The latest issue of DJ LIFE Magazine showcases Dr. D — the Brooklyn-based DJ, Duane Knight — who embraces most notably house, jazz, and calypso.
Brooklyn, N.Y. – Nearly a half-century ago, gospel music was all about choirs and quartets. Today, the music has embraced other genres — most notably house, jazz, and calypso. Brooklyn-based DJ Duane Knight (aka Dr. D) deserves some credit for the genre’s expansion, as he’s been playing the music in all its forms in churches, during mobile events, on boat cruises and, for the past 29 years, on the radio.
In fact, he’s recently been granted some serious industry props. He’s been inducted into The Gospel Hip Hop/Christian Hip Hop Hall of Fame and he’s been nominated for The National Black Radio Hall of Fame.
When he’s not DJing or mentoring younger jocks, he works as a professional photographer, and next year he’ll achieve two musical milestones: He’ll celebrate 30 years on the radio and 50 years as The Father of the Gospel DJ Movement. We talked to Duane Knight/Dr. D to get some background on the blessed beats.
DJ LIFE: So, next year will be 50 years since you first got behind the wheels of steel. Tell us about how you got started.
Duane Knight: I got my first turntables from a store called Lafayette in Brooklyn, I think that was the prelude to Radio Shack. They were direct belt-driven, so we had to improvise and put a piece of wax paper underneath the record so that we could pull it back and stuff like that.
DJ LIFE: Were you scratching?
Knight: We didn’t do much of scratching, but we did mix, especially myself… because out of the six guys in our gospel group, everybody had their own talents. Three of them sang very well, and I was the one who introduced the DJ aspect because I was surrounded by DJs. My next-door neighbor was a DJ, my sister’s boyfriend was a DJ. One of my favorite DJs, I don’t remember his name, but he used to DJ in a blue coffin. A blue coffin. he used to come out to the park and his gear was in a blue coffin. It was phenomenal.
DJ LIFE: What kind of tunes were you spinning in the early days?
Knight: One of my favorites was Rance Allen – he just passed away maybe like five years ago. He had this smooth gospel sound. And we were playing jazz from Allen & Allen, and a gospel-reggae group called Christafari.
DJ LIFE: You started spinning in churches in Brooklyn. What were the gigs like?
Knight: Our church was on Bedford and Madison. It’s still there. We started in Brooklyn and we just expanded, as churches started calling on us because, at that time, if they hired a DJ, they would have to bring the music, give it to the DJ, and then somebody would have to stand there and tell them what to play. The DJs didn’t know gospel music. Then people started calling us for gospel skating parties. We played almost every roller-skating rink in New York City. We did Empire. We were famous for Empire. We started it at Empire in Brooklyn. It was the mecca, Empire Roller Dome. We’d go out to Skate Key, U.S. Skates in Long Island, Eclipse, there’s a list of them.
DJ LIFE: What happened to the skating rinks?
Knight: Gentrification. People became more interested in building apartment buildings than recreation. A lot of the recreation in the New York City boroughs are gone. The bowling alleys are gone. The skating rinks are gone. Magic Johnson built a 24-theater complex up here on Linden Boulevard, and they just closed it down this year, so they could build a supermarket.
DJ LIFE: Outside church events, where else have you played?
Knight: I’ve played all types of events, from weddings, those skating parties, boat rides, conventions – just like all DJs. I spun at Six Flags Great Adventure’s Soul Brothers Gospel Jam and Central Park SummerStage’s Gospel Night.
DJ LIFE: What’s your gear looking like these days?
Knight: For gigs, I use the Numark Mixtrack Platinum FX controller, VirtualDJ software, AKG headphones, Samson QH4 4-channel headphone amp, Electro-Voice ELX112P active 12-inch speakers, Beats Audio software/HP laptop, Harbinger LV12 analog mixer for travel, Gator Frameworks Gator speaker stands, Odyssey cases, a Sennheiser EW100 wireless system, and a VocoPro UHF-5804 4-channel, rechargeable wireless mics. Other gear includes Allen & Heath ZED-10 mixer for home-studio internet mixing and Harbinger Vari V2308 powered speakers for home-studio monitors
DJ LIFE: You’re still spinning on the radio?
Knight: Station 90.3 FM, WHCR — Harlem city radio, in City College in Harlem. I’m going on 29 years now. My time slot has always been the same – 1 a.m to 4 a.m. on Monday morning. That came about because I worked for a gospel radio station called WWRL, 1600 AM. They used to be an R&B station back in the day. But then they transitioned to a gospel station. And so I ended up getting a job there as well. I started out as a driver just driving around doing errands. Then they started doing remotes and, because I knew music and equipment, I became the person in charge of the live remote.
DJ LIFE: Right place, right time…
Knight: Long story short, there was a gentleman by the name of Joe Brown. He was a professor at City College in Harlem. and he went to the church down the block, Convent Avenue Baptist Church. Every year they did a Martin Luther King special and so when we started with WWRL broadcasting live, I was the one that went and set it up. One year, Joe approached me and said he took a job as the GM at the radio station up at City College, and he was looking to do a talk show with some gospel music. He asked if I’d come on to play the music.
DJ LIFE: What music are you playing on the radio?
Knight: It’s a mixture of music I play. The second two hours is a total gospel-house set — Kenny Bobien, he’s considered the king of gospel-house music. We play someone like Dawn Tallman – she’s the queen of gospel energy. We play remixes that people have done for some gospel songs. One of my good friends is DJ Rich Williams, he’s a master at remixing gospel music to that gospel-house beat. We play Paula Brion. There’s a lot of artists. Alan Kay is great to play now. The first hour is comprised of the music that I started out doing. So we have the Kirk Franklins. We have the Fred Hammonds. We have the gospel hip hop. We have The King’s Men — they’re out in Chicago.
DJ LIFE: In your view, how have the young people changed in the last 50 years?
Knight: Young people have always been receptive to new styles of music. So that’s why, in the beginning, we catered to them because they wanted the contemporary sound, and they wanted the gospel music to sound the same way. So when the radio started coming out on the R&B side, mainstream, they wanted that in the gospel side – they wanted the jazz, the calypso, and they wanted holy hip hop.
DJ LIFE: And that changed the music?
Knight: There’s been a good change because the gospel industry has been more receptive to the music out there now. On the radio, they play the hip hop. They play more upbeat, contemporary, because in the beginning, when I started out, when we started out as a group, they would just play choirs, and quartet. Those are two genres that they basically played on Sunday morning was choirs and quartet. So now, you got all these other genres of gospel music that they weren’t playing. They’re more open to it now – thanks be to God!
Sidebar:
Gospel House: Dr. D’s All-Time Tunes
- “Home” by Tracy Hamlin [Kenny Carpenter Wiz Revised Mix] (Quantize Recordings, 2014)
- “Movin’ On” by Kenny Bobien [Gianluca Pighi Remix] (Makin’ Moves, 2016)
- “Heaven” by Aaron K. Gray & Cierra Hill [Mark Francis 201 Vocal Mix] (Quantize Recordings, 2021)
- “Good Night” by Niko De Luka & Brown Sugar feat. Dawn Tallman [Andrey Exx Remix] (Vamos Music, 2019)
- “By Faith” by CeCe Rogers feat. Junior White (USB Records, 2015)