As a freshman sociology major at New York University in 2000, DJ Cassidy — young enough already at 18, but looking “like I was 8” — got his big break one slow, rainy night at the club Lotus in NYC’s Meatpacking District.
At the time the neighborhood was still known more for beef than for beats, back in its nascent nightlife days. However, that night a certain hip-hop mogul — Sean “Puffy” Combs — was in the house as Cassidy filled the largely empty space with the soulful sounds of Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan and Luther Vandross.
“And so Puffy goes to the floor and essentially dances by himself for two hours,” the now 42-year-old DJ — who will headline Manhattan’s Radio City Music Hall with his “Pass the Mic Live!” concert Friday — told The Post.
“At 5:00 in the morning on the way out, he walks by the DJ booth … and he wrote down his name and number on a napkin and said, ‘Call me tomorrow.’”
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And when he talked on the phone to Combs the next day, Cassidy Podell got “the greatest compliment I’ve ever received.”
“He goes, ‘How do you know how to play all those records like that?’ And I said, ‘Like what?’ And he goes, ‘Like you lived it.’”
A white, Jewish kid from the Upper East Side, Cassidy was too young to have heard many of the black classics he was spinning when they were first released.
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But with his signature mix of old-school R&B and hip-hop, DJ Cassidy would go on to become spinner to the stars — from Puffy and Jay-Z to Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez — and to rock the White House at not just one but two presidential inaugurations, for Barack Obama.
Now a star in his own right, he looks every bit the part in a custom-made pink suit ahead of his Radio City show.
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop — a genre he fell in love with as a 3-year-old watching the 1984 break dancing movie “Breakin'” — Cassidy will be joined by New York rap pioneers such as Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick and the Sugarhill Gang.
The all-star affair brings to life the viral “Pass the Mic” franchise that Cassidy created in 2020 — in the early days of the pandemic — as a way to connect isolated artists and their fans through some feel-good grooves.
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The idea for the franchise came to him while talking with an old friend.
“I picked up my phone to FaceTime my friend and mentor Verdine White of Earth, Wind & Fire,” Cassidy recalled. “And [EWF’s] song ‘That’s the Way of the World’ comes on very low in the background, and he very casually starts to sing along to his own song.”
At that moment, Cassidy had an epiphany in his Los Angeles home.
“At the beginning of a worldwide pandemic, everyone is quarantining in their home … and I said to myself, ‘How fortunate am I to have relationships with so many of my musical heroes? Maybe there’s a way I could give this to other people.’”
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Thus, “Pass the Mic” — where beloved R&B and hip-hop greats sing along to their hits as they’re played by Cassidy — was born on Twitch July 7, 2020.’
The virtual party featured such guests as Deniece Williams (“Let’s Hear It for the Boy”), Ray Parker Jr. (“A Woman Needs Love”) and, of course, Earth, Wind & Fire (“That’s the Way of the World”).
These days, Cassidy is as much an MC as a DJ, hyping up the crowd with both his music and his infectious, mic-rocking manner.
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It’s a can’t-miss mix that has made him the go-to groovemeister, whether for Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s wedding in 2008 or 50th birthday bashes for both Barack and Michelle Obama.
“I’ve rocked the White House till 4:00 in the morning over a dozen times,” said Cassidy, noting that the former president’s jam is “Flash Light,” Parliament’s 1978 funk classic: “You know, everyone has their songs.”
He’s certainly carrying the mic that he picked up from his DJ godfathers Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa and Kool Herc — who is credited with starting hip-hop at a party in the South Bronx on Aug. 11, 1973.
“I think the greatest part of this experience on Friday will be sharing the stage with those heroes of mine that inspired me to be who I am,” said Cassidy. “To be sharing a stage with them is my life’s greatest honor.”
