Our Hollywood brothers and sisters have been transparent about having contracted the virus and we attacked them on the same social platforms. D-Nice demonstrated the need for cultural evolution to put on your hat, represent your community, and show how social distancing can create a promising future.
His personal brand, if you have never met him, is clearly cloned by his name D-Nice. He’s really nice. As he requested nothing except for support of those on the front line, he gave everything when he played the music that spoke to everyone who needed a mood-altering experience. Maybe it was a call to event promoters who have extra dollars to give to the homeless and unemployed given that more than 2.5 million adults will be out of work. He scratched our souls with his insight recognizing Atlanta’s mayor who joined the IG Live and who has created a fund of $7 million dollars to help her city.
And now to the company with money in the coffers — Facebook, we need $70 million for the top cities struggling with this crisis.
When a company controls 50 percent of all advertising dollars, we must demand more from corporations to support Black and multicultural businesses under $4 million in revenue. A $100 million in grants sounds like a lot, but Instagram generated $20 billion in ad revenue. Remember, we spent and contributed the majority of the content for free for Instagram and Facebook.
D-Nice wore many hats switching up his style throughout the set. But figuratively, he donned the hat of healer, social connector, anxiety-slayer and culture arbiter.
He knew just what buttons to push to transform and teleport us with each hat that he wears to give us more courage representing New York, which has been hit hardest so far. He turned his hat over and asked us to donate to those in need.
Hopefully, this is a unifying moment. One that allows us to understand that we can come together and unify for a common cause — humanity’s survival. D-Nice had numbers near those at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. He has made people dance together and didn’t leave his house. He invited us all to Club Quarantine to make a difference, to do better as a community, and to leverage our platforms and unify our community.
This moment is a cultural reflection for anyone who has paid to be in VIP at a club before. He made us, the Black community, and our culture front and center through music. We were right next to our celebrities, our leadership, and it drives home that every one of us matters.
This is a horrible time for African American-owned media. Advertisers are cutting back even more than usual by pulling ads and tech companies who do not have a history of supporting African Americans through D&I or media continue to be lacking in their support. Now is as good a time as any to step up so we can save our venerable Black journalists, writers and media companies.
Club Quarantine allowed us to heal ourselves and create what was not there at first, but if we all join a movement to make a difference in our community to show love, we know that we can really get better with a little music and a phenomenal DJ. Hats off to the nicest DJ!
