I came across this looking at the club happenings in SF:

After college, Shayman moved to New York and began a successful career as a producer with a diverse pallette of urban sounds. He produced “Ski Mask Way” on 50 Cent’s multi-platinum The Massacre and the notorious Kevin Federline track, “Popozoa” which benefited from Shayman’s connection to the Brazilian baile funk sound (he lived in Brazil part-time) but he also continued to collaborate with underground acts such as Spank Rock and the Brazilian group, BRAZA, who record for Shayman’s Gringo Louco label. Shayman was also a perpetual business man, creating and licensing music for commercials and video games. He even oversaw the marketing for aLeda, a line of transparent rolling papers.

Shayman fought manic-depression for much of his adult life. He told URB in April of 2006, “It got to the point where I tried to kill myself. It was bad.”

In 2001, I drove Shayman and another Detroit DJ to an event in Indianapolis, Indiana where he was scheduled to play. Still in college, Dave sat in the back seat of the rental car, smoking a foul dollar cigar and reading an economics textbook with a portable reading light. An hour later, he was cutting and scratching ghettotech classics like “Ass ‘N Titties” to the collected ravers. This mix of high-minded business and down low funk made him a successful producer. It’s unfortunate that despite his incredible talent, his disease kept him from finding contentment.

I think the world needs more lamps.

Link to Dave Shayman obit

Filed under: beats, counterproductive · 1 Comment