The Story Behind the Greatest Quarantine Party of 2020
Over 100,000 people attended Derrick ‘D-Nice’ Jones’ Instagram Live fete on Saturday. LEVEL tracked down some notable folks to relive the monumental jam.
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His name is D-Nice. Taking out you suckers and you don’t know how he did it.
In 1990, Derrick Jones, Bronx native, dropped “Call Me D-Nice.” While the song was appreciated, lyricism would not prove to be his calling. Instead, over the past three decades, he’s become a hip-hop Renaissance man — photography, production and now Contagion-era party starter.
His IG Live party, aptly named Homeschool, premiered Tuesday night (March 17), entertaining just over 200 guests. But word spread like the dreaded Covid-19.
The energy grew organically, with a typically generous D-Nice set chock-full of Black and Brown music — from Atlantic Starr to Tito Puente to Burna Boy to Nate Dogg — that mutated into a rare strain of happiness that reverberated throughout the following day until the next Homeschool.
By Friday night’s conclusion, Club Quarantine amassed nearly 6,000 people looking for a virtual escape from social distancing. Although superstars like Black Thought and Dave Chappelle decorated the initial nights, the wattage on Saturday’s constellation hit different.
Music legends like Nile Rodgers, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, and Janet Jackson fell through to receive emoji roses while they’re still here. Steph Curry, Ava DuVernay, J-Lo (and A-Rod), Drake, Marisa Tomei, Magic Johnson, and Ellen DeGeneres all logged in to D-Nice’s condo kitchen. At one point during a Michael Jackson set, Tiffany Haddish, at a loss for words, posted a row of eggplant emojis. Hours later she commented “Dnice [sic] I’m taking you on tour with me!” Then, around 11 p.m., with D hitting the six-hour mark of uninterrupted and unrepeated classic play, his life changed.
