Sucka-Free Boss: Community continues to honour memory of Pat Stay

Pat Stay’s legacy continues to bring together friends, family, and community. Stay was fatally stabbed September 2022, and every year since then his community has gathered at this time of year to remember the late rapper’s life and career.

“The purpose of it is to keep the name alive of a close friend and not only, you know, a city legend, a legend worldwide,” said Quake Matthews, a local rapper and friend of Stay. He helps to organize the event each year.

“This is just a way of us as his close friends to keep his name alive and raise a little bit of money for his family as we do,” he told the Post.

For Matthews, the day is chance to catch up with others who knew Stay and reminisce together.

“He was a world-class talent. But not only that, because that gets talked about a lot, he was an incredible friend, an incredible father, and just really a genuine, genuine human being,” said Matthews. “Really one in a million type of kind person.”

Quake Matthews is a local rapper who helped to organize “Stay Day.” (Submitted: Quake Matthews, credit Joel Jennex)

Matthews said that the event is the result of people volunteering to make it happen.

“Everyone volunteers their time from the barbecue to the DJ to whatever you see here,” he said. “We all kind of just come together for the one cause. So yeah, it’s a beautiful thing.”

DJ IV has provided music each year in honour of Stay. Stay’s music and tributes to his career could be heard echoing through Dartmouth Cove. (Amy Ward/South Dartmouth Post)

Brent Goodine (right) said he runs the barbecue each year, with donations for the food going to Stay’s family. (Amy Ward/South Dartmouth Post)

A new addition to the event this year was an outdoor wrestling match.

Corey Good has been wrestling for a while and putting on shows throughout the Maritimes over the summer. He put together the wrestling show for Stay Day as his gift to the community.

“Pat was one of my best friends,” he said. “He left my wedding the night he died.”

The wrestling show featured four wrestlers, with two one-on-one matches followed by a tag team match.

Good said it meant a lot to share his wrestling with this community. “I’m just so happy to be able to bring it to Pat,” he said. “And everyone gets to watch me wrestle for the first time here. So, it’s a miracle.”

Good organized a match during the event with his wrestling crew. A crowd of all ages gathered to watch the performance. (Amy Ward/South Dartmouth Post)

For her part, Stay’s spouse Malyssa Burns is keeping Stay’s memory alive through merch.

Burns said that Stay sold clothes before he “took off with battle rap and rapping.” After Stay’s death, Burns decided to continue selling his merch by registering a business and making it more official.

Burns said they have about 40 different logos that Stay created, dating back to the early 2000s. Each year at Stay Day, she releases a new logo.

Many people gathered were wearing Stay Day shirts from previous years or other Pat Stay merch.

Stay’s son, Calvin, created some of the T-shirt designs. “We’re hoping that this is maybe a direction he might want to take,” said Burns.

Stay’s son has created some designs for Burn’s merch business in Stay’s honour. (Amy Ward/South Dartmouth Post)

Burns shared that the first two years at Stay Day were very difficult for her. “Keeping his merch alive and bringing his son down kept me positive, but it was really, really tough,” she said.

This year marks four years since Stay’s death, and Burns said it’s gotten a little easier. “I’m starting to look on the more memorable side,” she said. “I’m looking at how much people love him.”

Burns said that people love to get Stay merch and want to honour his memory. “I’m happy to help,” she said. “Hopefully everybody continues to show love and come down once a year for Stay Day, celebrate him.”

Stay’s spouse, Burns (middle) and their two kids at Stay Day this year. (Amy Ward/South Dartmouth Post)

Burns wants the day to continue and worries that the memorial might lose momentum one day.

“My biggest fear is for this day to slow down and then see people come less and less,” she said. “I feel like one day that’s going to break my heart.”

Added to this fear is the potential demolition of the building that houses Stay’s mural. Burns said the murals are on that building because it’s a place in Dartmouth where Stay’s name could be seen from afar — even from across the harbour.

“Because Pat loved Dartmouth like nobody else loved it,” she said.

Since the building is abandoned, she worries about the building getting demolished. But there are other ways of leaving Stay’s mark in the city. “I feel like having one of these streets named after him would be kind of close,” she said.

Shortly after Stay’s death, there was an online petition to name a street after Stay, but it has not gone forward at this time.

Matthews said a lot of the same people come to Stay Day year after year. One regular is the dog with sunglasses, Lexi (and owner John). (Amy Ward/South Dartmouth Post)

Matthews also said he worries that Stay Day won’t keep bringing people together. “A part of me does think, as time goes by, will the memory naturally fade or, you know, will people start showing up less and less?” he said.

So far, Stay Day has grown from year to year as people gather and enjoy the community around Stay’s memory.

“Maybe it’ll evolve and change over the years. I’m not sure. Maybe the venue will change. I don’t know,” he said. “But as long as we’re here, I think it’s something we’re going to keep doing.”

“We’re going to do everything in our power to keep his memory alive every year moving forward.”