editor’s note I’m Just Sayin’tho by D-Ray S
even years! Congratulations to the whole OZONE family. It takes so much to keep a magazine together, especially today with so many businesses folding! Having a team of believers brings success. Believe that!
time I go through my archives of these years. I get calls every week asking if I have a picture of kids that keep killing each other. Sometimes I’m the only person who has pictures of them. These moments, good or bad, are moments we can never get back.
Seven years back, wow. There’s so much to touch on with such a small column. Back then, I was in the game for a couple years working for another magazine out of the West Coast. It was very similar to OZONE, although it didn’t have my favorite part (the eye catching Photo Galleries). As much time as that takes to put together, JB never took the section away.
I thought it was over when my grandfather passed away. Mind you, I just started working with OZONE Magazine 5 months before his passing so I began to lose focus when I saw him deteriorating due to the illness. The day after his funeral I had to hop on a flight to my first OZONE Awards, the 2nd annual in Miami. I was not myself. I was real numb and I had my walls closed. I sucked it up and it turned out to be a great trip, but when I got back to the West Coast I kinda gave up for a few months, feeling like my heart just died.
There’s so much to reflect back on since then. I quit my guaranteed paycheck to join the grind of the Hip Hop world. Also, I had to balance taking care of my ill grandfather, who had Parkinson’s disease and dementia. That was a part of my journey which allowed me to continue taking photos in the game. R.I.P. Grandpa, 2007. My hero forever. In the beginning I was taking a lot of Mistah FAB’s pictures. I saw a talent in him that I couldn’t deny. So to be able to freeze moments throughout his whole career is priceless. I was also shooting red carpet Hollywood events with platinum artists, not to mention, I do have a James Brown photo. That’s when I started to realize that the Bay Area needed me. I thought, damn, why not help home get on through my lens?
I wasn’t sure about this career I chose any longer. Not just from the loss of my grandfather, but all the BULLSHIT. The stress of dealing with promoters, managers, artists, publicists, and whoever else came with the program. I went back, reflected, separated myself from everything, and thought about the time I gave up to this game. That was time I could’ve been spending with my grandfather. That made me think of what he would want. He would want me to complete my journey. He didn’t raise a quitter.
Fabby is a superstar and he was who really drew me to the urban side of photography. I feel like I have to help tell his musical story through my lens. By 2003, the hyphy movement popped off and I happened to be at the forefront of the movement with my lens, freezing the craziest, most hyphy things you can ever imagine. Concerts, sideshows, rap battles, dreads, turf dancing, the whole nine. Be on the look out for the photo book; it will be coming soon to show the world the movement with plenty of visual examples.
I began to go extra hard for my coast, the West Coast. Throw your W’s up! I have been running ever since. I got a chance to get great photos of many artists I would’ve never got to build with if I had quit. Thanks JB for the love and opportunity. And to my lady Wendy Day, I love you for the cosign! G. Archer, you’re the best for keeping me going! Fabby, kid, without you I would have never perfected my performance shots! Frank Herrera, thanks for the top secret talk; that keeps me on my toes in this industry. And shout out to all the other artists who played a part in keeping me hungry in the game. If you do not approach the music industry with focus and grind, your talent won’t matter. Just keep it up and step your bars up or move out of the way for the real talent. Don’t clog the drain anymore. If you have a hobby, that’s one thing. A career is another. You have to be serious, hungry, humble, and willing to accept the criticism and politics in this game. Trust me, the politics are ugly!
Around that time, I also met one of my favorite rappers of all time. “Too Hard For The Fucking Radio” Mac Dre himself. “I’m a boss, fuck what it cost.” He’s a legend! T.I.P. Meeting Dre was like, wow! I was so silly I really didn’t believe it was Dre. We were doing a radio run and they played “California Livin’.” I was giggling to the song and he walked out of the studio and said, “You know nothing about this!” I looked at him with a crazy look and said, “Shit, you know nothing about this!” He gave me a Thizz Face, smiled, went out front and lit up a Backwood. G.A. then told me, “That’s Mac Dre’s song.” Then I realized, yes, that is muthafuckin’ Mac Dre!
I have no regrets when it comes to what I do, although it’s a difficult task at times. I’m pretty anti-social, I’m a loner, and I don’t really trust too many people because not too many of them can trust themselves. With that being said, I’m happy with this journey I’ve chosen. I do this for the love I have for the talent in others. I feel like the kid who gets benched for being bad at recess. You can see and hear the kids playing as you’re watching them, but can’t join the fun. I’m a square when it comes to partying; I don’t drink of party too hard. I love to stay at the house. I only go because I get that exclusive treatment and experience.
From that day on, “Thizz iz what it iz.” I became the official THIZZ photographer during the last years of Dre’s life and I’ve been THIZZ ever since! I’ve got one of the only photos of Dre at his last birthday party. The growth of my photography career has been a wild journey. Many experiences, many growing pains, juggling through these years taking care of my granddaddy and seeing so many soldiers in the game falling to the fast life or the Federal Pen. It’s a pain I feel in my heart and a super rush in my brain every
Support those who support you! Family first. Loyalty is rare today and success is hard to come by. Respect is something you earn, not deserve. The way I see it, the more people that hate me, the less people I have to please!
I believe in the talent coming from the Bay. I have been lucky enough to have shot photos of almost everyone from the Bay. I never had the opportunity to shoot Tupac, and I’m saddened by that. By the time I became serious about my photo grind a hater had already taken his life.
- D-Ray, OZONE West Editor-At-Large dray@ozonemag.com
Kilo, D-Ray, & J-Diggs @ Pink Diamonds for Me & Roccett gettin’ breakthe Romper Room Gang’s American Gangsta fast in Vegas after hittin’ LAX release party in San Francisco
32 // OZONE MAG
Mack Maine & me in LA
Mario & me in LA at Baby Bash’s video shoot