Last Updated On 21st March 2020
DJ and radio personality Black N Mild who had tested positive for coronavirus has died, the Orleans Parish coroner’s office confirmed Friday (March 20) that the DJ, born Oliver Stokes Jr., died Thursday after contracting the virus. Black N Mild aka Oliver Stokes Jr. was 44.
The father of four also worked at the Arthur Ashe Charter School in New Orleans’ Gentilly neighborhood. According to The Times-Picayune, DJ Black N Mild left the school with a fever on March 9 and documented the early stages of his sickness on social media, writing his last post — “pneumonia not the flu” — on March 11.
DJ Black N Mild is known for bringing New Orleans bounce music to the radio. On his Facebook post in Feb 3, talking about his career, he said;
“I was the first DJ in Nola history to have a radio mix show dedicated to Nola Bounce from 03-05 (up to Katrina),”
After Hurricane Katrina, Stokes relocated to Houston, where he hosted a mix show on local radio. His Rhythm and Bounce show was featured on Saturday nights on New Orleans AM station WBOK from 2013 to 2017, an era Stokes also spent DJing at clubs, bars and parties throughout the region.
“One of the biggest and best compliments I ever got from somebody in the industry,” Stokes said in a 2012 interview with Tulane University, “is when I was playing an industry event I was doing in ’04. … I was DJing the event and there were a lot of industry people there and Doug E. Fresh was hosting. … Doug E. Fresh pulled me to the side and was like, ‘Man, I’ve heard a lot of DJs in my time; you were one of the smoothest DJs I’ve ever heard.'”
Our prayers are with Oliver Stokes Jr. and family!
