#Early 80s hip hop series

But no one had any idea what I was doing, then. In fact, Ronald “Khalis” Bell, who’s Kool’s brother, the sax player - him playing his solo on “Too Hot” on Volume 1 was the last thing he did before he died a month ago. We got all the R&B classics - “To Be Real,” by Cheryl Lynn, and Shalimar’s “Second Time Around,” and Ray Parker Jr., Deniece Williams, Kool and the Gang…. I thought, wouldn’t it be amazing if I could figure out a way to get this feeling that I have right now to other people, connecting with their musical heroes in their home in a unique way? I said, I’m going to put on black silk pajamas and sit in front of the fireplace, and I’m going to call all my legendary friends of the ‘70s and ask them to sing along to a song and somehow weave it together.

I was FaceTiming to check on him, and the Earth Wind and Fire song “That’s the Way of the World” (coincidentally) came on the speakers, and I got a chill, thinking, “How fortunate am I that I know so many of my musical heroes.” I started DJing at age 10, and all I wanted was for my favorite rappers to know my name, so for any of my musical heroes to be my friends is crazy to me. He has a table, you know, he knows the menu by heart, waiters know what he wants.

He and I go to dinner once a month at Mr. I was FaceTiming with my friend and mentor Verdine White of Earth, Wind and Fire. It was in late April when people were still scared to leave their house to take out the trash. VARIETY: How did the idea for Pass the Mic come about?ĭJ CASSIDY: Volume 1 was the great R&B of the ’70s and early ’80s, and this idea came to me in the most natural way. Cassidy talked with Variety about what went into the episode and his vision for the series. Fresh to Chuck D., DJ Cassidy returned to R&B this week with an episode devoted to the New Jack Swing era and all the related and unrelated stars who turned the late ’80s and early ’90s into another golden era for the genre. (It’s not so surprising if you catch up later, or endlessly review, as the shows live on on YouTube and his social platforms.)Īfter a hip-hop episode in September that included everyone from LL Cool J to Salt-N-Pepa to Doug E.

#Early 80s hip hop series

In only three episodes - the most recent of which aired Tuesday night - his “ Pass the Mic” series has become a much-anticipated go-to for fans who love hearing vintage hits enveloped in blink-or-you’ll-miss-it medleys of about a half-hour each in which a shocking lineup of stars proceeds through Cassidy’s Twitch broadcast. DJ Cassidy has been your new quarantine best buddy in 2020, if you have any affinity at all for the classic R&B that came between the Motown era and the turn of the century, or for early hip-hip.