The world knew him as D.R.E.S. Tha BEATnik. A master of ceremony. A cultural ambassador. A beatboxer. A presence that could shift the energy in any room. If you ever saw him on stage, you know … he wasn’t just hosting. He was the show.
But I didn’t just know the voice on the mic.
I knew Dres or Andre Lett my friend…my brother.
That Cheshire Cat like smile, that laugh…it will be emblazoned in my mind forever. We could talk for hours, laughing about nothing and everything, until I had a literal headache from how hard we laughed. And sometimes life starts lifeing. It happens. You get busy. You get sick. Time moves along. But with Dres, you could pick up right where you left off, no matter how long it had been. That’s the mark of real friendship. And if you were his friend, you weren’t just a friend. You were family.
He made hard things look easy. That was just his way. Commanding the kind of energy he did night after night, making people feel seen, welcomed, and held even while working the mi. Man that’s not easy. Anyone who has tried knows. But Dres did it with such natural finesse that anyone else who attempted it just looked like a cheap imitation. He wasn’t doing a job. He was answering a calling.
His daughter was the absolute sunshine of his life. We talked so many times about how much he loved her. He wanted the world for that girl. It hurt him to spend so much time away, but he believed in the purpose behind the sacrifice. He was building something. That something was everlasting. He gave so much of himself to all of us, and I never forgot what that cost. I knew how lucky we were to get even part of his time, knowing his whole heart belonged to her.
The guy never stopped. He could walk out of the hospital during the day and be back hosting a show that night. I’d see him online like, “Come through,” and I’d be thinking, Didn’t you just have a medical procedure this morning? But that was Dres. A true hustler. A real one. Hell he even made illness look simple. It never was, but you wouldn’t know it from watching him. His work ethic made you question whether you were doing enough, even if you were already doing the most.
Anyone who ever went to MJQ on a weekend in Atlanta knows how incredible he was. That room moved to his rhythm. And when it was time to shut it down…nobody cleared a venue like D.R.E.S. Tha BEATnik. That “outside, outside, outside” will live forever. It was smooth. It was signature. And somehow, even getting kicked out felt good when it was coming from him.
And let’s be real, he should have been the seventh member of New Edition. People who were at his shows already know. He had those dances down. You’d look up and swear he was about to join the tour. That wasn’t an act. That was Dres. Pure joy. Pure performance. All heart.
I’ll miss D.R.E.S. Tha BEATnik.
But more than that… I’ll miss Andre Lett.
The man. The heart. The friend.
I’ll miss the talks.
I’ll miss the laughs.
I’ll miss that warmth. That wisdom. That foolishness when we needed it most.
But we’ll see him again. Yeah… we’ll see him again. Until then, we’ll think of him every time we see a puffy hat or a pair of New Balances. We’ll think That’s Dres. That’s Andre. That’s our guy.
#followthehat
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