Carencro DJ Ticketed for Playing “Neck” on Float During Parade

DJing a float during Mardi Gras can be a huge undertaking. You are taking equipment that is mean to stay in one spot, and putting it on a moving platform. You are hoping the guy that supplied the generator actually put gas in it, and that the people on board don't get too drunk and knock your gear over.

I speak from experience. Personally, I have DJed more floats than I even care to think about. As a float DJ, your job is to hype the crowd around the float up, hype the people on the float up, and keep the music pumping for hours as you roll down the road. Music selection is absolutely key for this. Most of the time, all of the time in SWLA, all of your music must be clean and edited. This rule applies no matter what parade you are at. In fact, my personal rule is to always play edited unless the party is 21 and up.

Introducing, Rickey. Rickey DJed the Carencro Mardi Gras Parade. The parade was the past weekend, and according to the media, it was a good one. According to the story, Rickey's float he was working on was pulled over at the end of the parade. The officers that pulled him over accused him of playing music with "profanity". The song in question was Jay Da Wizard's version of Neck. Now, obviously the song has THAT word in it, but Rickey assured the officers that he was diligent in playing the clean version of the song. The clean version replaces the phrase we all know, with a tiger roar.

Now, as a DJ, you technically can't control what the crowd says. If they were singing along, that's not Rickey's problem. I tend to want to believe his innocence, but not his thinking. As a DJ, you KNOW when you play this track what the outcome will be. You are encouraging that phrase, even though you aren't playing it. Should he have played it? According to the rules of the parade, it was allowed. For a day parade, in my opinion, I would have left that one out of the play list. Rickey heads to court in March to plead his case.