3,400 Posts
    Rest in peace.

  • DUSK UNO!!! FOREVER IN THE MIX

  • dayday 9,611 Posts
    DUSK UNO!!! FOREVER IN THE MIX

    Amen. Expo and Drez, I hope to see you and the rest of LA this Thurs. @ Root Down. The last time I saw him was on that very stage. I've been waiting to get the footage from that night digitized. I'll post it up once I do.
    He was truly a charismatic, one of a kind individual and a genuinely nice dude. It's gonna be hard playing there this week.

    Rest in Power, DJ Dusk

  • I have his buisness card. I kept it and have it on my wall. When I'm setting up my e-mails I run across his e-mail account and it's sort of strange.

    I've always been fascinated by the music/dj scene in Los Angeles and knowing that he is a central figure in that scene makes me respect dude.

  • kicks79kicks79 1,342 Posts
    I like the DJ Dusk segment on the From LA With Love comp. Also Waajeed's track Dusk on his War LP is a great dedication.
    RIP DJ Dusk


  • Didn't know him well, but he seemed like a real good dude.

    R.I.P.

  • djdazedjdaze 3,099 Posts
    dude was a homie of many of my homies and although I never met dude, his loss hits me just as hard hearing it through them. Drez, I wish I knew the dude like you did. VOB por vida.

    RIP

  • DJ_EnkiDJ_Enki 6,473 Posts
    RIP Dusk. Your influence and memory live on.

  • oldjeezyoldjeezy 134 Posts
    I hooked him up with records a few times. I could tell he had great taste, but I had no idea until I saw him spin at UCSC. He had a good handle on how to rock the Beckys and the real heads at the same time. Talk about too hip for the room.

    Didn't know him well enough to realize this was the same dude I was hearing about makin moves in LA. I was bummed when he passed, he was a real friendly guy and the world needs more people with TASTE.






  • Mindframe and Trak in the house!

    Damn, can't believe it's been 2 years already.


  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    Rest In Power

  • street_muzikstreet_muzik 3,919 Posts
    I hooked him up with records a few times. I could tell he had great taste, but I had no idea until I saw him spin at UCSC. He had a good handle on how to rock the Beckys and the real heads at the same time. Talk about too hip for the room.

    DUCK ROCK!

  • ElectrodeElectrode Los Angeles 3,131 Posts
    I only heard about him a few months before he died, but never saw him DJ. I've nothing but good things about him, though. That's no way for a man to die like that.

  • youngEINSTEINyoungEINSTEIN 2,443 Posts
    never forgotten. . . . .ever.

    peace, stein. . .

  • prof_rockwellprof_rockwell 2,867 Posts





    Mindframe and Trak in the house!

    Damn, can't believe it's been 2 years already.


    yo homie just talked to trak last night were gettin ready to build some lolo bikes, he bugged you had that flyer homie...
    much respect

    yeah, I'm real anal about keeping old flyers of parties like that. Especially ones that I designed. Say whatup to Trak!

  • HarveyCanalHarveyCanal "a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts


  • Miles & Dusk 2004. 

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