Brian Slattery Photo
A new mural on Route 1 at the New Haven-West Haven border marked the spot for a candlelight vigil in honor of hip hop pioneer Steve “Stezo” Williams, who was born and raised in New Haven and died in April at the age of 52.
The mural was painted on the side of Star Tire, which also had a lawn and parking lot big enough to accommodate a crowd.
By a little after 7 p.m. Tuesday, that crowd swelled quickly to number about 70. People had to be reminded not to block the street — though early on, almost everyone driving down the side street to get off Route 1 was coming to the vigil to pay their respects to Stezo.
“Stezo would be so proud to see the city out like this,” said Majesty from Transformerz Barbershop on Whalley Avenue, who served as host for the evening. “Preserve this man’s spirit and keep it alive. Everyone talk to one another. If you all are here, you’re family.”
Majesty then gave a tour of the mural, which in one image captured much of the man Stezo was. Created by four graffiti artists — Eros, Tank, Dooley‑O, and Shabazz — the images showed Stezo’s beginnings in New Haven, his multifaceted creativity as a rapper, producer, fashion designer, and dancer, and his rise into the hip hop firmament. His music, produced mostly in the 1990s, hearkened to a time “when music meant something,” Majesty said. “When every break meant something. When nothing got wasted. When dudes walked around with their own radios. When we all shared six chicken wings and French fries.”
The mural “had to be about him as a rapper, him as a fashion designer, as a breakdancer, making beats on the keyboard,” said Dooley‑O, a.k.a. Allen Jackson. It also had to acknowledge his place, along with Dooley‑O himself, as “one of the founding members of the group that found Skull Snaps,” a particular drum break that has become a fixture of hip hop for decades.
As Majesty explained to the audience, “Every artist in the industry sampled Skull Snaps after Connecticut sampled it first.”
Dooley‑O was invited to create the mural by Andy Weinstein, who owns Star Tire. Weinstein had worked with Stezo starting in the 1980s, when Stezo helped do commercials for his business. Weinstein had seen another of Dooley‑O’s murals close by, at the Boulevard Flea Market. After Stezo’s death, Weinstein said, he thought of Dooley‑O and making a mural for Stezo. “I called him up and said, ‘if you’re looking for space, it’d be our honor for us to have it.” Dooley‑O said that mural took about a week to make and mentioned that the back of the Star Tires building was likely to be “an ongoing gallery” of graffiti art.
Candles began to appear in front of the mural. The crowd mixed and mingled as much as possible in the era of Covid-19. The crowd made a wide path for Deborah Williams Ferguson, Stezo’s mother, to approach the mural. She blew kisses at her son’s images while people in the crowd approached her for quick hugs and pictures.
“Stevie loved all of y’all, and I love all of y’all,” she said. “You’re helping me get through this terrible moment. Thank you so much.” The crowd applauded.
Anyone who had grown up with Stezo in New Haven’s Brookside public-housing development was asked to come to the front to have their picture taken together. Majesty continued to explain Stezo’s contributions to hip hop, particularly as a dancer; he was part of EPMD’s dance team. Majesty credited Stezo with first bringing the baggy pants to the dance floor that MC Hammer later popularized. “Everybody knows those are Stezo’s pants,” Majesty said. “Hammer took Stezo’s pants!”
As Dooley‑O took a turn as DJ, Majesty spoke further on Stezo’s legacy as a pioneer. “If you’re a DJ, if you’re a producer, if you’re a rapper — keep pushing. You don’t even know how far ahead of the game you truly are. And live life while you can. Don’t just live. Live while you’re alive.”
Shockin’ Shawn (Shaun Harrison) and Superman Jay (James J. Harrison) of the Skinny Boys — a rap group out of Bridgeport that had a major-label run in the 1980s — came by to pay their respects.
Majesty had mentioned earlier that Stezo “was the master of saying something and making it happen.” That sentiment was echoed by Anthony Stewart, who had come to the vigil to pay his respects as well. “He touched a lot of people,” Stewart said of Stezo. “He did everything he needed to do. He didn’t take no baby steps.”
The crowd grew to its apex, including members of the Flaming Knights Motorcycle Club. Majesty exclaimed to Dooley‑O that thanks to the vigil, “we got the whole crew back together,” the group that had grown up making music, dancing, and breaking into the music industry. Dooley‑O had another message for the crowd inspired by Stezo. “Everybody that do music,” he said, “your music is timeless. It don’t matter if it came out in 1922 and nobody heard it — it’s in 1922, and you’re great.”
Harrison delivered a haunting prayer in both Arabic and English to conclude the vigil, which was set to end at 9 p.m.
Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison went to high school with Stezo. Stezo was her daughter’s godfather. “His passing is such a loss to the community and to the world,” she said. “For his life to be cut short so soon — my heart is broken.”
As 9 p.m. drew close, Dooley‑O played a few more of Stezo’s songs, including “It’s My Turn,” which had introduced Skull Snaps to the world. “I want to say spread love to the family,” he said — to Stezo’s children, his mother, aunts and uncles. “I’d like to thank everyone for coming out. It’s all for the love, all for the Elm City.”