It’s usually the part of TV convention coverage when even the most zealous political junkies head to the refrigerator for a snack break. The roll call, when each state calls out the number of its delegates voting for a particular candidate, is largely a pro forma, ceremonial procedure, a bit like the Price Waterhouse segment at the Oscars, only maybe even a bit more boring.
Not this time.
At the DNC last night, the Dems turned their roll call into a raucous, jubilant dance party, with record-spinning virtuoso DJ Cassidy laying down special tracks for each state. Arkansas got Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop”; California got a sampling of Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur and Kendrick Lamar; Montana got Lenny Kravitz’s cover of “American Woman.” And so on, lasting a bit over 75 euphoric minutes.
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“I got a call from Ricky Kirshner, the producer of the DNC, and he said, ‘How would you like to be the first musical maestro of a convention roll call?’” DJ Cassidy — whose real name is Cassidy Podell — explains how he ended up with the gig. “To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what that was.”
Podell is hardly a newcomer to political events. He helped program the music for the Democrats’ 2012 convention, Joe Biden’s 2021 inaugural and DJ’d at the White House for Barack Obama’s 50thbirthday. Less political but equally zeitgeist-shaking, he DJ’d at Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s wedding in 2008.
But nothing the boater-hat-wearing 43-year-old DJ has accomplished in the past — including his popular BET show, Pass the Mic (which he’s also turned into live show at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas) — has ever popped quite as loud as his DNC gig Tuesday night. The roll call was broadcast with hardly any pundit interruptions on CNN and MSNBC (who knows about Fox) and was featured prominently in cable news’ day-after highlight reels of the convention, all the more remarkable considering that reel also contained rafter-raising speeches by both Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.
Even former RNC chairman and current MSNBC talking head Michael Steele — who turns out to have been a DJ himself in his college days — couldn’t help but gush about Podell’s skills when the DJ appeared for a quickie interview on Jen Psaki’s show right after the convention.“Just the artistry of it,” Steele rhapsodized. “This brother did work to put this together. … Props all around.”
“I really didn’t expect this to be so big,” Podell says. “But afterwards, I stayed up all night reading tweets and Facebook comments. So many people were writing about how they were brought to tears by the music. It wasn’t just music of hype; it was music of emotion. I strive for that, but I never thought this would strike such an emotional chord.”
Pulling together the set was something of a superhuman effort, especially since he only had about three weeks to work on it — he’d been approached by Kirshner right after Biden stepped down and Kamala Harris took his place as candidate. Also, Podell, who normally works alone, had a ton of collaborators on this playlist, not just the DNC producers but each and every state and territory involved in the roll call. They all wanted a say in what song represented their homes.
“Some were pretty easy,” Podell says. “Like ‘Empire State of Mind,’ right? But some states were more interesting. The initial batch of suggestions I sent to Florida, for instance — Pittbull, DJ Khaled, Flo Rida — were not what we went with in the end. We went with Tom Petty’s ‘I Won’t Back Down,’ which turned out to be something of a state anthem that I wasn’t aware of. But I was happy to pivot because the title of that song says it all.”
What Podell did at the United Center in Chicago will likely alter American presidential politics forever. “You have changed the way conventions will do this in the future,” Steele assured him. But when you think about it, last night’s dance party could have implications here in Hollywood, as well. One can’t help but wonder if perhaps certain high-ranking officials at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences might want to give a certain DJ a call. Perhaps to discuss that Price Waterhouse segment.
And if they did, what might Podell tell them?
“I would suggest we have a private conversation,” he says. “Maybe the morning after the next Oscars.”
