By Marley Seaman
Nathaniel, 31, was killed in a car accident in Queens on the morning of Oct. 18. The Malverne native was on his way home from work at 4 a.m. when the car in which he was a passenger hit a guardrail on the Grand Central Parkway and flipped. Nathaniel was pronounced dead on arrival at Queens General Hospital. The driver of the car, also 31, was listed in critical condition.
Nathaniel's funeral was held on Oct. 23 at Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church in West Hempstead. He is survived by two sons, 5-year-old Jermaine Jr. and 11-month-old Mekhi, a sister, Tracey Belfast, and his fiancee, Stacey Barclay.
Belfast said that she and her brother shared a love of music, which they explored when they began using their father, George's, turntables. "He caught up to me and passed me straight with the DJ-ing," Belfast said. "He had a real good ear for music ‹ he could sing. He was a good singer, which I couldn't do. It was really a love for him, a real passion."
In time, Nathaniel became a popular DJ. Most recently, he could be heard on 103.1 FM Bashment radio, an Internet-based station. He performed as well at parties around New York City and elsewhere, with longtime friend Darrel Wallace. Nathaniel was known as DJ Bushman, and the duo, who met in middle school in Brooklyn, played a variety of Caribbean music, including soca and reggae. As new hires, they started in the midnight-to-3 a.m. time slot, and called their show "The Red Eye." Sometimes they were on the air seven days a week. In time they moved up to radio's prime time, 5 to 7 p.m.
Nathaniel and Wallace also developed a show called "Talk Your Talk." It allowed the hosts, along with listeners and guests, to learn and opine about important subjects like AIDS and child abuse.
"Nine times out of 10, Jermaine used to be the bad cop," Wallace said. "Whatever his opinion was, he stood behind it 100 percent."
Although they argued on the air, Wallace said, Nathaniel remained a likable man. "He was just a warm person. If you were meeting him for the first time, he was one way ‹ if you didn't like that, it was tough [but] ... there was just something about his heart ‹ you would warm up to him, you'd be laughing," Wallace said.
Nathaniel was part of the Home Depot's Set-Up Group, which prepared store displays. He also held jobs with a number of charities, counseling youth at the Wayside Home School for Girls Salvation Army in Valley Stream and working with Hope for Youth Inc. in Amityville.
Although Nathaniel's career has been cut short, his partner said, he will always keep him in mind. "We didn't even get to where we wanted to get, but I have to keep it going for him," said Wallace. "I know he wouldn't want me to stop."
Comments about this story? MSeaman@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 205.
