School-Safe Music and Celebrating Ellen DeGeneres's Gift to Summit Academy Charter School
I had a lot of fun DJing at Summit Academy Charter School in Brooklyn. It was a celebration of their gift from Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen is giving every single graduate a full 4-year scholarship to the college of their choice. The students are then not restricted by college affordability, but can achieve their full potential.
After getting the call for this gig, I instantly ran into the problem that any DJ runs into during school dances: finding the music that's "cool" but school appropriate. Lazy DJ's simply play Top 40 they find on some outdated, clean playlist, but the party is for the kids, so playing what they like is important. Just playing clean tunes doesn't cut it either because it's more about content than curse words. Above are the videos of the show and below is a Spotify playlist and some pictures I snapped while setting up for the event: