R.A.G.E.

Origins: Home-grown in Englewood

This Member Monday will highlight Antoine Tyree Butler, one of our founding members. Butler, aka DJ Dap, is an Englewood native who founded our youth outreach team, piloted edutainment events, and supplies the music to events like Whole Foods Englewood “$5 after $5” and of course So Fresh Saturdays!  Dap is a DJ, court clerk, landlord, husband, and owner of a soon to be opened bar & grill. How did he become a leader in Englewood?

Dap attended school at Curie High School and grew up on 67th & May Street. He witnessed the rise of hip hop and house and his friend group was made up of musicians and dancers. Dap had that  “cool uncle” named Uncle Johnnie who would take him to “parties I shouldn’t have been at”. It was his love and curiosity of music that introduced Antoine, the DJ, to Asiaha Butler, our current President who has a great love for dancing, through their mutual friends. This friendship continued through Dap’s college time and still does today. Dap describes the serendipity of meeting Asiaha: “she grew up on the good block and I grew up on the bad block”, even adding, “she was close friends to one of my best friends”.

Career: Family, Community, and Role Model

Throughout college, Dap had started to earn his moniker as a DJ, as well as starting his career as a court clerk at the Criminal Court on 26th & California. He has been a clerk for over 20 years and continues to advocate for many of the young people in Englewood who unfortunately have had a run-in with the system. Dap attended Daley’s College and Chicago State University, but when Asiaha became pregnant with their only daughter, he knew he would have to take his position more seriously. Now with Samaiya on Team Butler, the couple began on the path of creating a better future for the children of Englewood.

Raising a child in Englewood during the 2000s seemed like a bad idea. The Butlers were property owners, but Englewood was going through the transformative perils of disenfranchisement. With all the structural forces at play to push them out Dap reflects back, “we was going to relocate  to Atlanta like many of our families and friends; however, witnessing that there were not considered the norm on the block and that they could help uplift it, the Butlers decided to stay and make Englewood their own Atlanta. With their block becoming less and less occupied, the Butlers started the community work that would grow into the association it is today, all starting on their famous porch on Union.

Dap’s community work started on Union. After deciding to be stewards for their block, Dap started paying the local teens to keep the block clean. This led into mornings “where 10 kids would be on my porch waiting for work”. As Dap organized the youth he was simultaneously planting seeds for the eventual management of the street outreach team that flyers neighborhoods before every event. While he worked on youth development through this and events like Docs and Dialogue and co-produced Real Talk on CanTV, Asiaha was collaborating with like-minded individuals who would help found RAGE.

Englewood, RAGE, and Life

Dap has many options for his favorite RAGE moments since he was part of its preconception. Seeing his daughter grow up on a block they were once ready to move from and earn a full-ride scholarship to her ideal college through volunteering with RAGE could be one. He even watched the same boys he paid to clean up the block become leaders of the outreach team. His favorite RAGE moment is a Father’s Day where a friend of his wanted to throw a celebration for his block and RAGE made it happen. Early RAGE would facilitate outdoor events by just finding a vacant lot and “Asiaha would bring the resources, I would bring the music”, Dap says. During the event, one mother told Dap this was the first time her kids had ever celebrated Father’s day. He adds, “it was Alieon Brooks on 74th and it was one of my best father’s day ever.” 

On top of djing, clerk-work, being a father and husband, landlord, and founder of RAGE, Dap is also part of EG Woode. EG Woode is an entrepreneurial firm that will utilize Deon Lucas’s architectural vision and the funding of the Retail Thrive Zone Grant; Dap will be opening Ellie’s Urban Grill at their location on 63rd. Inspired by his mother’s cooking, Dap’s goal is to create a rare Englewood experience where one could “walk over and have a sit-down meal”. He’s excited to model economic success through EG Woode’s business incubation model.

Antoine Butler is a positive role model for Englewood. He chose to stay in Englewood because, “I want kids in our community to see a working man, a husband, a father”. His family represents all faculties of community leadership. To quote Samaiya Butler from her interview with Voyage ATL, ” my dad is also someone that I would call my mentor; he has shown me how to create; how to do what you love”, also adding, “I am so thankful for his journey and being able to watch him before I go through the same thing”. Our association would be missing an element of style, masculinity, and stoic perseverance without you and we are proud that you are a part of RAGE! You can also catch DJ Dap at 5 After 5 at Whole Englewoods on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month!