I can honestly say that I’m drained and tired of writing remembered posts and stories about some of the most valued individuals in various scenes that I’m in. But at the same time I have to realize that we are getting older and there are those who are older than I am which means life is getting shorter and we need to spend as much time with people as we can while they’re alive. Yesterday the DJ / digging community lost one of the last few OG’s in the game who was around during the early years and who was a wealth of knowledge and had no problem sharing that knowledge. That OG was non other than Danny Dan The Beatman, Bronx legend, creator of the Dusty Fingers series, historian, TV and film aficianodo and so much more.
Having been dealing with health issues for sometime now, Danny has never lost a battle and could go record for record with you for days but sadly, this battle he just couldn’t overcome. Danny and myself have had great conversations over the years and always shared our love of soundtracks, TV shows and movies and would talk for hours about our crazy collections of VHS which thinking about it makes me even more sad because those same shared interests were also shared with two other special people who have passed away over the last few years, Biz Markie and Paul Nice. Each of the legends were cut from a different cloth than others. They were each filled with a wealth of knowledge no only in digging but also as collectors and I would spend hours on the phone with each of them about Kung Fu flicks and classic TV shows. There really aren’t many left who are from that same lineage of culture, collecting and knowledge which means we really should be documenting and preserving their history and stories so that they’ll be remembered more that just in photos.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Danny and getting much of his story and how the world came to know this break beat legend and his incredible series of Dusty Fingers, School Yard Breaks and other comps which will be featured in the upcoming issue of Dusties Magazine due out in late April. Until then, spend time with your friends, fam and loved ones because life is getting shorter by the hour and tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.