The 2nd Annual Timbuck2 Forever - Event Recap
“Now let’s celebrate the life to Timbuck2” © Kanye West “Facts”
The last Tuesday of every year in Chicago will always be a celebration of one of the brightest stars Chicago has ever seen: Timothy Jones, better known as Timbuck2. His untimely passing due to cancer in 2015 at the young age of 34 left a feeler of shock through the city; partygoers, the radio world, fans, friend, family and the fraternity of DJs worldwide. The loss of Timothy Francis Jones hurt us all. However, every last Tuesday of the year we will come together for him as a celebration and a reminder that we too, need to look out for each other and ourselves under the #HealthYourself campaign. Just as we did this year at the Metro on December 27th.
“And everybody who was somebody was there, with they hands in the air bringing in the new year…” © Keith Murray on R. Kelly’s “Home Alone”
Tuesday night felt like a family reunion, if you were ever on the scene during TImbuck2’s you were there. Seeing people, you haven’t seen in years, the fine girls who just dance by the DJ booth, the bottle poppers, the couch standers, the lawyers, the doctors, the dudes who look like they just left the trap house, the hip-hop heads, they were all there throwing their 2’s in the air for Tim. Every influencer in the city was there as well from all facets, whether it be sports, fashion, music, politics and the arts; they all came to show love for Tim. If you think that is an easy feat, you don’t know Chicago and on top of that it was all love.
“Last night a DJ saved my life…” © Indeep
The DJ Lineup last night was one for the history books. I’m never afraid to tell anybody that I feel that Chicago has the best DJs in the world and I’ll put that up against any city anywhere. Last night we got to see some of the master blender type DJs to the turntable technicians all rocking the crowd in honor of Timbuck2. The crowd was treated to a crowd pleasing set by Jay Illa whom many said was the best of the night and sets from some of the finest including B-Man, a Wu-Tang heavy set by V-Dub and Boi Jeanius showing off turntable wizardry. We were also privileged enough to hear sets by Green Lantern, DJ Trauma, Twilite Tone, Clark Kent and my personal favorite of the night Mustafa Rocks. There were so many DJ performances it would be impossible to list them all but it truly showed the brotherhood behind DJs.
The night would not be complete without Chicago rappers showing their love for Timbuck2. Go Ill Radio gave a lot of artists their first exposure to artists via the platform that Timbuck2 created in the same lineage as dearly departed Chicago Legend Pink House. The crowd was treated to performances by Go Ill Radio alumni Phil G, Mic Terror, YP and Joey Purp. As always hip-hop legends performed as well, after experiencing De La Soul at last year’s event, EPMD treated the crowd to an inspired performance. Shoutout to hosts Dave Jeff and Leon Rogers played the role of inspiration and motivators throughout the evening.
The highlight of the evening came when everything came to a stop with a video of Tim’s mother giving a hair-raising speech via video. Tim’s mother gave a detailed account of Tim’s painful fight with cancer (1 round of chemotherapy = $10,000), his relationship with Rush Hospital, the Timothy Francis Jones Foundation’s purpose and ended the video with an urge for all of us to go to the doctor and take care of ourselves. The urgency in her voice could be heard for us to take care of ourselves and the pain in her voice from losing a son was evident. The crowd was silent and for a moment we stopped celebrating Tim’s life to listen to his mom tell us that Tim didn’t die for us to be naïve about our own health, we must take action. At the end of the night I went down to the gift shop at the Metro and bought a Timbuck2 t-shirt and the employees at the counter gave me some papers that I would usually dismiss. I got home opened it and read it thoroughly, it was a pamphlet with information about Renal Cancer and the mission statement of the Timothy Francis Jones Foundation. The first goal of their mission is to shed the stigma of seeking healthcare amongst men of color, which hit me right in the heart, along with facts about cancer from the American Cancer Society. And that is when it hit me, the passing of Timbuck2 left us with a void, but it also leaves us filled with knowledge, awareness and a cautionary tale about how short life can be if we don’t take care of ourselves. We love Timbuck2, we will celebrate him every Tuesday, and he wanted us to love ourselves and make sure we are in good health. For more information on how to get involved or donate, please visit: timothyfrancisjonesfoundation.org.
Please visit: https://www.instagram.com/theno4playshow/ for photos from the event.