No drinks, no drugs, no meds: not exactly the typical DJ diet. But DJ Cassidy -- real name: Cassidy Podell -- isn't your typical DJ. His tastes run more to a healthy dose of adidas shell toes (he buys nine pairs a month) and latter-day soul. Unexpected? Maybe, but in his hands a recipe for success. Given turntables as a gift when he was 11, he went on to spin for New York's private-school circuit by his late teens -- very, dare we say, Gossip Girl -- and has now graduated to DJing for the one-namers: Puffy, Naomi, Kimora, Russell. (A typically high-profile recent gig: Jay-Z and Beyoncé's wedding.)
Boyish, soft-spoken and sharply dressed, the uptown boy -- born,
raised, and, yes, still residing on the slightly unlikely Upper East
Side -- now balances visits to the studio, where he and partner dub-L are
producing the debut album of their protégé, crooner O'Neal McKnight,
with turns at the tables worldwide from Capri to South Africa. That's a
long way from the 86th Street HMV where, every Tuesday as a kid, Podell
would race to buy the latest hip-hop albums the day they were released.
So how'd he get to be the most beautiful DJ in the game? Talent, drive
and swagger to spare; humility, not so much. "Why is it humbling when
people win an award?" he asks with a laugh. "[When I heard,] I was like,
motherfucker, they think I'm beautiful!"
MATTHEW SCHNEIER
DJ Cassidy wears a blazer by Ralph Lauren Black Label, track jacket and shoes by adidas, jeans by UNIQLO and hat by Jay Kos.
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