DJ left his mark on Hampton Roads hip-hop scene

Lawrence "Kool DJ Law" Brown III had planned to attend a birthday party Sunday evening, said his mother, Diane Brown.

But he complained of chest pains and couldn't stop sweating. His wife, Angie, rushed him to Mary Immaculate Hospital, just three blocks from their Newport News home. She called Diane and told her something was wrong. Brown, the popular radio DJ on 103 Jamz (WOWI-FM), died at the hospital of a heart attack. He was 40.

"It's a total shock, and we're still stunned, totally unexpected. He hadn't been sick or anything," Diane Brown said. "I had just talked to him an hour before all this. The last thing he said was, 'I love you, Mama, I'll see you soon.' "

She paused. "The doctors did everything they could do."

She said Brown, who once weighed more than 400 pounds and had undergone a gastric bypass in 1999, suffered from high blood pressure.

"He was medicated, but he hadn't been sick or anything," she said. "Since the bypass, he had lost 200 pounds. He said he felt great. He was active."

As the Boodah Brothers, Brown and his best friend and radio partner, Christopher "Big B" Belcher, ranked among the most well-known personalities on 103 Jamz, where the two had worked since 1992. Brown had a knack for spotting trends in hip-hop, and he could hear a smash long before the song made the charts. The party Brown was to have attended was for Belcher.

In a statement released by WOWI, Belcher said: "He changed the market and the way radio was programmed. It will never be the same."

Brown and his family moved to Newport News in 1985, and he graduated from Denbigh High School in 1988. His DJ career began in 1991 in New York City, where his love for hip-hop deepened. It was there he met an unknown, chunky rapper named Christopher Wallace, who would later become one of hip-hop's most celebrated artists, the Notorious B.I.G.

When Brown moved back to Hampton Roads, he linked up with Belcher to start a rap program called "Ya Mama's Rap Show." It became one of the station's most popular shows. Brown and Belcher adopted the name the Boodah Brothers, a reference to their weight - together, they weighed more than 800 pounds. By the end of the '90s, each underwent gastric bypass surgery.

"It was a great for Lawrence. I'm glad he did it," his mother said. "He was a whole new person and had more energy."

In 2004, the Boodah Brothers program moved from the afternoon drive to the coveted morning show slot. Brown's approach deepened. He used hip-hop as a platform to educate his audience about heavy topics such as AIDS and homelessness.

"He taught me a tremendous amount about his outlook on radio, which went beyond just music," said Travis Dylan, operations manager at 103 Jamz and Brown's supervisor for the past six years. "I learned a great deal about hip-hop history through Brown and how the music could be used in other ways."

When Brown wasn't in the studio, his mother said, he devoted much of his time to helping others.

"He was into going into schools and reading books to children," she said. "His very last business meeting was at a church for a program called 'Live to Give.' That was who he was."

Brown is survived by his wife, parents and younger sister, Cortney, whom he nicknamed "Boochie." The family will receive friends from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday and and noon to 2 p.m. Saturday at First Baptist Church on Warwick Boulevard in Newport News. Services will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday in the same location. 

Rashod Ollison, (757) 446-2732, rashod.ollison@pilotonline.com