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New Orleans Hip-Hop for Hope:

Disc Jockeys & On-Air Personalities

D.J. Soul Sister:

Where Have All the DJs Gone?

by Carolyn Hennigan

New Orleans: music haven of the Dirty South, an incubator for all genres of music, including those other than jazz, blues or Cajun, which are normally associated with our city’s rich culture. However, some music types are still stereotypically represented moreso than others, and very few venues cater to some of the unknown gems of the New Orleans music scene, including local DJs and hip hop artists.

New Orleans female DJ pioneer, DJ Soul Sista, has rocked turntables all around the city on and off for ten years, but has never lost her refreshingly unique spirit of the city and its DJs. “I don’t encourage DJs to tailor the music they play for whoever hires them. I work as a specialty DJ, or a DJ artist, as I like to call it. I specialize in rare blues, deep funk, old school funk, underground disco, old school hip hop. I collect and play all vinyl. People who hire me or let me throw my parties, they know what I specialize in. One time a bartender said, ‘I heard that you’re limiting your music.’ I said, ‘Not at all. I just play the music that I believe in.’ The only type of tailoring I do is for the energy of the crowd.”

Media Darling’s DJ Quickie Mart has been on the DJ scene for about five years, specializing in hip hop and funk spinning. Quickie Mart currently divides his time between living and working in L.A. and coming down one week out of the month to New Orleans to spruce up a few local gigs. He agrees that local DJing is underrepresented throughout the city. “New Orleans is such a roots music town that it’s hard for [New Orleanians] to accept DJs as musicians or part of music culture. It is New Orleans music is the thing. It doesn’t matter if it’s rap, or organic hip hop with a message or George Porter Jr. It’s all New Orleans music.”

“I think that the disconnect happens because no one knows where to go,” Soul Sista said. “Half of the reason people come to my parties is that I make a really conscious effort to publicize. I want DJs to get out of the mindset of ‘I’m just gonna show up at a gig and play records.’”

Just before Katrina, local DJ and hip hop shows had reached their pinnacle with often 100 to 150 head crowds. “It took a long time to get the scene how it was before the storm, which was awesome,” Quickie Mart said. “But then after the storm, things slowed down for everyone.”

Six year local DJ Matic, best known for spinning hip hop, reggae, dancehall and downtempo, as well as for his various weeklies around the city, said, “The people were

incredible [before the storm]. But now after Katrina, it’s terrible ‘cause a lot of the cool people that were eager to listen to good music left. Now it seems like the people that are still here are just worried about jazz and zydeco, which is good of course. It’s us, and it’s New Orleans. But I’m really worried because I really don’t see an outlet for the younger kids where they can go and listen to alternative hip hop and DJs.”

Any advice for DJs, their fans and those who want to become fans or expand the scene itself?

“We need to convince the bar owners to give people a chance if we want the scene to expand at all,” Matic says. “And then DJs need to bring a crowd and get the crowd going to make the bar owners money.”

Soul Sista added, “If they stick with what they believe in, they’ll make a name for themselves. And DJs need to stick with the attitude of ‘I’m building an event, I’m building a vibe and a scene’ instead of a having a night just be a gathering where they play records from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.”

The DJ scene remains incredibly underrepresented in our music community, especially in relation to other more commonplace New Orleans genres. However, the DJ scene is there; weeklies are held every day at various bars and venues around town. These musicians put an amount of heart and passion into their sets equal to any other musician in this city. L.A. and New York can’t have all the fun; it’s time for NOLA DJs to get the spotlight they deserve.

Soul Sista sums up the lagniappe that New Orleans’ own DJs can bring to the music industry: “Everybody can play Top 40 music, but if you’re spinning music that you believe in and still make people dance, then that’s what I call artistry. It’s making people learn something and feel something and getting them out of their comfort zone.” And if there are any two things that New Orleans and its music smorgasbord do best, they are making people dance and getting them out of their comfort zone.

This article has been provided courtesy of...


Wild Wayne- Q93























Check out Wild Wayne's "Industry Influence Conference" on November 5th at the Hangar! This event will be a great follow up to this weekend's HIP-HOP FOR HOPE Benefit Concert and Community Forum. All artists, promoters, booking agents, managers and other music industry affiliates have something to gain by attending this event. THIS IS NOT JUST ANOTHER CONFERENCE- ITS INDUSTRY INFLUENCE. Check it out on the first Monday of each month! Networking. Education. Showcases. We will be there in attendence, networking and honing our music industry skills to help make sure Hip-Hop for Hope 2008 gets even bigger and better!



























Dyron Ducati- Q93
C.J. Morgan- Q93
D.J. Mike Swift- 102.9
D.J. Johnny Bapo- WTUL
D.J. Tony Skratchere- Handsome Willy’s
D.J. Beverly Skills- Handsome Willy’s
D.J. Evann- The Boot
D.J. EF Cuttin- New Orleans
D.J. Raj Smooth- 2Cent