JD at The Rub, 2006ish, by Ian Meyer.

Over the weekend, our good friend Jason Dozier passed away. JD was a fixture at The Rub; he DJed a handful of times and connected us with a lot of DJs and artists from his native Texas, many of whom we’re still close with nearly 15 years later. We’ll remember him as a big-hearted, smart, sarcastic, generous, stubborn, kind and loving friend.

“JD and I recorded the Houston for Dvmmies mixtape at the height of the Houston rap invasion (2004/2005), when the biggest songs on the radio all over the US were Slim Thug, Paul Wall, Mike Jones and Chamillionaire. We looked back at the history of Houston rap (and a little Port Arthur), digging into JD’s deep crates and selecting the absolute best jams. Truth be told, he brought 90% of the music, and my role was more like a producer, putting together the mix with him in my home studio on multitrack, and recording and placing the drops (Matt Sonzala and Roxy Cottontail hosted a big Houston rap show during CMJ that year, where we got access to a bunch of the rappers for drops).”

“Although he was a succesful DJ in Texas – ask anyone who was in Houston in the 90s about Cabo Fridays – when he moved to New York, JD started working for a law firm full time, traveling all over the country as an A/V technician in court cases. So this CD wasn’t meant to take him to the next level as a DJ, or make a bunch of money, it was just a fun thing to share the music he loved. But for me, it started a ball rolling that would lead to DJing on tour with Bun B. I’m forever grateful for JD’s friendship, and for his bringing us into his world – like I remember distinctly that he told us when we were going to Austin for SXSW we had to look up his old partner DJ Mel, who became another of our closest friends. He was that dude, a connector. I miss him so much.” – Ayres

DOWNLOAD
Read the rest of this entry »