D-Nice’s Inauguration Video

D-Nice Presents: Experiencing The Dream from D-Nice on Vimeo.

I spotted this short video that D-Nice made over at Dope Boyz.

It must have been divine intervention... or well, just the way the internet works, because I'd just finished reading a great interview with D-Nice over at HipHopGame.

I think reading that interview made me click on the video, and then watching it, I was just really moved by the images that D had captured on camera, the way they were edited, and the music that is used. Since attending Barack Obama's inauguration last week, I've struggled to actually write down the words to express what the experience was like. And perhaps words just don't cut it. D-Nice's video, in many ways, captured it. If you really take a minute out of your day, maximize the screen, it's a powerful piece.

It also got me thinking about D-Nice, and how he's created second and third (and maybe now, fourth) careers for himself as both a DJ and photographer. Anyone who has been to an event that D-Nice is DJing knows that on the party DJ tip, he is a monster. I must say, he makes people who don't even like partying (i.e. me), want to party.

In his HipHopGame interview, D talks about traveling to South Africa with Mary J. Blige, and to Europe with Diddy, among other experiences, where he was asked both to DJ, but also to be a photographer. I bring this up because obviously D-Nice was at one point a rapper. And rapping is all about being brash, and in your face, bragging and boasting. If you are the rapper, the MC, you are the star of the show. And it takes a lot to humble yourself, to fall back and a) play someone else's music; and b) take their pictures. That's really putting your ego aside.

And I bring that up because right now our country is in a big funk. Not sure if you all heard, but another 45 thousand jobs, globally, were cut today.

Suffice it to say, the music industry has been going through these financial woes for some time, and rest assured, rappers r n danja. But it's ok, if you're an established or even a struggling MC, you may have to eat a little humble pie to make ends meet.

That's not to say you can't still have your voice heard. Like D-Nice. Who's letting his voice be heard in other ways. And he's not even really speaking. Which is saying a whole lot, when you really think about it.

Get it?