Miami Heat’s DJ Irie Is Ready to Adapt to a New Way of (Night)Life

Post-pandemic, will we still be able to create a vibe?

The reality of the Covid-19 pandemic has certainly sunk in now. The first couple of weeks felt like a bad dream. Now it’s Groundhog Day every day.

It was a little weird for me when things started to evaporate. I was taping a show with Jamie Foxx in L.A. called Beat Shazam. We’re doing the live audience, the whole thing, and finished that show on March 5. While I was there taping the show, I started getting cancellation emails — CNN, T-Mobile — all my corporate events began to cancel.

We finished shooting the show on a Thursday, and Jamie and my close friend Dave Brown had a birthday party that Friday. But I was going to play at LIV in Miami that Friday. I was going to call the club and say, “Hey, listen, let me rain check this date. I’m going to stay in L.A. and play this party for my boys.” In my mind, I was going to surprise him. When the cancellations started rolling I said, “You know what, I’m going to get my ass down to Miami and do this job.” I sent Dave a birthday card instead.

I played the Miami show Friday, then got on a plane and went to the Bahamas for a Spring Break show that Monday, March 9. While I was there, I was only hearing we should get home and…