“We make lemonade out of lemons.
We make soul food out of old food.
And we make parties out of quarantines.”
– The Homie
It may seem like light werk now, but back in the before time, also known as 9 months ago, getting 100,000 people to collectively watch your Instagram Live felt foreign. And that is exactly what D-Nice did on Saturday, March 21st, 2020. This feels so long ago.
D-Nice’s Club Quarantine was like if everyone got an invite to the Roc Nation Brunch that takes place Grammy weekend. Everybody was in that joint. I mean everyone. All your favorite celebs and probably some not-so-favorite. Mark Zukerberg was in there spying in plain sight.
When I entered Club Quarantine at around 3:00pm. (PST) it was 10k strong, which is a feat in itself. Imagine being at a party with 10k people. I dipped out at 5pm for a few hours for a virtual happy hour (which we eventually stopped having around May 2020 and I desperately miss) when it was at about 20k. Came back around 6:30pm and there were 78k ppl, including FLOTUS Michelle Obama. At 7:26pm (PST), Club Quarantine hit max capacity at 101k people. It was a wild to witness! I danced so hard my body hurt. I tapped out when he did close to midnight.
D-Nice reminded us of how connected we are as humans. He reminded us that we are one and that we need to look out for each other. Club Quarantine was for the culture. Black culture but also the culture of human kind. For 9 hours we were able to let our hair down and forget that the world is ending.
D-Nice set the bar that day and I am forever grateful. We were transported us to every school dance from every stage of life. We were transported to family reunions and barbecues. We were transported to the backyard you made up dance routines at. We were transported back to when you taped posters of your faves on your wall.
On this day, we were transported back to the before time…a time we are unsure we will ever see again. D-Nice gave us Patti, Chaka, Janet, Frankie Beverly and Maze, Marvin Gaye, Stephanie Mills, LUTHER, Erik B, Doug E. Fresh, Rih Rih, Drake, David Bowie, WHAM, Terrance Trent D’Arby, Sound of Music, songs from Strictly Business and House Party, BBD, and the list goes on. I didn’t even care that we didn’t get a West Coast set cuz bruh was giving us his all for the greater good…just because. He was the hero we didn’t know we needed.
Club Quarantine is a thing now. DJ sets on IG is a thing now. D-Nice and Club Quarantine made that happen. This is the magic of Black people who, under any circumstances, refuse to lose a party. Not now. Not ever.