DJ Cassidy discusses his 'epic' DNC soundtrack
(NewsNation) — DJ Cassidy, the musical maestro behind the Democratic National Convention's unconventional roll call, told "The Hill on NewsNation" about the process of curating a 57-song playlist to represent America's states and territories.
The traditional roll call turned into a boisterous dance party, with each delegation announcing their votes for presidential nominee Kamala Harris to a fitting song.
"I knew right away that I wanted this process to be collaborative. I did not want to curate the soundtrack to this roll call in a vacuum. I very much wanted to collaborate not only with the convention producers and the Democratic National Committee, but with the states themselves," Cassidy said.
That included working with the representatives and delegates for each state, ultimately deciding on what would impact the viewer most rather than sticking to songs only made within that territory.
"At the end of the day, the soundtrack was based in emotion. Every song had to exude the emotion of the convention. So of course, we wanted the artist, perhaps, to be from the state, or the lyrics to mention the state," Cassidy explained.
"But when all was said and done, the key to the soundtrack was striking an emotional chord, not only with the people in the arena, but, of course, with people around the country and, in this case, around the world," he added.
The musical nods spun by DJ Cassidy were mostly obvious. Massachusetts went with a punk song about Boston. Kansas picked a song from the band Kansas.
But there were curious picks — like American Samoa rolling out to Lady Gaga's “Edge of Glory" — and some delegations said they simply didn't have a say in the matter.
Harris' home state picked a medley of West Coast hip-hop anthems — classic and more recent — to close out the roll call, including “The Next Episode” by Dr. Dre; “California Love” by Tupac Shakur, and “Alright” and “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.