‘All I wanted to do was make people smile’

Derrick “D-Nice” Jones was on the verge of retiring from DJ’ing for good when fate — and a global pandemic — shifted his plans.

​​On March 16, 2020, just days after COVID-19 effectively took hold in the United States, Jones, quarantined alone in Los Angeles, hopped on Instagram Live to share casual stories and updates with his followers.

“It wasn’t even to play music. I didn’t even have a turntable set up,” Jones, 54, told Yahoo Entertainment.

​​Roughly 250 people watched the first stream. Within days, that number soared to 100,000. By March 21, more than 150,000 viewers were tuning in, including Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, Jennifer Lopez and Mark Zuckerberg.

Club Quarantine was born. Part DJ set, part social experiment, the marathon sessions often stretched to nine hours and provided a beacon of hope during the pandemic’s bleakest months, when schools, restaurants, gyms and nightclubs were shuttered.

“By the fourth day, I knew it was something really special,” Jones recalled. “There was nothing else more important to me after that.”

As digital hearts flooded the screen, word spread just as fast. On any given night, Club Quarantine drew over 250,000 listeners, including regular faces like Dwayne Johnson, Drake and Donnie Wahlberg. Eventually, figures like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker also stopped by.

Realizing homebound audiences needed more than mere “party songs,” Jones took a different musical approach.

“The music I selected to play was all about what felt good,” he explained. “Does it feel good? Is it gonna make people smile? Playing David Bowie and mixing that in with, you know, Madonna, and then dropping a little Jay-Z, made people smile.”

Added Jones, “It was the first time in my entire DJ career where I was able to fully display my love of music, and there was no one tapping me on the shoulders asking for a request.”

During a year shaped by the pandemic and intensified by the summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, Jones saw his virtual sets become a place for people to heal from their loneliness and grief — even if only for a moment.

“All I wanted to do was make people smile. That literally was it,” he said. “It had nothing to do with where my DJ career was going to end up, or anything. I just wanted people to feel good during that dark time because I too was so sad. As much as I enjoyed playing the music, it was definitely secondary to what was truly happening — that healing, that virtual connection, we all needed that.”

The right place at the right time

Well before Club Quarantine, Jones had deep roots in hop-hop — first as a member of Boogie Down Productions and later as a solo artist. At 18, he produced “Self Destruction” (1989) by the Stop the Violence Movement, addressing violence in hip-hop and Black communities. The following year, “Call Me D-Nice” soared to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart.

But in 2019, faced with the milestone of turning 50, Jones relocated from New York to Los Angeles, fully intending to pivot into film and television production.

“Ageism truly exists,” he said. “2020 was supposed to be my last year of DJ’ing. I didn’t want to be the oldest person in the club. That’s just not what I saw for myself, and moving here was a part of that. It was like this fear of turning 50. I didn’t want to feel rejected by music, so I wanted to just remove myself from it and do something different.”

When quarantine began in March 2020, Jones was isolated from his family in New York. He eventually discovered that the same circumstances that had him contemplating retirement opened an unexpected door.

“I was the only person here in my family, so I started playing music because I didn’t have that connection, no human connectivity whatsoever,” he said. “If I had never moved to Los Angeles, I would have been quarantined with my family, and then there wouldn’t have been Club Quarantine.”

Having worked as a successful website developer, designing sites for Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox and companies like AT&T and Microsoft, his tech know-how combined seamlessly with his passion for music.

“For people like myself, who grew up in extremely poor conditions, music became a way of life and a way out of those conditions,” he said. “Fast-forward to the quarantine, that’s why I played the music that I did. I felt like there was a responsibility to uplift people with music.”

As Club Quarantine’s popularity grew, Jones realized the platform he was building could be leveraged for good. On Election Day in 2020, he spun a 19-and-a-half-hour DJ set, from the time the polls opened on the East Coast until they closed on the West Coast, he said.

“I played that set to keep people inspired, to remind people to stand in line and make sure you stay there, to vote, to allow your voice to be heard,” he said. “I felt like it was my responsibility to tell people to use your voice, but also be respectful of other people for whoever they wanted to support.”

In hindsight, he says, he was in the right place at the right time. “Now, I can walk down the street and there’s an 8-year-old kid that’s like, ‘Hey, that’s D-Nice,’ and his grandmother will say the same thing,” he said. “To be on this journey where I touch generations of people, man, what more can you ask for?”

What’s next for Club Quarantine?

Five years after its virtual debut, the spirit of Club Quarantine remains as strong as ever. D-Nice has since taken the party on the road, selling out major venues like the Kennedy Center (three times), Carnegie Hall (twice) and even Walt Disney Concert Hall for a New Year’s Eve show in Los Angeles.

On March 22, he’s bringing that same energy to the Apollo Theater in New York City for CQ: 5, featuring special guests Rakim, Shirley Jones, Deborah Cox, Lisa Lisa and more.

“I use a 20-piece orchestra with me while I’m playing,” he said of his live shows. “The whole point of it is to bring the DJ set to life. It’s a beautiful feeling of love and celebrating music and culture.”

He continued, “There’s a little magic when you say ‘Club Quarantine’ because it reminds people to have a good time and a feeling of connection, the spirit of love and the spirit of genuinely taking care of your brothers and sisters.”

Reflecting on how life led him here, he can’t help but be in awe of the unexpected turn of events.

“You never know where you’ll be in life,” he said. “I always tell people, especially in my generation, ‘Don’t be afraid. Never give up on your dreams. Never give up on yourself, because you just never know when it may happen.’ And it always happens when people are being authentically themselves. I was being myself, and I found an audience.”

As for what comes next, his focus remains firmly on uplifting others.

“I just want to continue doing great things,” he said. “I want to continue to contribute to this world and to live in a positive way. I know this sounds cliché, but that’s really how I feel.”