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D-Nice on The Rise of Club Quarantine, Praise from Jay-Z and New Music | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Apr 1, 2021
D-Nice saved us all during quarantine, keeping us dancing through one of the most difficult year of our lifetime.
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D-Nice on The Rise of Club Quarantine, Praise from Jay-Z and New Music | SWAY’S UNIVERSE https://youtu.be/hvKKYmCEtRg
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0:00
ladies and gentlemen open the phone
0:02
lines up for one of your favorite
0:03
rappers producers photographers
0:06
activists entertainers the one and only
0:09
the magnificent d
0:10
nice ladies and gentlemen they call
0:15
yeah them wish i had i was like i wish i
0:18
could be there to give you a hug bro
0:20
like that was an awesome intro and i and
0:22
i'm so glad you told rich to stay on
0:24
what up rich what's up heather what up
0:28
oh man nah i'm good man this is
0:31
beautiful man thank you man thank you
0:33
it's been a crazy journey yo d
0:37
it's been a crazy journey man but but i
0:39
get chills because
0:41
you unbeknownst to you you're showing
0:44
folks
0:45
how to live how to strive during these
0:48
chaotic times
0:49
your your creativity served as medicine
0:53
for us
0:53
it was therapy for us i can't tell you
0:56
how many times i would chime
0:58
in the club quarantine just to feel good
1:00
i know you've heard all these stories
1:01
from everyone
1:02
um but it's it's important that we
1:04
continue to tell them and then also
1:06
you're an inspiration to people who come
1:07
from your peer group
1:09
so someone like me who who watch you
1:12
from the beginning
1:13
really exercise what this culture has
1:15
meant to us
1:16
and transcended it and been able to just
1:19
con
1:19
consistently reinvent d nice and i don't
1:22
know if it's reinvention or you just
1:24
keep introducing other things that we
1:26
just didn't know about
1:27
over the years consistently man and i
1:30
know a lot of us
1:31
that started with us d lost the spark
1:34
you know maybe they got beat down by the
1:36
industry maybe
1:37
you know something that turned out right
1:39
with their artistry maybe
1:41
whatever life situations pulled them
1:43
away from it but
1:45
you keep going man i'm curious to what
1:48
what is the inspiration like what
1:51
what is that hook that gives you the
1:54
wherewithal to know
1:55
i gotta pivot i have to grow i have to
1:59
move past this and embrace that
2:02
what is that well i mean
2:06
just to keep it 100 honest always it
2:09
goes back to
2:10
my bdp days right you know and um i just
2:13
remember
2:14
not being a part of the group and and
2:17
you know and people people definitely
2:19
like hip-hop people not
2:21
clearly it wasn't women like i've always
2:22
had like nice women following and they
2:25
always been like supportive no matter
2:26
what i did which is so crazy
2:28
but like with my bdp days i remember
2:30
this moment of like looking on the back
2:32
of one of the album covers and charas
2:34
was just like
2:35
yo d nice is not down with bdp and
2:39
you know then i had a situation with job
2:41
where they wanted me to make records
2:42
because like puff and everybody was out
2:44
they had their sound they wanted me to
2:46
kind of have that sound but that wasn't
2:48
me so then i was shelved
2:50
and i couldn't make records anymore like
2:51
i couldn't get out of the deal i didn't
2:53
have enough money to
2:54
get out of the deal and then people
2:57
started to consider me old school and i
2:59
was like 22 years old
3:00
where i just didn't even understand how
3:03
are you old school at 22
3:05
and then i couldn't get i couldn't
3:06
afford to get out of the deal so my
3:08
whole thing
3:08
sits those days where i was never going
3:11
to put myself in a position where i had
3:13
to
3:14
where someone controlled who i was and
3:16
who
3:17
i was going to become and i just never
3:20
wanted that never wanted a deal like
3:21
that ever again
3:23
never actually never had a deal like
3:25
that ever again never had to do
3:26
after that in terms of like music and in
3:29
that
3:29
feeling of old school just always left
3:32
me
3:32
like feeling like negative about the
3:34
music industry but
3:36
when i really look at what that feeling
3:38
was i wouldn't be here right now
3:41
you know what i mean like i wouldn't be
3:42
doing what i'm doing right now
3:44
i had to go through that i had to be
3:46
told that i was old school
3:47
in order for me to just not want to be
3:50
stuck
3:50
just being one thing just being a rap
3:52
artist
3:53
and also our friend you know god bless
3:56
god bless him man chris lighty was
3:58
another one who
4:00
when i started to want to get back into
4:02
like rapping
4:04
he challenged me he was like yo there's
4:05
so much more to you
4:07
why do you want to just do that like you
4:09
don't have to do that you did that
4:11
you did that already like what about all
4:12
of these other things that you can do
4:14
and that was a challenge to me and that
4:16
was the i mean it was just the best
4:18
advice man not to say
4:20
don't rap ever again but it was like yo
4:22
why not do all of these other things
4:24
where you can still express your love
4:25
for music
4:26
which is why i became a web developer
4:28
and photographer you know when i was
4:30
building websites
4:31
i built big websites you know like you
4:33
know and it was my company i built web i
4:35
built the diaries alicia keys i built i
4:38
was doing online marketing for
4:39
for g unit for the g and the sneaker and
4:42
i
4:42
i photographed 50s reebok campaign you
4:45
know i was doing all these things man i
4:47
was a feature photographer on america's
4:48
next top model
4:50
and then i fell in love with djing and i
4:52
fell in love with djing because for all
4:54
of those years like i would see rich
4:56
i would see rich in like jersey we'd
4:59
play
5:00
cards play spades you know what i mean
5:02
like i wasn't even thinking about
5:03
rapping
5:03
we were just playing spades with like
5:05
big dog and all these different people
5:07
and i wasn't going to parties but the
5:09
first time i went out to a party
5:12
like after like nearly like a decade
5:14
because i wasn't nobody was rocking with
5:16
me like that you know
5:17
was a q-tip party and q-tip and like
5:20
mark ronson were djing
5:22
and i just stood there and i i just
5:23
couldn't believe what they were playing
5:25
i was like wait you could be like a
5:27
rapper dj now like
5:29
and uh i just fell in love with the
5:31
music all over again and
5:32
and i haven't looked back since wow you
5:35
definitely haven't looked back because
5:37
it was i was in jersey with y'all
5:38
playing spades killing you on the space
5:40
table
5:46
he left that part out i was cool though
5:49
i was trying to intentionally leave that
5:50
part out
5:53
everyone's entitled to their narrative
5:58
your story is i get chills talking to
6:01
you because you're my brother you know
6:02
and to see what you've been able to do
6:04
it a lot of us rich nice have to be
6:06
tracy now too been in the game a long
6:08
time and we found our different ways of
6:11
re-blossoming not even re-blossoming but
6:14
doing what we doing do what we do follow
6:16
our passions follows our heart and it
6:18
works and now when you did club
6:20
quarantine
6:21
this is different though man this ain't
6:23
you know this ain't charting on the
6:24
billboard
6:25
there's something different man this is
6:27
charting on the global charts
6:28
this is everybody's around the world
6:32
is chiming in the club quarantine and
6:34
this past year man i know this is a hard
6:36
question but
6:37
is that what was one of the highlights
6:39
that you still kind of flabbergasted
6:42
about that damn i cannot believe this is
6:44
happening in my life
6:45
this person or this event this this
6:48
highlight
6:48
is probably not going to mean much to
6:50
people but it
6:51
it's the moment that meant something to
6:53
me and it actually had nothing to do
6:55
with
6:55
being on club quarantine it had
6:57
everything to do with club quarantine
6:59
and it was it was a birthday zoom for
7:02
linnie s
7:03
and i was on the zoom and everyone was
7:06
on the zoom
7:07
you know jay puff dave chappelle
7:10
like it was just this crazy zoom
7:13
and me and ty like like for about five
7:16
minutes
7:17
jacob now this was early club quarantine
7:19
so it was like smoking hot and
7:21
jay just kept going back to my zoom
7:23
screen like wait hold on let me find
7:24
derek
7:25
he kept swiping back to me and then he
7:27
was like so how does it feel
7:30
i didn't know how to answer that because
7:31
i was like you know i've been djing for
7:34
i mean swear you've been in my parties
7:35
you know what i'm saying like so i've
7:37
done hot parties for a long time
7:40
jay was like no i don't don't say it
7:42
like that i'm really asking you how does
7:44
it feel
7:44
he's like you're hot you've been hot
7:48
before but this is a different kind of
7:49
hot and not
7:50
there was part of me that wanted to be
7:51
offended but then the other part was
7:53
like
7:54
yo maybe he's actually telling the truth
7:56
because i didn't i didn't recognize
7:58
it remember i've been on i've just been
7:59
djing yeah and i wasn't even leaving the
8:01
house
8:02
so it wasn't that was the moment when i
8:04
actually started like reading
8:06
articles and i googled it and i was like
8:08
yo
8:09
this is wild that it touched so many
8:11
people
8:12
like all over the world this wasn't just
8:14
a hip-hop thing
8:16
this was like a global thing to where
8:18
people fell in love with music and in
8:20
particular
8:22
most of the music i played is r b soul
8:25
and
8:25
and people fell in love with that all
8:27
over again you know like people now talk
8:29
about
8:29
sister sledge all over again you know
8:32
and like all these classic records and
8:34
that is probably the best feeling in the
8:37
world
8:37
is being able to reintroduce that kind
8:40
of music to people
8:42
and also music that that was inspired by
8:44
that you know so the play that ended
8:46
some packs and
8:47
to play these records that gives you
8:49
that feel
8:50
that feeling that makes your soul smile
8:52
man it's been it's been my mission to
8:54
continue playing that vibe
8:57
and it's it's just been beautiful bro
8:59
make your soul smile you got jay-z
9:01
asking what this is amazing man what it
9:04
feels like to be hot and
9:06
that feeling to be hot i think
9:09
is like your first hit on a pipe or your
9:12
first
9:13
shot damn here you know of tequila
9:15
without the effects
9:19
you know minus what it does to you but
9:21
the to be
9:22
hot in this game um is a special kind of
9:26
feeling
9:27
like you know to walk outside and know
9:29
that the world
9:30
knows my name to walk outside and know
9:32
that the obamas are on my instagram
9:35
you know um i think it's amazing i want
9:38
to say congratulations to you
9:40
i want to talk about the new music no
9:42
plans for love and what you about to do
9:44
with this album you coming
9:45
you're coming 360 back to the music
9:48
where you're making music or you're part
9:49
of making music but i want to let her be
9:51
in
9:52
tracy and rich ask you some questions
9:53
too h bizzles d nice sister homie
9:56
i know well it's hard for me and and
9:58
thank you derek so much for for calling
10:01
i love you i love you too derek and i
10:03
have known each other since he was we
10:04
were both 17 years old
10:06
so let's start there we were 17. we were
10:10
teenagers around chris i had literally
10:12
just graduated from high school
10:14
and i was i was coming in um around
10:17
derek and chris
10:18
and rest in peace miss melody rest in
10:20
peace willie d
10:21
um kenny parker who is is chris's
10:23
brother my producer
10:24
i was just coming around and and i was
10:26
born in this family
10:28
so you fast forward all of these years
10:30
later this was in
10:31
1988 so you fast forward all of these
10:35
years
10:35
later you know and me and derek saw each
10:38
other
10:39
i think it was maybe last year at ty
10:40
lloyd's ironically was just talking
10:42
about him this morning
10:43
tyler's hall of fame derek was djing for
10:45
ty's hall of fame party
10:47
and we just started laughing we were
10:50
both like
10:51
what you doing and just laughing is like
10:53
i'm proud of you i'm happy for you
10:55
because
10:56
i'm just gonna be real not that many
10:58
people
10:59
have an opportunity to stay this long
11:03
in it and operate at a high level i'm
11:05
not saying
11:06
that you can not be in it but this game
11:09
can be
11:10
so vicious and so spiritually damaging
11:13
that it could just wipe you out and you
11:16
you
11:16
you can't really function anymore not at
11:19
the level
11:20
that god gave you the potential to
11:22
function at and so to
11:23
fast from the time somebody is 17 and
11:26
you run into somebody at 48 49 years old
11:29
your friend the person who you kind of
11:31
got in it with and you see them i'm i'm
11:33
heather b people know me from radio and
11:35
real world and and derek is djing
11:37
the thing
11:38
the master ceremony it was like we just
11:40
had to laugh
11:41
and give each other a hug it was just
11:43
it's amazing so
11:44
i'm happy for you and god bless you and
11:47
may god
11:48
continue to bless you because it's a
11:50
blessing to think about at the age of 17
11:53
and to now and then still to be
11:54
operating like this and survive all of
11:57
those
11:57
slippery slopes and all that verbal and
12:00
different attacks
12:01
it's it's not easy it is not easy no
12:03
it's not it's not easy man it's
12:05
it's still it still hurts sometimes i'm
12:07
not gonna lie to you
12:09
um i mean just recently i i i like
12:12
took a break man i share this because i
12:14
like being honest with people man i had
12:16
to jump
12:16
off because i woke up one morning and i
12:19
was i was just in tears
12:21
you know for like three hours of like
12:22
crying and it's not about being soft
12:25
it's none of that man it's
12:26
emotionally draining like what this year
12:29
has been for all of us
12:30
and and not even just the year man from
12:34
my whole career
12:34
it's like always been like this constant
12:38
this constant battle of like trying to
12:41
prove
12:41
like no you're not going to put me in
12:43
this box i'm not going to be there
12:45
you know and and that was from the music
12:48
you know that was from
12:49
you know the record company signing me
12:52
for like the ridiculously low amount and
12:54
then
12:54
still didn't what still didn't believe
12:56
in me and then i
12:57
went through that on the website and
12:59
then as a dj forget about it like i
13:01
i had to like work these budgets to
13:04
where
13:05
i had to kind of fit in you know what
13:07
i'm saying because i didn't quite fit in
13:09
on the hip-hop side
13:10
you know most of the hip-hop djs that
13:12
i'm actually cool with now
13:14
you know their teams didn't want me to
13:15
open up they're like no you're
13:16
old-school hip-hop no
13:18
that school anything always got to me
13:20
and it's like no
13:22
i'm a dj so then i went the other route
13:24
i went to the pop route and
13:26
found my way in and then came back to
13:28
the urban side
13:29
but the one thing that's always like
13:31
bothered me was that
13:33
even though i was like in doing like
13:36
vegas and i'm playing like all these
13:37
private events
13:38
it was like yo i wanted to put music out
13:40
i'm just going back into this because
13:42
you're gonna bring it up anyway but i
13:43
want you to know
13:44
how important this music is to me was
13:47
that
13:48
all of the dudes that were number one
13:50
djs in the world
13:51
they were all making music with artists
13:54
that
13:55
looked like us you know but then there
13:57
were no dj's that looked like us making
13:59
these same records
14:00
you know just like i was like yo i gotta
14:03
be
14:03
i have to that's what i want to do i
14:05
want to make records i want
14:07
i want that i want that level and i'm
14:10
not rapping on anything
14:11
this is strictly a dj project and also
14:13
the beauty of it is
14:15
man i'm 50 years old i don't run from
14:18
that
14:18
i tell people i'm 50. and to be relevant
14:22
in this business after all these decades
14:24
doing different things and
14:25
still be relevant at 50 is a blessing
14:28
and i hope it serves
14:29
as a source of inspiration for people
14:32
that i came in the game with like yo
14:33
don't let anyone limit who you are i
14:35
know it
14:36
it's easy to say that and it's hard to
14:39
live by it and i'm telling you it really
14:40
was hard to live by
14:42
i turned 50 during the pandemic which
14:45
meant that
14:46
i wasn't going to be i wouldn't have the
14:48
consistency of
14:50
like being in the clubs the way that i
14:52
was for the last
14:53
you know 15 to 16 years once that
14:55
momentum stopped it was like
14:57
when the pandemic is over like what are
14:59
they going to hire me now like what's
15:01
going to happen
15:02
and those are all the things that i was
15:04
facing during this time
15:05
of turning 50 turn 50 during a pandemic
15:08
and that's why i started djing online it
15:11
was just a way to like
15:12
get my mind off of it and it turned into
15:14
this thing man to where
15:16
i i i no long no people no longer
15:19
looking my age
15:20
i mean there are kids that dressed up as
15:22
me for halloween you know i mean like
15:24
eight-year-olds and like it's a thing
15:26
and i know it's an important thing and
15:29
it's important to
15:30
just be that source of inspiration man
15:32
so i feel truly humbled by this
15:36
love it man uh tracy you want to jump in
15:39
there
15:40
absolutely man thank you for being so
15:42
generous
15:43
with sharing your journey d nice i'm
15:46
wondering
15:47
because you said there were so many
15:49
people who didn't understand
15:51
or who unconsciously or consciously
15:54
attempted to stifle
15:55
your growth and then now there's a
15:58
difference maybe they've evolved
16:00
maybe just um the times have changed so
16:02
they can understand
16:04
exactly what you bring to the table how
16:06
do you
16:07
befriend them keep it cordial when
16:10
possibly in the back of your mind you
16:12
like
16:12
man back then you wasn't even trying to
16:16
be near me
16:18
i don't i don't hold it against anybody
16:20
man like honestly
16:21
sometimes i know what people do when
16:23
they are probably feel insecure
16:25
you know like you guard yourself or you
16:27
feel like
16:28
hey your thing is number one you protect
16:30
it you protect it
16:32
i just knew that i wasn't now that i
16:34
have the opportunity to help others
16:36
it's important for me to do so you know
16:38
like so even with me
16:39
and my my dj and my following you know
16:43
on on social media alone it was always
16:46
important for me to bring in other djs
16:48
as well like to give someone else a shot
16:50
you know so like it's never just me on
16:52
my on my page sometimes i bring
16:54
i rock with clark kent or you know the
16:56
originals or
16:57
dj sofia you know dj milly like i just
17:01
i just bring people on and give people a
17:03
shot man because
17:04
i know what that feeling is like and
17:06
like yeah like i don't i don't hold
17:08
anything against anyone it's probably
17:09
because where i am now spiritually
17:11
where i know that you had to go through
17:13
those barriers
17:14
you had i needed to feel everything that
17:17
i felt
17:18
in order to do what happened like for
17:20
instance like
17:21
when the pandemic hit i wasn't with my
17:23
family i wasn't with my kids
17:25
my kids my young daughter was going to
17:27
school in michigan my oldest daughter
17:29
law school in pennsylvania and you know
17:32
my mom lives in new york
17:33
and i wasn't dating anyone so i was
17:35
literally in los angeles by myself
17:38
and when this thing started happening it
17:40
was it was because i was alone
17:43
you know what i mean like i was alone
17:44
and i needed to do that that's where i
17:46
needed to be
17:47
and i looked at it from that way like i
17:49
could have jumped on a plane during the
17:51
pandemic you know there were people
17:52
still being reckless and flying
17:54
i just chose to stay and sit there and
17:57
part of the frustration was
17:59
like i didn't my home wasn't set up
18:01
right you know because i was traveling
18:03
so much for dj gigs that i didn't have a
18:05
piece of art on the walls i had any
18:06
plants
18:07
and then i was home by myself i wasn't
18:09
in a relationship
18:10
and i'm sitting there alone in la the
18:12
place that i've always wanted to live
18:14
but i had no family
18:15
out there so out here rather but that
18:18
was so important with this journey
18:20
because any of those other things would
18:22
have been a distraction from
18:24
the purpose that i was supposed to serve
18:26
which was this which was to bring joy
18:28
to to the world and to inspire people
18:31
so like i can't hold a grudge against
18:34
anyone that treated me
18:35
any kind of way because they were a part
18:38
of the journey
18:39
and for me to like be mad at them
18:42
would mean me not understanding the
18:44
journey or being
18:46
you know upset at where i am in this
18:48
journey and i'll be honest with you i'm
18:49
not upset
18:50
at all i'm like yo i'm here for a reason
18:52
so it's all good
18:53
amen man uh d nice is here man i i i i
18:57
i came up with about 10 follow-up
18:59
questions from stuff you've been saying
19:01
but i know we only got a short
19:03
period of time i thought someone's gonna
19:05
was any dishes in his sink doing
19:07
it
19:07
come on man come on
19:10
hold up let me ask my brother this man
19:12
real quick d we off
19:14
we in the 50 gang right and so you it's
19:16
interesting
19:18
that you single i'm single
19:21
i don't know if you're single now d nice
19:24
i mean yeah
19:25
okay so rich nice is too and we're all
19:28
men who
19:29
who live alone and hey d i got a
19:31
maintenance person now
19:33
organizer that comes in and hooks my
19:35
stuff up so the night before she came
19:37
over i had a few dishes in
19:38
two nights okay two nights i have a few
19:41
dishes in this thing for two nights
19:43
on friday night she coming sunday
19:45
morning bro
19:47
i'm paying her to come so i just left
19:49
the dishes in the sink for her to clean
20:04
that's why i beat you in space rich go
20:06
ahead ask my questions go ahead rich
20:08
ask him a question go ahead all right
20:10
well d first
20:11
i want to congratulate you on the
20:13
journey because you know many of us
20:14
bronx guys
20:15
in the business have seen the early days
20:17
of hip-hop by default just living in the
20:19
bronx
20:20
and there's really only a few of us
20:21
bronx guys left that's that's around
20:23
that scene the beginning days you know
20:25
um i definitely want to say
20:26
uh big shout out to uh scotland rock and
20:28
baby chris they both are smiling on you
20:30
brother and they smile at you right now
20:32
they're smiling on you sir and um
20:34
i remember that first day when you was
20:36
on ig
20:37
and just talking speaking about how much
20:39
you miss your friends and your family
20:41
and you know i was on there everybody
20:43
chatting and
20:44
you started playing music just just out
20:47
of your laptop you know just trying to
20:48
make sense of the covet 19 and
20:50
it was a real sincere moment it wasn't a
20:52
thousand people in the room it was
20:54
really like just the core
20:55
people that you know that kind of rock
20:57
with you and
20:58
yep yep i i was playing music the
21:01
computer and it was cool
21:02
everyone was laughing it was cool and
21:03
then i had to go i left to do some stuff
21:05
in the house
21:06
and then aisha text me an hour later and
21:09
said
21:10
dee is djing on on ig and i'm like dj
21:13
what do you know he's playing music on
21:15
his computer
21:16
and then i came back and you had a full
21:18
blown
21:19
dj set like everything the whole
21:22
equipment
21:23
and you was rocking and i was it was
21:24
blew my mind um
21:27
speak to what pushed you in that
21:29
direction to say you know what
21:31
i'm gonna just set the whole set up and
21:33
we just gonna go
21:34
and we just gonna go so what happened
21:37
was
21:37
when i when i woke up that morning um
21:41
the very first day i woke up that
21:43
morning once again i'm an emotional dude
21:45
and i was an emotional wreck during this
21:47
this quarantine and i was in tears bro
21:51
like i was in tears and because i didn't
21:54
know what life was gonna look like
21:55
you know what i mean like when this was
21:57
over because my friends that work in
21:59
politics that
22:00
you know used to work the former
22:02
administration that you know the michael
22:04
blakes of the world
22:05
who i would speak to and he was just
22:07
like i mean it was all
22:08
it all made sense he said yo this thing
22:11
is not going to be too much the way
22:12
they're saying
22:13
this is going to be for a year we don't
22:15
even have a cure like we don't have
22:17
anything it's not even under control
22:19
so knowing that was like very
22:21
frustrating it was like man you could
22:23
spend your whole life
22:24
working hard to to provide for your
22:28
family and
22:29
but you can never prepare for a pandemic
22:31
like we weren't really prepared for this
22:33
so like being an artist that's why i do
22:35
a lot of things for other artists
22:36
because i'm like yo
22:37
i know what that feeling was like what i
22:39
was facing all
22:40
everything that i invested in was
22:42
tanking it was just bad man it was bad
22:45
so when i got up that morning and i
22:48
i wiped away the tears bro of
22:50
frustration
22:51
and i went into my living room and i sat
22:53
at the counter
22:54
and i opened up my laptop and i i went
22:57
live
22:58
and i just started playing music and
22:59
sharing stories i saw a video from the
23:01
first day
23:02
like you know like a week ago someone
23:04
that saved it and sent it to me like
23:06
y'all think you should have this and i
23:08
wasn't djing at all i was just hearing
23:10
stories there's like 240 people in there
23:13
and i received a call
23:16
like two like on that went like two days
23:18
later so that thursday from
23:20
from will packer the producer and will
23:22
packer kept going like yo
23:24
i'm coming to your club tonight now i
23:27
didn't have any turntables hooked up
23:28
i was just like yo what are you talking
23:30
about he was like yo everybody's talking
23:32
about your club that's the place to be
23:33
i'm coming in tonight what time
23:34
what time are you jumping on and i was
23:36
like wow
23:38
all right cool you know i was like i'll
23:40
help you in like six o'clock
23:41
i called clark him up and i called dj
23:44
clark here and i was like bro
23:46
yo this really feels like a club like a
23:48
thing
23:49
and clark said well maybe you should
23:51
actually dj now
23:52
so clark didn't say those words i
23:54
wouldn't have dj'd
23:56
and this is how crazy it is i tried
23:58
using the gear that i had in my house
24:00
but they were old turntables
24:01
and an old mixer well the turntables
24:03
were good the mixer was old
24:05
so the mixer didn't work with my current
24:06
version of serato it was like the old
24:09
serato mixer s7 so i
24:13
rushed out to guitar center and i made
24:15
it there
24:16
10 minutes before they closed for the
24:18
pandemic like
24:19
for that two-month period like if i
24:22
waited any longer i would not have been
24:23
able to dj which is so crazy like
24:25
wow clark said you should actually dj i
24:28
made it there
24:29
into guitar center just before they
24:32
closed
24:32
and then i came back hooked that
24:34
controller up and i started djing from
24:36
the counter
24:37
and that i don't know man it was just
24:39
crazy
24:40
like the energy was crazy the next night
24:43
was crazy like the next night was the
24:45
friday night the friday night was better
24:46
to me
24:47
even though the saturday night it was
24:49
you know you know over it
24:51
it said a hundred thousand but really
24:53
what it rained more than millions of
24:54
people
24:55
yeah yeah because it just it was
24:57
millions of people in there and like
25:00
that friday night was like 20 000 people
25:02
which you know was
25:03
a couple of hundred thousand people in
25:04
the that had been in there but it was so
25:06
dope because
25:07
it was people that weren't following me
25:09
that like drake
25:10
or like jlo or the rock like but it was
25:13
it was celebs
25:14
but it was like still fun party i mean
25:17
the next night it was like every celeb
25:18
was in there you know what i mean but
25:20
like that night was like
25:21
having a party and then all of a sudden
25:23
you're at your table all of a sudden
25:24
drake walks in and you're like oh yo
25:26
drake is in here like yo that's crazy
25:28
like it was just a good vibe man and it
25:30
was i still find joy in that whole first
25:33
week and how it
25:35
how it really happened from 247 people
25:38
man it would be just
25:39
playing music to what what it became
25:42
like
25:42
less than a week later man it was
25:43
beautiful it was awesome man and
25:46
i just want to thank you personally
25:47
because you may not remember it but i
25:49
was on and you shouted me out on the
25:51
timeline
25:52
and then my followers went up thank you
25:54
d nice i appreciate it
25:57
i love it i love it every time i saw
25:59
your name in there
26:01
bro like it really did man come on man
26:03
wait a minute
26:04
the fact that we all pretended to be in
26:06
a club
26:07
right no way i'm to send you yo
26:10
i'm sending you two bottles
26:16
well i think too i think two what's dope
26:18
about it is like
26:20
you know i have a i have a sister that's
26:23
27 years
26:24
old and you know she obviously
26:27
you know when 17 she wasn't born when i
26:29
was you know 17 18 and when
26:31
she was like um oh my gosh i'm listening
26:35
to d
26:36
nice and club quarantine i was like
26:40
derek she's like do you know do you know
26:42
about him i just wanted to laugh
26:44
i was just like oh oh my gosh here's
26:47
this girl who grew up in the poconos
26:49
in pennsylvania and just doesn't know
26:51
about self-destruction and
26:53
all of these you know like she doesn't
26:55
know like your history so i think it's
26:57
also dope that not only your peers
27:00
were represented for you but this whole
27:02
newfound group of like
27:04
20-somethings is like oh do you know
27:06
about d nice let me put you on to
27:08
somebody it was the funniest in the
27:09
world you know but i think it's
27:12
that you were able like to just pick up
27:14
this whole new generation of people to
27:16
appreciate
27:17
what you've been doing all your life and
27:19
how you've refound your appreciation for
27:21
it
27:22
it is crazy that that that part is the
27:24
wildest thing to me that
27:26
that it touched generations but it also
27:29
goes to respecting their music as well
27:31
like because
27:32
i play their music you know like i
27:34
remember one night like sweetie was in
27:36
there
27:37
this was probably about a month ago she
27:39
she was just in there and it was just a
27:41
day where i was just
27:42
i was playing like mad 90s r b hip hop
27:45
up until like 2005 blow the whistle and
27:48
all that
27:49
and she was in there and she was in
27:51
there for like two hours
27:52
she just kept typing like yo this party
27:55
is really hot
27:56
like it's
27:59
funny it just made me laugh because i'm
28:02
like yo
28:03
because we respect that music though the
28:04
same way like i listen to you guys
28:06
we we respect their music the same way i
28:09
love 90s hip-hop or
28:10
pop it's like yo that's someone's craft
28:13
yeah like yo
28:14
like you go like even though you didn't
28:16
ask me you didn't ask me how i felt
28:17
about that one record with the dude this
28:19
ever like eminem
28:20
i was actually fascinated because i was
28:22
listening to it and i thought his
28:24
storytelling was dope and i thought it
28:25
was extremely dramatic
28:27
and it did sound like him i'm not gonna
28:29
lie cause i was like damn is this him
28:31
yeah you know i was like and i was kind
28:33
of waiting for him to rap on it like
28:35
maybe that's what it is but then i was
28:37
but he never came so i still actually
28:39
like the record
28:40
and that's just how i feel about music
28:41
it's like it it feels good to you
28:44
then you should play it or you know you
28:46
should you should appreciate it like i
28:47
know i don't knock anyone so
28:49
when i see like scissor in my ig or
28:52
re linux and then you know she's
28:55
chatting with melvin moore
28:56
like that's wild to me that i've been
28:59
you know i've created this virtual space
29:01
that people just feel comfortable
29:02
community communicating with each other
29:04
no matter how young or old man
29:06
it's beautiful to see it is it's amazing
29:10
uh we got d
29:11
nice here and rich nice and
29:14
uh we got another special guest so i'm
29:16
gonna introduce him in a second
29:18
um who usually does his segment at this
29:20
time the one and only mike muse ladies
29:22
and gentlemen
29:27
[Applause]
29:38
i always leave you comments on the
29:40
opposed madness is that we're
29:42
celebrating the wave
29:43
with you and it's like your joy is our
29:46
joy
29:46
um and just to see you take it as far as
29:49
you have gone and even further man it
29:51
just lights me up every time
29:52
and i think i was in that second ig live
29:55
of yours
29:56
um and the third in the beginning and so
29:59
to see it expand to where you're on
30:01
stage at like
30:02
the enemies right super bowl i mean
30:05
commercials it is
30:07
it's so awesome to see man i'm so proud
30:09
of you sir
30:10
man i love you brother and i i feel like
30:13
i'm i'm the dj version of mike muse
30:15
because like mike is everywhere
30:17
yeah everyone loves mike i would see
30:20
mike on planes
30:22
and we would always have fantastic
30:24
conversation and mike would always smile
30:26
man
30:26
and and make me smile as well man so i
30:29
appreciate i appreciate your brother
30:31
like seriously man
30:34
this
30:58
let me ask you this too because when i
31:00
look at let's say a dj khaled who's had
31:02
a lot of success as a dj putting
31:04
together
31:05
compiling these collections of work i
31:07
said collection of
31:08
songs with different artists and doing a
31:10
lot of collaborations and
31:12
and creating these things most recently
31:14
fat joel and
31:16
rihanna and dj khaled you know with that
31:18
light joint
31:19
uh you look at flex flex put together
31:21
project and he reached out to a lot of
31:23
the kids coming up in the chicago scene
31:25
a lot of the drill emcees a lot more
31:27
street
31:28
uh guys that he put together a project
31:31
we've all done that as you know djs or
31:33
in the dj
31:34
affiliations um you got this new single
31:37
no plans for love
31:39
it's featuring neo is featuring kent
31:41
jones
31:42
and it's a full-length album coming soon
31:46
yeah i wanna i wanna hear your vision
31:48
man what's your vision for this project
31:50
so the vision isn't for it to be like a
31:53
compilation
31:54
project you know what i mean and um it
31:56
is to do what flex is doing with like
31:58
drill and sees
31:59
and it is to do with what khaled has
32:01
been able to do
32:02
um but my my my vision of of what i'm
32:06
doing is i need it to feel like my set
32:08
so it's not going to feel like a callout
32:10
project which is go for khaled a lot of
32:12
mcs
32:13
and singers um my thing is i love r
32:17
b i love r b soul so my whole vision is
32:21
to work with like
32:22
artists like that that rock r b like
32:25
rock disco vibes you know like the neos
32:28
of the world
32:29
brandies of the world and that kind of
32:30
vibe like you know and also the younger
32:33
the younger cats that are
32:34
interested in doing it you know i can't
32:36
really tell you we're like seven songs
32:38
deep and it's like
32:39
a really good mix of like um it's like
32:42
three new artists
32:44
three new in terms of like having
32:45
records out you know i'm saying like
32:47
on their first album and then i got like
32:49
some icons on the joint man and it's
32:52
you know i'm waiting to hear back from
32:53
this one super superstar that that's
32:55
writing this one project
32:57
this one song i'm trying to leave that
32:58
person's name and gender out
33:02
because it really is going to be an ex a
33:04
feeling of like
33:06
excitement it's gonna it feels like like
33:09
clark kent said this to me the other day
33:11
when he was just listening to the record
33:12
he called me he was like yo
33:14
you made the perfect record for for club
33:17
quarantine for like your audience
33:19
and it's not a club quarantine project
33:21
it just needed to feel like the way that
33:22
i play music
33:24
and i always felt like i tried to best
33:26
represent like
33:27
r b soul from multiple generations you
33:30
know like the way that i grew up
33:31
listening to music
33:33
and uh even the the song with neil and
33:36
uh
33:36
you know ken jones is the lead producer
33:39
on it i co-produced that
33:40
and and um neo was the first
33:44
neil was the first artist that i ever
33:46
wanted to work with i'm not making this
33:48
up man like i was djing
33:50
like neo events like maybe like maybe
33:53
around nine years ago for his foundation
33:56
and i had to build up the courage to ask
33:58
him like yo would you consider doing a
34:00
song with me
34:01
and he was the first person to say yeah
34:03
nah let's do it like let me know like he
34:05
never never
34:06
said no and that gave me like a source
34:08
of inspiration to like
34:10
aspire to want to make music because i
34:12
asked him now every other artist that i
34:14
asked after that was like
34:15
give me the pattern on the back like ah
34:17
put a record out first and let me know
34:19
like
34:21
still man still neo leo was the first
34:25
person
34:26
he was the first person man and when
34:29
when we
34:29
when this record when this record was
34:31
demoed and everything with ken singing
34:34
yo um i didn't know that la reached out
34:36
to neo
34:37
he didn't know that i already had this
34:38
conversation with neil back in the day
34:40
and that is the one person that i wanted
34:42
to work with
34:43
so when i heard when i heard him on you
34:45
know on the track man
34:47
it was just like yo i just felt good
34:49
about it i felt like
34:51
all of those things that i wanted to do
34:53
in my career
34:54
has all of a sudden it's just a line
34:56
right now you know like
34:58
i'm pretty much known for playing r b at
35:00
this point
35:01
you know like that's just my vibe you
35:03
know and
35:04
to have him on like the first single and
35:06
have these other artists that are
35:08
that are contributing to the project is
35:11
just it's just dope man
35:12
and you know it's good what i feel is
35:15
this it'll do for
35:17
me and and djs and artists like myself
35:20
justice and inspire us because the thing
35:23
about caledon is
35:25
consistent success you know
35:28
flex has been doing his thing for a long
35:30
time and he hasn't put out an album in a
35:32
while but like he's been doing
35:34
flex for a long time i'm the dude that's
35:36
like
35:37
oh my gosh oh this dude came out of
35:39
nowhere really
35:40
people don't know that i've been doing
35:41
all of these other things behind the
35:43
scenes but it's like
35:44
it's a good way for other artists like
35:46
me and for my generation to see like yo
35:49
time doesn't matter man it's the only
35:52
thing that matters is good music and
35:53
consistency
35:54
amen and that that is important bro like
35:57
i really hope to inspire
35:59
my generation man time doesn't matter
36:02
that's a quote the only thing that
36:04
matters is good music and consistency
36:06
man you already
36:07
inspiring bro you you you cross
36:09
generationally
36:11
you're exp you're inspiring i can't wait
36:14
to hear the project are you gonna
36:17
this might be too much in terms of
36:18
sequencing are you gonna blend the songs
36:20
in or are you gonna have them
36:22
um you know um i thought about that
36:28
because what happens is this like on um
36:30
on like a lot of the edm
36:32
records those big compilations they have
36:34
the tracks individually
36:36
um but then at the end there's a mix
36:39
like one
36:39
you know to our mix that's on there as
36:41
well so that that is an
36:43
idea to do something like that the only
36:45
thing is
36:46
with with edm is pretty much like the
36:48
same tempo
36:50
these are the temples of the songs that
36:52
i'm doing are
36:53
they're various because there's a song
36:55
with said artist
36:57
that that's like a ballot like you know
36:59
what i mean but it still feels good
37:01
but it's like because i have like this
37:03
separation in my dj sets from
37:05
club quarantine to club quarantine after
37:08
dark people know i love playing slow
37:10
songs as well so i'm i have that on
37:12
there
37:12
and it's just i guess i've got to figure
37:15
out how to do it to make it
37:17
kind of cohesive but like yeah it would
37:18
be super dope to have like a mix on the
37:20
project
37:21
man i can't wait to hear that mariah
37:23
carey track you've been talking about
37:26
i didn't even say anything about that oh
37:28
okay okay all right i'm just throwing it
37:29
out there i don't know
37:30
man i'm just guessing you like that mike
37:32
news i just threw it out there to see
37:34
what happened
37:54
we got bishop on the line from nebraska
37:56
graham ryan's bishop you want to say
37:58
anything to d nice
37:59
hey what's going on sway had to be tracy
38:02
um i just want to first i want to
38:03
congratulate
38:04
d nice on his success but uh i just got
38:07
a question from all the djs in the world
38:09
they
38:10
you know they all got the same question
38:12
how is he able to go that long
38:14
without getting knocked off of instagram
38:31
i i don't know man like i just i've just
38:33
been lucky
38:34
i guess is this something just because
38:38
the celebrities was all there and they
38:40
just like hey
38:40
let's just keep this thing rocking you
38:42
know don't cut him because i mean
38:44
all every dj in the world has been
38:46
trying to go through instagram and they
38:48
get pop
38:48
five ten minutes in and you know boom
38:50
we're you know they're all the people
38:52
that play i mean
38:53
jazzy jeff plays like there are a bunch
38:54
of people you know
38:56
i go in there i'll see blind michael cox
38:58
dj and i don't think it's a
38:59
nice thing man like i'll be honest with
39:01
you i don't think it's a d nice thing
39:03
you know i think i also believe that
39:05
what happened in the beginning was
39:07
incredibly special and like you know
39:09
maybe
39:10
you know people made it happen because
39:12
it was such a good thing happening for
39:13
people
39:14
at that time you know but i get flagged
39:16
all the time bro like
39:18
people just don't i just don't make an
39:20
issue out of it
39:21
a lot of people make issues out of it me
39:23
i'm just like yo i get flagged like all
39:25
right i'll try to go back on and play
39:26
again like
39:27
let's go i won't play that song again
39:30
like i i know i know what i can play can
39:33
i play
39:34
there you go i appreciate it bishop that
39:36
was a great question
39:38
hey bishop i'm sorry they kicked you off
39:40
man i know why you asked that question
39:41
you sound like that
39:44
we got i got to get my celebrity stats
39:46
up okay
39:47
all right man you're you're a citizen
39:49
brother i'm swaying aborted
39:51
i just took a guess on that but i
39:53
figured that sounds like one of those
39:54
questions of
39:55
man why they kicking you off i'm not
39:57
kicking you off and they kicking me off
39:59
that that sounds like one of those
40:00
questions but you know let me tell you
40:02
what that did
40:04
that did spur a lot of questions and
40:06
mike maybe you could speak to this
40:08
in regards to the fcc and
40:11
and these digital uh streaming platforms
40:15
and
40:15
facebook and everybody it was kind of a
40:18
gray area
40:19
and there was a movement called let the
40:20
dj's play it had nothing to do with you
40:22
d nice but a lot of dj's at that time
40:26
all they had was the social media
40:27
platforms to get exposure
40:29
to create activity to create money you
40:32
know and they were getting kicked off so
40:33
they feel like uh
40:34
djs were feeling like man we're all
40:37
getting shut
40:38
down what are the rules how does this
40:40
happen and it's forced
40:41
people to really sit down and have that
40:43
discussion
40:44
true mike muse absolutely and just in
40:48
short
40:48
technology is always changing it's ever
40:50
evolving that is the
40:52
the beauty the greatness of technology
40:54
and as a result
40:55
policy and community rules and
40:57
guidelines are always changing because
40:59
technology is changing based upon the
41:00
way that people are using technology
41:02
so every time there's a d nice natural
41:05
organic moment that just
41:06
opens up the gates of like a social
41:08
media tech platform
41:10
then there has to be new policy and
41:12
community guideline discussions that
41:14
have to be had within like the big tech
41:16
firms
41:17
um and then also too like how then can
41:19
individuals like
41:20
d knights who are out there or other
41:22
small business
41:23
content creators out there how can they
41:26
monetize what they're doing and so
41:27
that's always an
41:29
ongoing conversation because technology
41:32
can
41:32
create a movement like d-nice just as it
41:35
can create a movement of other content
41:37
creators out there currently and so
41:39
there's always going to be this
41:40
evolution
41:41
of technology movement social platforms
41:44
monetization
41:45
along with rules and policies that need
41:48
to be updated constantly
41:50
um yeah and dee nice you helped you
41:52
helped spur the last the last move
41:54
you've done so many things that you
41:56
don't even know how you helped out folks
41:57
man
41:57
give it up for d night uh
42:02
absolutely we're about to close the show
42:04
on the closest show with your song no
42:06
plans for love
42:07
um it's available now correct
42:10
and now if folks man support this man
42:14
um he's been in the soundtrack of our
42:17
lives for the past couple of years and
42:19
you've been in our dna of therapy
42:21
so i just want to say i appreciate you
42:23
can't wait to get you in the studio
42:25
and we could go back to those follow-up
42:26
questions and relive some of those early
42:28
moments when you would have the b
42:30
with boogie down production uh
42:33
oh no i've got that okay that would be
42:35
great
42:36
uh but bring your space game
42:46
yeah let me just let me before you
42:48
introduce the song let me just tell you
42:49
about one of the spade games where
42:51
i was me and my buddy scotty manager mo
42:54
you smash bdp
42:55
scotty was my partner and i had i took a
42:58
can of campbell
42:59
campbell's soup and had i had somebody
43:02
print a logo
43:03
to put on there where it was a can of a
43:05
can of whoop ass
43:07
went over to play space with you guys
43:09
and we lost the game
43:11
and i can't remember if it was you and
43:12
rich or somebody was like well
43:14
they took the cane
43:17
[Laughter]
43:23
we smashed the can
43:28
we got to get back to that man love you
43:30
too dee love you
43:32
man y'all give it up for d night
43:39
[Music]
43:46
[Music]
43:51
you
#Arts & Entertainment