One Dae
November 2, 2024
If you haven’t seen the Netflix Documentary, The Comeback, I highly recommend it. The TLDR is that the Boston Red Sox came back to beat the Yankees in the ALCS in 2004 after being down 3 games. I digress. Mid August 2001 I hatched a plan to travel to Europe, I even bought my tickets at the internet cafe in Times Square, and I paid for a one-hour session. Germany seemed cool but there was a great deal to fly to Amsterdam on September 11, 2001, flying out of Toronto at 8 am. My homie Mike was going to drive me to the airport. Needless to say, that flight didn’t happen. The next day I was able to fly to Germany and for the sake of keeping on topic, thats where I will leave my trip to Europe. Flash forward to early March and I am back in NYC and need some work. Somehow I came across Tennessee Mountain, an old BBQ rib restaurant in SoHo. Old-school NYC people know the spot. Amazing chili, ribs, cheap drinks, a thick layer of grease on everything, and the feeling that the place was about to collapse at any minute. Since waiting tables wasn’t really my bag, I took the easiest morning shift possible so I could get my photo hustle on as soon as I could. On my first day there, I met a slightly chubby dude wearing a Boston Red Sox hat named David working the bar. A few days later I took a night shift that Dave was also on so we had a chance to close together. That’s when we realized a mutual love of hip-hop. Come to find out Dave is an aspiring rapper from Boston, and goes by One Dae. Turns out dude is pretty good. Within weeks we got to be pretty close and collaborate on art, compare conspiracy theories over spliffs, play basketball, and talk about sports. Despite living in NYC Dave being from Boston was still a Red Sox and Pat’s fan. Enter Game 7 of the ALCS. Since we are super smaart ( Boston accent ) we decided to watch the game at a well-known Boston bar in the Village, McSorleys Ale House. We had an absolute blast. Sox win an amazing game and we are soaked in beer, but now have to get out of the bar and get home. Dave is wearing a Red Sox hat. Thankfully the NYC police were there to escort the fans, including us in the bar away from the 6th Ave chaos. It was hilarious. My fav insult from a Yankees fan to me, who was just there to watch, I don’t root for either team, “bro, I will see you around town” Like, really? This is NYC, you prolly won’t see me again, homie, lol. It was a great memory, one that I love to tell. Time went on and Dave and I had a falling out. It’s not important why. That’s not what the post is about.
It was this time last year I got the word that Dave had passed away in Oregon. We were the same age, it was a real surprise. At one point Dave was Golden Glove’s contender and trained at Gleason’s. It had been a few months since we spoke, and when we did the common ground was hip-hop, sports, and conspiracy theories. When I left NYC in 2003 to go back to school, Dave came up to visit. He was my good homie, as an only child, I don’t say this lightly but for a few years, he was as close to a brother as I could imagine.
As I get ready to mail these prints to Daves’s mom and look over all the photos I took of him and all my homies from the last 30 years, I am compelled to say.. reach out to your friends simply. Now. Today. Not next week, don’t wait for them to call you, you make the call, call your friends and tell them you love them, share a memory, vent, crack a joke. Don’t wait for them to post on Facebook or IG. Call your homies, and text your bros. I wish I had more stories to share. What better time than now to start making them. Dave was a talented rapper and savvy businessman. I am happy to have called David Tracy my friend. Rest in Power.