Mixmaster-to-the stars DJ Cassidy is bringing a heaping helping of hip-hop history to Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City.
On Aug. 17, Cassidy, who has provided the soundtrack for parties hosted by such A-plus listers as Oprah Winfrey, Michelle and Barack Obama and Jeff Bezos (he DJ’d at the Amazon founder’s recent zillion-dollar Venice wedding) will host “Pass the Mic Live!” It’s a sold-out evening of old-school rap featuring such genre progenitors as Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, Rakim and the team of Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick, who this year are celebrating the 40th anniversary of their seminal tracks, “Ladi Dadi” and “The Show.”
Also on the bill are Black Sheep; Buckshot of Black Moon; CL Smooth; Havoc of Mobb Deep; Milk Dee of Audio Two; M.O.P Nice & Smooth; Onyx; Smif-N-Wessun; reggae titan Super Cat and Treach of Naughty by Nature.
“All the music being performed at this show was released between the mid-eighties and the mid-nineties; it’s what most hip-hop lovers refer to as the ‘Golden Age.’ It’s probably the most-beloved era,” said Cassidy during a recent Zoom chat from his Los Angeles home. “It’s the era that people are most passionate about.”
Cassidy, 44, a Manhattan native whose real name is Cassidy Durango Willy Milton Podell, spoke of the music of this period as the hip-hop equivalent of classic rock.
“I think you could call it that,” he offered. “Many people refer to this as ‘classic hip-hop.’ That is a phrase that is commonly used. I think that’s why there is so much overwhelming excitement about this show.”
The ”Pass the Mic Live!” concept is an offshoot of Cassidy’s “Pass the Mic,” a project born in the COVID-dominated year 2020 that featured him posting online videos of interviews with, and performances by, a galaxy of R&B and rap titans.
“It was a burst of inspiration,” he replied when asked how the concept came to be.
“I was FaceTiming with Verdine White of Earth, Wind and Fire, who’s my dear friend and mentor, late one night in May, 2020. “While we were FaceTiming, [the EWF] song ‘That’s the Way of the World’ came on [his sound system]. Verdine heard his song and very casually, nonchalantly, without even realizing he was doing it, began to sing along to what I believe to be their most prolific ballad.
“And I heard him singing very lightly, ‘Hearts of fire create love, desire.’ That song has been so important in my journey. And when he started singing, I felt kind of taken aback and emotional that I could experience my favorite artists and my favorite songs in this personal way.
“I felt so grateful that I had relationships with nearly all of my musical heroes and asked myself if there was some way for me to give people around the world the feeling that I had at that very moment. And a light bulb immediately went off, and I envisioned what soon became the ‘Pass the Mic’ series which I premiered the first week of July 2020.”
Although it was mid-summer, things quickly snowballed for Cassidy and his idea.
“After three homegrown episodes, the show had gone completely viral,” he continued. “And to make a long story short, I partnered with BET to turn it into a series of television specials that millions of people watched. And after the 10th episode, I decided to retire the show and take it on the road.
“After 10 episodes, I had featured 220 artists on the show. So, if you do the math, that’s an average of 22 artists per episode. Some had a few more, some had a few less. And after passing the mic to 220 hip-hop and R&B icons on the show, I wanted to put the show in its first iteration to bed while we were on top and embark on a new mission to take the show on the road.”
The first of the in-concert versions—each of which has been different in terms of the talent rosters—took place in Newark, NJ, in 2023; a 2024 residency at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Casino & Resort featured permanent headliners Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, Fat Joe and Ja Rule as well as guest stars including Public Enemy, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon of Wu Tang Clan.
Cassidy, whose sartorial trademark is the 1920s-style hat known as a “boater,” emphasized the unique nature of each “Pass the Mic Live!” presentation.
“No two are exactly alike and none of the live concerts have been televised or streamed,” he offered. “So, you really have to be there on that specific night to experience it. And because the lineups tend to have so many artists involved, every show really feels historic.
“Another element that makes the ‘Pass the Mic Live!’ experience so special and unique is its continuous nature. They are anywhere from two to three hours [long], and the experiences are 100-percent continuous, 100-percent seamless and 100-percent cohesive. There are no openers, there are no headliners, there are no intermissions, there are no announcements.
“There is a start and an end, and I am on stage the entire time; every artist and every song are interweaved with each other to create a continuous, seamless musical experience that is unlike any other concert you will go to.”
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
