{"id":732,"date":"2026-06-28T10:39:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T10:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=732"},"modified":"2026-06-28T10:39:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T10:39:32","slug":"nobodys-a-stranger-when-you-play-no-letting-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=732","title":{"rendered":"Nobody\u2019s a Stranger When You Play \u201cNo Letting Go\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You\u2019re reading Songs of Summer<\/strong>, a series on music and memory.<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I was not alive for Dylan going electric, but I was alive for the Diwali riddim. I can\u2019t imagine that the sixties felt so monumental. In 2003, it seemed that every other song on the radio was built on the Jamaican producer Steven (Lenky) Marsden\u2019s backing track, named after the Hindu festival of lights and instantly recognizable for its jubilant handclaps, surging, feinting bass line, and stuttering drums. In the hypercompetitive world of dancehall, a popular riddim is an invitation to brinkmanship, artists big and small jumping on the beat to see who can make the most iconic song. I saw the best minds of my generation lose it to Wayne Wonder\u2019s \u201cNo Letting Go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more We\u2019re Sorry\u2014Our Sentient Air-Conditioner Is the Landlord Now<\/a><\/p>\n

Those handclaps were everywhere. Not quite applause, more like the sound of strangers finding unison. Wonder began releasing records in the mid-eighties as a teen-ager, and his sweet, angelic voice never left him. While most riddims remain unchanged from version to version, Marsden tweaked his backing track for the major artists who wanted to use it. For \u201cNo Letting Go,\u201d originally released in 2002, he started with a whistling synth line, a patient build that\u2019s always reminded me of Stevie Wonder\u2019s \u201cAs,\u201d keeping the percussion at bay as Wonder (no relation) crooned about his baby. \u201cGot somebody, she is a beauty\u00a0\/ Very special, really and truly\u00a0\/ Take good care of me like it\u2019s her duty\u00a0\/ Want you right by my side night and day,\u201d Wonder sings, as pieces of the rhythm track drop in. The handclaps arrive with the force of history, and as Wonder soars into the chorus it feels as though this is the only love song that has ever existed.<\/p>\n

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At the time, a friend and I d.j.\u2019d a party at a bar in Cambridge on Thursday nights. I handled the early hours, coaxing folks onto their feet, managing the evolution from curious head nods to proper dancing. We would trade off during the party\u2019s peak, and then, late into the night, he would start playing dancehall. He would move through the other Diwali-riddim contenders, like Bounty Killer\u2019s underdog anthem \u201cSufferer\u201d or Danny English and Egg Nog\u2019s jubilant \u201cParty Time\u201d or Sean Paul\u2019s vaguely sinister, wee-hours jam \u201cGet Busy.\u201d Then, there would come a moment when I would dig through his crates and hand over \u201cNo Letting Go,\u201d and we\u2019d watch people, who\u2019d been strangers a few drinks ago, stomping, clapping, exploring ways to jigsaw their bodies together.<\/p>\n

The Diwali name and festive percussion gave the song a faintly South Asian vibe. The early-two-thousands were a time when the pop charts were filled with hits that eyeballed some kind of cross-cultural conversation: Missy Elliott\u2019s tabla-sampling \u201cGet Ur Freak On,\u201d Nas and the Bravehearts\u2019 Orientalist fantasy \u201cOochie Wally\u201d (a personal favorite), the lite Bollywood-isms of Truth Hurts\u2019 \u201cAddictive.\u201d As far as gimmicks go, it was nice that this one looked beyond our borders. I spent a lot of my twenties trying to make disparate sounds harmonize, song-length reprieves from geopolitics. Sometimes being a d.j. means trying to piece together a world you want to live in\u2014at least until people get drunk enough to start harassing you with requests.<\/p>\n

Read more Top Nine Hot and Unavoidable Summer Vibes<\/a><\/p>\n

There are certain genres that seem inappropriate to play during cold weather. Dancehall sounds like a tease in the dead of winter. Yet \u201cNo Letting Go\u201d was a song for all seasons. We played it in the fall, when Wonder\u2019s line about growing apart\u2014\u201cThey say good things must come to an end \/ But I\u2019m optimistic about being your friend\u201d\u2014fit the season\u2019s melancholy. We played it in the winter, where its stomps and claps sounded like people marching together, huddling for warmth. And then, come spring, it felt like we were conjuring the gross, sweaty months to come. The years blur together, yet I still feel like summer doesn\u2019t start until I hear \u201cNo Letting Go\u201d boom from a passing car.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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My life is a lot more boring nowadays, and the mere idea of carrying crates of records makes my back ache. A few weeks ago, some neighbors on my block in Brooklyn got married. They filed the proper permits with the city, blocked off our street, and invited all of us neighbors to be a part of their wedding. Their guests were decked out in fine suits and funky dresses even though they would just be hanging out on the street for hours. Vows were exchanged on their stoop, and the couple leaned on the hood of a car to listen to the speeches. Trash cans were wheeled away so a d.j. could set up in their small front yard. We watched them party all afternoon from our steps across the street, basking in someone else\u2019s love, before retreating indoors as the sun set. Later, I heard the opening synths of \u201cNo Letting Go\u201d and ran back outside just in time for the claps. It had never sounded so good. I felt overjoyed for the happy couple\u2014by now, the bride had sheared off the bottom of her wedding dress so it was easier to dance\u2014and went back inside to get ready for bed. The night belonged to them now.\u00a0\u2666<\/p>\n

Read more \u201cCouture,\u201d Reviewed: Angelina Jolie Faces Trouble with Style<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hua Hsu recalls his time as a young d.j. in 2003, when Wayne Wonder\u2019s dancehall anthem seemed like a beacon from a better world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-songs-of-summer"],"yoast_head":"\nNobody\u2019s a Stranger When You Play \u201cNo Letting Go\u201d - City Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=732\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nobody\u2019s a Stranger When You Play \u201cNo Letting Go\u201d - City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hua Hsu recalls his time as a young d.j. in 2003, when Wayne Wonder\u2019s dancehall anthem seemed like a beacon from a better world.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=732\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-28T10:39:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=732#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=732\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4\"},\"headline\":\"Nobody\u2019s a Stranger When You Play \u201cNo Letting Go\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-28T10:39:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=732\"},\"wordCount\":932,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=732#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/da7ea8f376295750640513effc466167.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Songs of Summer\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=732#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=732\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=732\",\"name\":\"Nobody\u2019s a Stranger When You Play \u201cNo Letting Go\u201d - 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