GRATITUDE
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
As we get closer to the September 1st release of “Lessons & Blessings – DJ Droops Club Mix,” I’ve been feeling something heavy lately—but in the best possible way.
Gratitude.
Not the kind you post because it sounds good. I mean that real feeling where you look around at your life, everything you’ve been through, everybody who has played a part, and realize:
Damn. I’m blessed.
Maybe it’s the time of year.
Summer is coming to an end. The sun ☀️ is going down a little earlier every day. I actually noticed it the first day it started happening. Now we’re a couple weeks into it, and you can feel that change coming.
The last quarter of the year is right around the corner.
And for whatever reason, that change has me reflecting.
I Want to Thank Everybody
First, I have to thank the dancers I work with.
Seriously.
If it wasn’t for these women, my life and career would look completely different. They bring energy to the clubs, the videos, the content, the performances and so many of the experiences that have become part of my journey as DJ Fluff.
I appreciate every one of you. 💯
I want to thank everybody who watches my content, shares it, comments on it, likes it, sends it to somebody or simply takes a few seconds out of their day to pay attention to something I created.
That matters. 🫶
I want to thank the people who genuinely support these crazy adventures of mine. The people who don’t just show up when something looks successful, but who have watched me build this thing piece by piece.
My coworkers who have my back. 🔥
My camera 📸 guy Carlo, who has helped me capture moments that otherwise would have disappeared as quickly as they happened.
My IT guy Ray Santiago, who keeps helping me put the technical pieces together behind the scenes.
And there are so many other people I could name. "TONS"!
Some of you have helped with music. Some with videos. Some with clubs. Some with technology. Some with ideas. Some simply gave me encouragement at exactly the right moment.
Thank you.
I’ve Been Locked In
My life has gotten pretty simple lately.
I DJ.
I go home.
I get in the studio.
I rest.
I try to eat as well as I can.
Then I get up and do it again.
And somewhere inside that repetition, something has changed.
I’ve learned more about music over this past stretch than I ever expected to know. Not just making records, either. I’ve been learning the music business. Recording. Engineering. Mixing. Mastering. Production.
I’ve been getting my hands dirty with all of it.
And now I’ve got two more records recorded and on the way.
That’s crazy to me.
Because every record teaches me something the previous record couldn’t.
Every session makes me better.
Every mistake teaches me something.
Every release shows me another part of this business that I didn’t understand before.
I’m still a student.
And I love that.
Florida Became Part of My Story
Sometimes I forget something else.
I’m not from here.
I’ve been in Florida for years, building a life on my own, away from where I came from.
When you’re living it every day, you don’t always recognize what you’ve built. You’re too busy worrying about what needs to happen tomorrow.
But every once in a while, you’ve got to look backward.
Not because you’re going backward.
Because sometimes that’s the only way you can see how far you’ve actually come.
There were people I hadn’t met yet.
Places I hadn’t walked into yet.
Songs I hadn’t written yet.
Videos I hadn’t shot yet.
Lessons I hadn’t learned yet.
And somehow, all those little pieces became this life I’m living now.
Lessons & Blessings
Maybe that’s why this particular release has me thinking like this.
Lessons & Blessings.
It’s literally in the name.
The original record already had its own journey. Now we’re approaching its anniversary, and somehow the song has another life through the club mix.
That’s another blessing I couldn’t have planned.
And maybe that’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned lately:
You can work incredibly hard without pretending you did everything by yourself.
I work hard.
I’m proud of that.
But there are fingerprints from a whole lot of people on this journey.
And I don’t ever want to become so focused on where I’m going that I forget the people who helped me get here.
The Last Quarter
So that’s the energy I’m taking into the final quarter of this year.
Gratitude.
I’m grateful for the music.
I’m grateful for the clubs.
I’m grateful for the studio.
I’m grateful for the dancers.
I’m grateful for my coworkers.
I’m grateful for Carlo. 🎥 📸
I’m grateful for Ray. 💻 ⌨️
I’m grateful for everybody who shares the content.
I’m grateful for everybody who listens to the records.
I’m grateful for everybody who genuinely wants to see me win.
I’m grateful for the lessons.
And I’m damn sure grateful for the blessings.
There is still a lot of year left.
There is more music coming.
More work to do.
More things to learn.
More life to live.
But before I run into that next chapter, I wanted to stop for one second and acknowledge this one.
Thank you. Every freaking one of you!
DJ Fluff
"Stay Blessed, Stay healthy, Stay Spinning"
Lessons & Blessings Music Video
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