*As the nation contemplates what life under quarantine will be like over the next few months (at least), many of today’s popular performers and content creators are using various interactive web platforms to broadcast live shows from their homes.
These outlets have successfully facilitated dozens of home concerts featuring the best and brightest entertainers in music.
It’s a trend that may continue long after COVID-19 is gone.
Known affectionately by his supporters as “D-Nice,” native New Yorker Derrick Jones is building a massive following with his popular web creation “Club Quarantine.”
Using this platform, Jones treats his living room like a stage or a dance hall, firing up his speakers, and playing various genres of music for thousands of listeners worldwide.
The former 1980’s rapper turned disk jockey is ascending quickly as the internet’s newest DJ’ing sensation, and he’s creating a blueprint for other entertainers to follow as social distancing restrictions ramp up nationwide due to the coronavirus pandemic.
With energy, charisma, and a kickass playlist, Jones is making the most of his time in isolation while everyone else continues to grasp at moments of normalcy during this baffling crisis, reports the LA Times.
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Since March 17, D-Nice has used his Instagram feed to stream DJ sets from his apartment in downtown L.A. The shows have drawn hundreds of thousands of virtual revelers, including a range of celebrities: Rihanna, Oprah Winfrey and Joe Biden.
“It’s been a shock,” says D-Nice. “I mean, I haven’t left my house for more than a week, but I’m reaching all these people. You know, I’m just here in my living room. I’m halfway in my kitchen.”
Jones, a Bronx-born DJ, producer, and rapper better started in music as a teenager in the mid-1980s as a member of Boogie Down Productions, the legendary hip-hop group. At 20, he embarked on a solo career, releasing two albums for Jive Records, “Call Me D-Nice” (1990) and “To tha Rescue” (1991). They were good records, full of slick rapping and gruff beats, produced by Nice himself; the debut album sold half a million copies and a single, “Call Me D-Nice,” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Tracks chart.
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But at a time when hit albums sold millions of copies and record executives viewed rappers as artists with unusually short shelf lives, those numbers didn’t cut it. Jive neglected to renew D-Nice’s contract and he was unable to find a deal with another label.
“Record companies really didn’t have patience back then, especially with hip-hop,” D-Nice says. “Rap didn’t age well. You were considered ‘old school’ really quickly, once you hit a certain age. That’s why I’ve always fought to remain relevant.”
Jones’ perseverance and his nose for good music are the reasons he’s in demand right now. It’s a feel-good story that probably wouldn’t have occurred if the world weren’t fighting against a deadly virus.
I haven’t spent this much time at home since moving to L.A.,” he says. “I was just sitting here in quarantine, missing my family and friends. Obviously, the virus is stressful for everyone, so I was feeling that. I didn’t really know what to do with myself.”
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What he decided to do was go to his Instagram page, turn on his web camera and play a little music. For that first livestream, on the 17th, D-Nice didn’t DJ, per se: He spun some favorite records and chatted, sharing musical insights, anecdotes and reminiscences for an audience of just 200 or so viewers.
“It was mostly friends and friends of friends,” he says. (Those friends included hip-hop luminaries like Black Thought of the Roots and Posdnuos of De La Soul.)
Word got around, and the next night, the audience grew to 1,500. It was then that D-Nice decided to turn the event into an actual party — or, rather, a virtual one. He hooked up his laptop to a DJ controller, set the equipment on his kitchen counter and began to mix records. He DJ’ed for several hours on Thursday, and by Friday the Instagram viewership had grown to tens of thousands, including dozens of celebrities.
“It just started to blow up,” D-Nice says. “All of a sudden, Seal popped in. Then Drake popped in. I was like: ‘Wait: this is becoming a thing.’”
Playing to an audience of shut-ins — a throng you can’t see — is a novel experience for a DJ. “I have no one in front of me,” D-Nice says. “If you’re at a party and you throw on the wrong song, you can look at someone’s body language. I can’t do that now. So I’m just following my instincts. These are a special set of conditions.”
Those unique conditions — the frightening reality of the COVID-19 pandemic — hangs over “Club Quarantine.” During his sets, D-Nice reminds viewers to wash their hands and to stay at home; he pays tribute to healthcare workers who are fighting the virus on the front lines. Dance parties have always been about transcendence and escape, but “Club Quarantine” is, by definition, an exercise in coping: an attempt to forge a connection, to have a little fun, in a world that has turned upside down.
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