Early life and education
Born in New York's Upper East Side, Cassidy is the second child of Monica Podell, née Faust, and music agent Jonny Podell. Cassidy's sister, Brittany, was born in 1977. [5] At the time of Cassidy's birth, Jonny Podell was a booking agent for Norby Walters Associates; [6] he became head of music at ICM in 1996. He and Monica Podell separated in 1982. [5]
Interested in deejaying from an early age, Cassidy said he had always been a "hip-hop kid". As a child, he watched dance films such as Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo , and later loved Grandmaster Flash, Kool Herc, and Afrika Bambaataa. His tenth birthday present was two turntables and a mixer. [3] He began by working at teenage parties, school carnivals, and talent shows then, from his senior year, in nightclubs. [7]
In 1999 he began his undergraduate studies at George Washington University before transferring to New York University, where he majored in sociology and graduated in 2003. [8] [9]
Cassidy was discovered by Sean Combs while working the 10–4 night shift at a GQ party in the basement of Lotus, a club in Manhattan. [10] [11] Combs wrote his phone number on a napkin and asked Cassidy to call him, which led Cassidy to work at the 2001 wedding of Jennifer Lopez and Cris Judd, [10] as well as Grammy parties and the MTV Video Music Awards. As of 2011, according to Forbes, Cassidy was performing 200 gigs a year, sometimes earning $100,000 a night. [11] MusicRadar reported in 2014 that he used two CDJ 2000 digital turntables by Pioneer Electronics, a Pioneer DJM-900, in-ear headphones custom-made by JH Audio, and a 24-carat-gold microphone custom-made by Shure. [3]
Known for wearing boaters, cricket sweaters and tuxedos, often in pink and green, [12] Cassidy worked at parties hosted by Oprah Winfrey and Anna Wintour and at the weddings of Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, and Kim Kardashian. [13] [11] After he worked at the opening party in 2009 for Oprah Winfrey's girls' school in South Africa, she recommended him to the Obamas. [14] This led to him working at President Obama's first inauguration ball in 2009, at the president's and Michelle Obama's 50th birthday parties, and at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. [13]
He then performed at the Inauguration of Joe Biden in 2021. In the performance Celebrating America, he performed along with Luis Fonsi and Ozuna. [15] In August 2024, he performed on the second day of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, providing music for each state during the roll call of state delegations. [16]
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