Last Year, A DJ Saved My Life

Last Year, A DJ Saved My Life

My Thank You Letter to DJ D-Nice

They say music heals the soul, that music brings people together and bridges the divide. The truth of these cliches is usually experienced when one is in church and the choir is sangin’, or at a concert when the artist stops and the crowd sings in unison with their lighters up. It’s a powerful and uniting phenomenon that connects the thread of the human experience. 

How do you find togetherness when you are in isolation?

For me, it was Club Quarantine. 

How do you find togetherness when you are in isolation? How do you experience unison or feel connected when you are alone in your home for days, weeks, months...a year? When you desperately wanna see and touch people but you can’t. When you have no idea when you will be able to do so again. When you and the rest of fucking humanity, is in a worldwide lockdown. How do you feel hope? How do you feel like tomorrow is worth it? How do you keep going?

For me, it was putting on my noise-canceling headphones, cleaning my kitchen (yet again) and hearing the uplifting guitar intro to “Thinking of You” by Kathy Sledge. For me, it was Club Quarantine. 

I missed the very first one. A friend of mine told me about it. I immediately followed D-Nice on Instagram. After that, it was a wrap! I found myself checking IG, hoping… praying to see the “LIVE” under his story icon. Just for an hour or 4, to feel some sense of joy and release. There were other feelings as well. A feeling of gratitude when he played “Optimistic” by Sounds of Blackness. A feeling of longing when he played an “After Dark” set. A feeling of being blessed when he played “You Brought The Sunshine” by the Clarke Sisters. I’m sayin goosebumps ya’ll!

So what’s the big deal. People love DJs. They know how to get a crowd going. Please know, this wasn’t just a guy playing great music. It wasn’t just a gifted DJ who can blend tunes, genres and moods. If you danced at Club Quarantine you get it. If you ever tried to explain it to someone and they looked at you with a blank face…

Club Quarantine aka “CQ” is a community. Nope, CQ is a FAMILY. You really don’t know nun’nem, but you know their souls. Every single one of them. Because we all gathered whenever the hell Derrick called us and we laid down our sadness and we danced and sang together. We chatted and made jokes in the comments. We met celebrities and politicians and they became our family too. We “Let It Breathe” and we exhaled...TOGETHER. This is how we made it through. CQ was our collective lifeline. 

Thank you Jesus! I had CQ dance parties with my daughter when she had such bad anxiety that she wouldn’t play in our backyard for fear of “the germ”. I had CQ when I felt lost and had no idea what the hell day it was. I had CQ when my spirit was weary and I needed to be uplifted, and those many many nights that I just couldn’t get to or stay asleep.

We “Let It Breathe” and we exhaled...TOGETHER. This is how we made it through.

CQ was our collective lifeline. 

OOOH OOOH! CQ Fam, do ya’ll remember:

When we hit 100K people, and then 150K people and then 230K people?

When DNice used to have Club Quarantine in his living room with that ridiculous view and then when he moved he got a whole new room, just for US?

When there was that Prince set (I know...which one right?), when Sheila E. & Apollonia were both in the club and we weren’t sure how that was gonna play out, but everybody behaved themselves?

When you fell in love with Melba Moore and your elders said “What you know ‘bout Melba?”

When we all swooned over DNice as a #GirlDad and loved on “Dylonce”?

When you figured out that secret lovers were sending messages and song dedications in the comments?

When we were so excited that D got a new house?

When Charlie Quarantine joined the family?

The CQ Silent Party?

The night when D’Angelo came to CQ After Dark?

When the West Coast Family couldn’t sleep and stayed up late at CQ Late Night until the East Coast Family woke up early because they couldn’t sleep either?

DNice, I know that by happenstance and the grace of God you did something simple and unknowingly it became great. You had no warning that your career would explode like this or that your gift would breathe life into so many. I know that you have been swamped with emails and interviews and accolades and it must feel surreal. I know that I am but one member of the CQ Family, but I hope you read this. I hope you know just how much your music meant to me. I hope you know how meaningful the space you held for us was. I hope you know how much you made me happy and proud to be black during a summer when it didn’t feel so nice to be black. I hope you know how many souls you lifted out of despair. It sounds crazy to people who weren’t there. I know. But it’s not. 

I found a post of mine from New Year’s Eve. In that moment, I had to stop dancing during your set to get this thought out. I’m so glad that I captured what I was feeling in real-time:

Written on 12/31/2020

The communal energy that I feel right now is beyond belief! A release of pain and grief, but [also] the joy of not going through [it] alone.

Because there was Club Quarantine

Thank you D-Nice

Sincerely, 

Cassandra Crichlow

A proud member of the Club Quarantine Family