“Blessed, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed 'bout her business and 'bout that mail”
“Blessed, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed 'bout her business and 'bout that mail”…That’s how Dasun Allah described me. I met Dasun in November of 2005 at The Source. I was working for a small entertainment publicity firm and had been tasked with generating media exposure for an independent rap artist out of Mississippi………..So while I was in NY for Island Def Jam artist Chrisette Michele’s signing party (By the way she’s so dope!!!), I decided to go and hand deliver the MS rapper’s press kits to NY hip-hop pubs for two days straight…. XXL, Scratch, Blow, Vibe, The Source and etc….As I was leaving the Source……..this guy who I’d noticed pacing back and forth, asked me, What are you soliciting? and I responded ….I’m not soliciting, I’m just doing my job, no better yet I’m just creating awareness. He smirked and took a long look at me and said, You’re Seminole Indian……….and I laughed aloud, because my maternal grandmother is Seminole Indian, but I never really bring it up. I was rather stunned that he’d picked that up immediately. I exclaimed, How did you know that?……..He replied, I know my people when I see them. The conversation didn’t end there, as I was getting on the elevator he hopped on too, and we exchanged biz cards, and interestingly he turned out to be the Editor-in-Chief of the Source. The next day I was right back at the Source, because the then music editor Michael “Ice Blue” Harris had requested additional info on the Mississippi artist. As I was leaving from dropping off the package to Ice Blue, my phone rang and it was Dasun and he was like… Yo the security guard said you were just here, we were just talking about you this morning………He then proceeded to invite me to an event that night, but I repealed and instead asked him to come out to Chrisette Michele’s signing party at Club Exit…..how surprised was I that he showed…….and I swear that damn Dasun Allah is quite the complex and unpredictable individual…..We were having a conversation on the dance floor when all of sudden he started jumping up and down when the DJ played the LOX…..I was like OMG…chill out………and he’s like, but Kayla, it’s the muthafucking LOX…….I walked off…., but anyhow, long after I left NY, he maintained contact with me…..throughout his dismissal from the Source, the cancellation of the Star and BucWild morning show and even his jail sentence, he kept in touch and I admired his strength and perseverance, he seemed to be taking his trio of disappointments in stride. He never really told me why he had gotten in trouble with the law, but as I read articles on allhiphop.com and etc., I soon found out why…..I was at a lost………………..his actions were stemming from a place that I just couldn’t understand…………Through the midst of his troubles and him keeping in touch with me, he even asked me to be his publicist, but things never really materialized, but my homie the Hip-Hop Journalist was interested in interviewing him, so I did set up an interview with her and Dasun, the interview ran on http://www.nobodysmiling.com/hiphop/interview/86016.php........... Soon after he went to jail, He was sentenced to six months, but got released early and called me when he got out; he was so detached………He was eager for me to brief him on outside happenings. He called me about two other times after that, but he just wasn’t himself…..About a week later, I was reading nypost.com, and read the following headline……Editor is One-Man Crime Wave, I clicked on the story…………..Dasun had landed in jail once again, apparently for attacking three random people on the streets of Harlem………………….What???????........ Dasun is in my prayers and I hope that he gets well, because he truly is a talented writer and has the ability to go down in the history books…for his writing …………I thought of him today…..as I realized, I haven’t been to NY in almost a year, and I remembered his words, so I decided to write down my recollections of that dude……God bless him
Until then………“Blessed, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed 'bout her business and 'bout that mail” is signing off……………….
posted by Unknown @ 6:51 PM
1 Comments:
Your story is ironic because that was around the same time that I was working for Dasun Allah. I worked as one of his writers at The Source Magazine in 05. At the time I was writing for local magazines in Atlanta, GA. I got a big break when I got a call from Dasun Allah at The Source Magazine. Dasun was calling me with an assignment for the Summer July 05 Issue. The timing was perfect because the magazine was hurting, just got rid of Benzino & Dave and they really needing new writers. He liked my writing style and gave me one of the biggest writing assignments of my journalistic career. The job was for me to call an organization Called Peace on Earth based out of Philadelphia. The story was about the Peace Ambassadors Project which involved major celebrities and recording artists. Initially I was only supposed to do phone interviews with the different guest and entertainers but then I got an invitation to attend the the actual event. The name of the event is called "The Charlie Mack Celebrity Party 4 Peace." It's a weekend long celebrity based event where the entertainers interacted with Artist/Actor Will Smith's North Philly Neighborhood and promote peace in the troubled community. I was given access for full coverage to everything that went on that weekend. Unfortunately The story never ran because sooner after Dasun had left the magazine. The relationships I was able to build from that story are priceless. My career was taken to a whole new level from that experience. I've attended the celebrity event at least three more times since my first invitation and will continue to attend if invited. I currently have a successful Music Public Relations company and I still work with many of the people that I met from that situation. Dasun Allah and I have lost contact since that experience. Before he left he did introduced me to his replacement and she went on to published my work in 3 issues. I had no idea he was going through all of that stuff. It wasn't until I Googled him today and found this article about his troubles. My prayers go out to him and his family and I hope he can resurface as the great writer that he is.
Sincerely
Darnell Clark
Image Makers Media Group, LLC.
DCLark@imagemakermedia.com
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