DJ "Tony D" Passed Away in New Jersey

By SULAIMAN ABDUR-RAHMAN

HAMILTON — Trenton lost a music legend over the weekend when hip-hop producer and DJ “Tony D” died in a one-car crash on Bunting Avenue near his township home.

Anthony “Tony D” DePula, 42, is credited with putting Trenton’s hip-hop scene on the map in 1990 by producing Poor Righteous Teachers’ “Rock Dis Funky Joint.” The music video to that classic single was filmed on the “Trenton Makes” bridge.Tony D collaborated with hip-hop artists such as Method Man, Redman and the group Cypress Hill.

He made appearances on “Yo! MTV Raps” with Doctor Dré and Ed Lover and had business contacts with the likes of LL Cool J, Will Smith and Russell Simmons.Tony D also wrote the score for the 2001 film “Snipes,” a movie about an up-and-coming Philadelphia rapper starring St. Louis rapper Nelly and featuring Sam Jones III and Frank Vincent of “Goodfellas” fame.Tony D also had his own record label, Cha-Ching Records, which was based out of his township home.The Trentonian in 2003 wrote a front-page news story on Tony D in the Sunday, Aug. 10, edition. The article chronicled Tony D’s rise to fame.

Tony D was born and raised in the Trenton area, graduating from Ewing High and residing in Hamilton since 2002.The hip-hop producer was at his Bunting Avenue home with his wife and two young daughters about 6 p.m. Saturday when he “received a phone call from someone who was interested in purchasing his music,” according to his spouse, Marcy DePula.Tony D burned a CD and told his wife, who was cooking dinner for the family, “I’ll be back in 10 minutes.”

But when Tony D was on his way back home, he lost control of his 2002 Suzuki XL wagon about 6:20 p.m. and struck the fence of the St. John’s Cemetery on Bunting Avenue near Lalor Street, according to Hamilton police.The impact flipped Tony D’s vehicle onto its passenger side, police said, and he was found unconscious at the scene with a severe neck injury.At the time, Marcy DePula was growing worried because her husband hadn’t returned, so she kept calling his cell phone. “There was no answer,” Marcy DePula said. She heard emergency sirens and then a “neighbor came and said Tony was on the ground.”Medics rushed Tony D to Capital Health’s Fuld Campus hospital in Trenton. His family members hurried to the hospital and learned the longtime hip-hop producer was pronounced dead.

“Music was my husband’s true passion,” a grieving Marcy DePula told The Trentonian yesterday as she sorted through her hubby’s long catalog of CD and 12-inch vinyl productions. “He was a devoted family man.

He kind of put his passion on the backburner for his family.”In addition to his wife, Tony D is survived by his daughters Sophia, 3, and Olivia, who turns 15 months old tomorrow.“Sophia is the spitting image of her father,” Marcy DePula said yesterday as Sophia ran around the family house blowing bubbles. “His kids were everything to him.

They are definitely daddy’s girls.”The kids yesterday didn’t know that daddy was gone, but Marcy DePula said she tried to “nonchalantly” break the news to Sophia. Lots of friends, relatives and neighbors visited Tony D’s Bunting Avenue home yesterday to send their condolences.Joanne DePula, 45, Tony D’s older sister, last night was sorting through a picture book of the Trenton-area hip-hop mogul. There were pictures of Tony D with Pink, Ice Cube and even one of him tagging along with a young Eminem.

“He accomplished a lot,” Joanne DePula said. “He was very, very talented. When he was a little boy, he had a toy chest; he would get on the toy chest and sing on the microphone in his pampers. Music was in him at a very young age.”

“He started the hip-hop/rap movement in Trenton in the 1980s,” said Tony D’s other sibling, William Depula, 51. In addition to music, “Tony loved basketball, football and riding dirt bikes. He was a really good family man who loved the girls. That was his No. 1 in life.”

“Tony was the kind of person who would give the shirt off his back,” said Tom “Rocky” Silvestro, Tony D’s father-in-law. “He was a good husband to my daughter and a great father to his kids. As a father-in-law, I couldn’t want better.”

“Tony did a lot for a lot of people,” said neighbor Garrett Hoffman. “He was a very good guy.”Rob “Kaaos” Kroslin, an emcee who was a member with Tony D in local hip-hop group “The WBs” (White Boys), said, “Tony D was a massive inspiration for me. To work with him was amazing because he was a little ahead of our time, and he laid down the path for us.”The other member of The WBs is Trenton lyricist Shawn Lov, who on his MySpace Web profile wrote, “R.I.P. Tony D, we will NEVER forget you.”

Tony D’s MySpace page last night had multiple “Rest in Peace” comments.Tony D was influenced by artists such as Bob Dylan and Bob Marley, he was a fan of the punk band Sublime and he drew inspiration from old rock and jazz, according to his buddy Kaaos.

Known widely as Tony D, Trenton’s late hip-hop legend at times referred to himself as Harvee Wallbangar. Hours before his fatal accident, Tony D and his wife took the kids to Babies “R” Us for professional pictures.The family man had tentative plans to take his children to see the Easter Bunny sometime during Holy Week.

“I will always love him — he will always be in my heart,” Marcy DePula said of her husband. “And every day he will live on through his children.”

Read the story at The Trentonian