A Day for Daymon
By Travis Hoewischer |
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. . . what up thuggish. saw your 50 yr old twin at hollywood and highland dude was selling fake asian umbrellas. bummed me out pretty hard. miss your giant hugs and driving your broke foot to campus. say what up to jimi for me and kick jim morrison in the dick if you get a chance. see ya soon . . . Jun 15 2009 4:21 PM
People might wonder why beloved Columbus music personality Daymon Dodson gets his own parade, and there may be no better explanation than quotes like that, still appearing on his MySpace page more than three years after his passing. There are hundreds of comments on the page, paying tribute in ways both comedic and genuine, as Daymon himself would have preferred.
Not everyone in Columbus knew Daymon, but at September 19th's fourth annual Daymon Day Parade, it'll seem like it.
The event, started by his family and friends Tony Collinger (otherwise known as local rapper Envelope), Wesley Eckmayer (hip-hop writer Wes Flexner), and Paul Loveman (DJ Alan Greenspin), is a one-of-a-kind day-long cultural movement, a rolling tribute to the capital city's patron saint of good times.
"It's for his spirit," said Collinger, "We want there to be more Daymons in the world. We want to make sure that he lives forever. He was such a huge part of the Columbus scene, and it's important for us to let people know that."
... when you died I made a pair of custom chucks with one of the cartoon characters of you. It inspired me to keep making other chucks and now a pair is going to be in an article in the NY Times! Your inspiration and spirit made this possible, thanks. Miss ya! Oct 10 2008 12:57 PM
Daymon wasn't just inspiring. He was empowering to guys like Collinger and Eckmayer, who mixed in and out of the local hip-hop scene with Dodson roughly a decade ago. The way he unabashedly approached them made them friends instantly, said Eckmayer.
"He'd see something on your shirt, and say, 'Oh, you like that, too? We should hang out,'" he said. "A lot of us might walk into a record store and want to bond with someone like that, but we didn't know what to say. Daymon would just say, 'Come roll with us.'"
Collinger smiled in agreement, adding that walking into Bernies and getting a shout-out from Dodson was validation for someone looking for a group of like-minded souls.
"I remember feeling for the first time like I belonged in the hip-hop scene," he said.
... so, on saturday, i'm at this wedding, and i'm stoked, dancing, laughing, and "dont stop believing" comes on, and I'm ready to rage. part way thru, i think of you, and then how i wish you could be here for it, and i got a little sad, but by the time the last chorus came around, i realized that i actually felt really lucky, proud and happy, that everytime i hear this song, i think of you destroying it at high five on your birthday. love you brother. Jul 28 2008 12:31 PM
'Larger than life' is a mantra that has become closely associated with Daymon's legacy - and it's a natural fit. It was impossible not to notice the 300-plus pound man with the wild afro in colorful custom-designed Chuck Taylors, always unafraid to stand out. He'd mosh at a hardcore show, or ring the bell on an impromptu sparring match about politics or film. One time, he ripped off his shirt and rushed the stage, wrecking a local hip-hop show when one group disparaged a rival group he was friends with.
"People acted like he just loved everyone and everything, but that's not true," said Eckmayer. "He'd take a stand, even if it wasn't popular. He had no vested interested in anything that wasn't invested in the community or wasn't done the right way."
Things like that weren't stunts, said Collinger.
"There's a cast of characters in Columbus who are attention whores, and they're really outgoing, but there's nothing genuine about it," he said. "Daymon was able to pull that off with such realness."
"If you think of his thoughts and his actions as two gears - there was no slipping," he continued. "There was constant traction between what he believed in and what he did."
The origins of Daymon's character came from his family church, where his parents forged that warm spirit and compassion that made those in the hip-hop community feel so welcome and at ease. Daymon's mother, Judy Dodson, said she still learns from her son every day, through the impact his life had.
"When he was younger, he always used to tell jokes, and he'd always say, 'Ya get it?' Well, now I'm getting it," she said.
The celebration of Daymon's life has given Judy and her husband Bill a newfound respect for the hip-hop world, one often at odds with the Christian realm.
"I think the Lord has let me see that his friends are mostly people you would never see inside a church," she said. "He had to be the church for them out there. I'm so grateful that he spent time with people, sat with them, talked with them, whatever they needed."
The Dodsons have gleefully participated in the parade every year since its inception, handing out portraits and t-shirts bearing his likeness.
"It's wonderful," she said. "We look forward to it every year. It's really nice to see everyone having fun. People are so amazed that so many people cared about him."
... sitting at work tonight, I remembered this one party at the moose lodge, things had gotten so out of hand we ran out of alcohol. we had, like, seven minutes until dick's den closed and they were the last people in town selling beer at that hour. so we parted the crowd, you drove that van like batman, I leapt out of the side door, and got in there just before they locked up. you saved the party. well, one of many ... Feb 6, 2008 3:38 AM
Damn, Daymon would have cracked up at that.
His friends still say that a lot, said Collinger. Especially when it comes to the parade in his honor, he would be endlessly pleased with the puzzling scene of parade-goers clanging on pots, pans and drums, and chanting his nicknames 'Racist Joe' and 'So What.'
"There's probably some confused coeds on High Street drinking Miller Lite, seeing this weird mix of people shouting 'Racist Joe, Racist Joe!' They're probably thinking it's like some protest for police brutality. He would have loved that contrast," said Collinger.
Ultimately, the parade is something organic, something that happened here, and to Eckmayer, it's part of Columbus' identity. That is why it's so important to make the event as inclusive and embracing as Daymon was to those around him.
"There's really only one theme: Do you like to have a good time? That feeling of whether or not you should go to someone's funeral, whether you know them well enough . . . we try to dispel that. Everyone should feel welcome," explained Eckmayer.
After all, the message of the Daymon Day Parade is universal, continued Collinger.
"We've all lost someone that we love; we're all going to die. But death doesn't always have to be something that we cry about. You can mourn a death, but I'd rather celebrate a life."
Daymon Dodson's presence is still felt today in Columbus hip-hop. Two members of his inner circle are making noise in 2009:
Envelope Arrives
Fly in '09
Originally Published: September 1, 2009
