Bronx DJs on the Rise

By Laura Rojas Aponte

TRANSCRIPT

Voices (in order of appearance)

Laura Rojas Aponte (Host)
Carla López (DJ Ultraviolet), Interviewee
GAL SHICORE, Dancer House of Yes
PHILIP SECLEN, Dancer House of Yes
Erica Herrera (DJ Dana Lu), Interviewee
Jazmin Alleman, (DJ Dada Cozmic), Interviewee
Dada Cozmic, Interviewee

Laura:

It’s Friday night. Carla López is performing tonight.

Ultraviolet:

My name is Ultraviolet. I’m born and raised in the Bronx. I’m Dominican. Um, I’ve been DJing for four years, but prior to DJing, I did photography for six.

Laura:

Carla’s stage name is Ultraviolet, in honor of Prince, who famously liked purple.

She started using that name in 2021, back then her gigs were mostly in local spots in the Bronx.

MUSIC

Laura:

At Ultraviolet’s parties, she seems to play it all.

Ultraviolet:

It could go anywhere from, like, hip-hop to reggae to dancehall.

Laura:

But also

MUSIC

Ultraviolet:

House

I have funk classics.

I have baile funk

I have reggae

I have Amapiano

I have Afrobeat

 

Laura:
It’s a mixture of Carla’s experiences growing up and everything that influences her.

[MUSIC FADES OUT]

Ultraviolet:
I could pull up anywhere and play a different set every time.

Laura:

Tonight, her performance takes place at House of Yes, a nightclub in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Laura:
The place is the creation of two producers who used to run a circus theater and is known for mixing performance art and dancing in lively parties. Even Forbes, the more traditional media outlet, has covered House of Yes. They placed it #3 on its list of “The Most Risqué Things To Do in New York City.

It is an exciting night. Just this year, House of Yes offered Carla a residency, which means she gets to perform there regularly. Tonight is only her second gig.

HOY front door

Hostess: Yes, amazing. Have you all been here before with us?

Public: No, first time!

Hostess: OK, before we get into the speech, I just want to give you a little tip beat. We have the Onyx Room open tonight. DJ Ultraviolet is playing, and it’s going to be some fire beats you definitely wanna stop there throughout the night. Make sure to stop throughout the night.

Laura:

Ultraviolet is relatively new to the scene. Or, at least, she is new to having her own regular gig at a club this size. Still, some at House of Yes already recognize her name.

GAL SHICORE

If, like, she’s playing, we’ll do our best to make it because we know it’s going to be a guaranteed good night.

PHILIP SECLEN:

Yeah! You know, you know you’re gonna dance. With Ultraviolet, you’re guaranteed you’re gonna dance.

Laura:

This couple even keeps tabs on her moves.

GAL SHICORE

It’s just been so fun. So now when we see that she’s out, we’re out.

Laura:

Having her followership growing is especially important, given the moment Carla is at right now.

Until 2021, she worked at the front desk of an art warehouse in Long Island City, Queens full time for eight years.

And then, Carla made a bold move: to quit that steady job and to dive headfirst into this new DJ career. Carla said goodbye to the steady income, health insurance and stability.

Ultraviolet:

At first I was a little bit afraid to, like, change my life and take a risk in that way, because that’s a big risk. You know? I’m risking my livelihood, essentially, like, a stable livelihood, in order to bet on myself and, like, trust myself.

Laura:

I see Carla as being in mid-air in this leap forward she decided to take, playing gigs here and there, convinced she’ll land it.

Ultraviolet:

I’m not going to lie, the best decision I did made was, like, to bet on myself, was to bet on myself!

Laura:

The thing is, Carla isn’t alone in her career transition. There is a movement of other DJs making similar leaps forward.

Like her, DJ Dana Lu, DADA Cozmic, Sailor Goon, Madeline and others are putting forward DJ sets full of eclectic music, hoping they will be the platform to make it as professional DJs in this city.

And they share more than that.

First, they are all women in their 30s from the Bronx. All of them have roots in other countries, which is evident in their sets. And finally, they are all transitioning into DJing after working in a different field. Thus, the leap forward.

Of course, success in this industry is far from certain. But these female DJs are presenting increasingly popular sets. Sometimes they do it individually, other times, they do it as a community.

Laura:

To Carla, her community of female DJs has a secret weapon: the blend of their sounds.

Ultraviolet:

A lot of these, a lot of these spots, they need ese sazón, like, Vamos poner un sazón ahí, you know? So I’m really grateful. I have so much pride as a Dominican woman, to be able to be on the stage and look the way that I do. And look, look at Dana! Like… Like…

Laura:

It isn’t easy to find the words because, in this emerging DJ scene, Erica Herrera is someone to look up to.

She also goes by a stage name.

Dana Lu:
So my name is Dana Lu. I’m a Dominican-American DJ-slash-producer and event producer. Born and raised in New York City. I have origins in Washington Heights, in the Bronx, Harlem, Upper West Side, um, even have some origins in Jersey as well.

Laura:

Ultraviolet remembers her as a source of motivation.

Ultraviolet:
Dana is one of the first women that I ever saw DJing, that was like, she looks like me! Wow! This is beautiful. You know? And it’s, like, it makes me so happy that I’m able to inspire others, and I’m inspired by other beautiful black women, also, that are doing their thing.

Laura:

Dana’s “thing” is being pulled by music.

A significant part of that comes from growing up in a Dominican household where her family would expose her to songs she wouldn’t necessarily have encountered in other places.

Dana Lu:

We lived in this one-bedroom, like, very tiny one-bedroom apartment. And my mom would just be in, like, the kitchen, cooking or, like, cleaning – whatever moms do when they’re blasting music. And she would always play that song.

MUSIC: Ya no, Selena

Dana Lu:
I’d always… I knew it was time for the jam session for her when I would hear the guitar, the da da da da da da da da [singing]. Like, that’s how the song starts!

Laura:

The track is called Ya no, by Selena.

What’s interesting about it is that here Selena, who usually celebrates tejano music, is playing with rock-and-roll rhythms.

Dana Lu:

I felt a connection to that song. I don’t know why. It was, like, I guess something I never heard. I never heard of, like, rock in Spanish. Um, and I remember that being one of the first, like, instances that, like, I felt a connection to music. And I wanted to know and learn more because I was so fascinated by it.

Laura:

Her fascination with music stayed with her as she got older.

Dana Lu:
I started DJing on O NINE, I was in, I guess, like, my last year of high school. but, um, I didn’t have the money for the equipment. So I started on VirtualDJ [laughs] um, and that’s how I started, like, putting my mixes out.

Laura:
Then she went to college.

Dana Lu:

I have my bachelor’s of science in computer science. Everyone always gets surprised when I say that. They’re like: What?

Laura:

Dana not only plays songs but also produces her own music. In 2020, she reached a milestone when she released her first official EP. The industry magazine DJ Mag described her as “warm weather vibes” and “Musically speaking, hard to pinpoint.”

Dana Lu:

That’s the thing. For me music is like a lover that I just can never get rid of. I’m always going to love music. It always… it’s a part of me. It’s a part of who I am. And I can never fully step away from it.

Laura:

But even that success is not a guarantee. Dana’s DJ career is more advanced than Ultraviolet’s, but she’s still holding on to her office job. Now she does both: her steady job that she’s not letting go of and her DJ career.

Dana Lu::

Because, you know, the world is crappy. Like, there’s a lot of problems in the world and if people could just take their minds off of what’s happening just for a second and just enjoy, like, being present and enjoying what’s happening, me knowing that I made that person’s day for my set, I’ve done my job.

Laura:

Jazmin Alleman is also part of this group. She goes by the stage name, Dada Cozmic. I meet her at noon in the studio in Queens where she rehearses.

Dada Cozmic:
Damn! Already?

[Beeping]

Ok, there we go!

Laura:
The place contains a series of small booths, each behind a door you access using a keypad.

Dada Cozmic:

You can take a seat right here.

Laura:

As we enter, Jazmin explains that she visits this place four or five times a month. She aims to master her craft with the professional DJ equipment typically found in nightclubs and bars.

Dada Cozmic:

Sometimes I also practice at my job. My job has C-DJs. I work at a club called Bossa Nova.

Laura:

She still bartends to earn a living alongside her DJ career.

Dada Cozmic:

Yeah, I’m in the club six nights a week!

Laura: I wonder if you can, kind of explain what you are doing here?

Jazmin: Right now, I am playing a little house set. I am mixing, blending some songs together. Just going, on my feeling.

Laura:

Jamzin also grew up in the Bronx. She was raised by her eldest sister and brother-in-law. As an adult, she describes herself as “an artist.” Before DJing, she danced professionally and that background got her into this field.

DADA COZMIC
I had a lot of complaints about, you know, what I was hearing when I would go out. It didn’t feel good sometimes to be on the dance floor as a dancer and to experience a not great, um, a not great set.

Laura:
Her friends would tease her about it. Telling her “when are you going to start?”

Now that she’s tried it, she is here to stay.

DADA COZMIC

It’s such a gift to be able to share music with people and make them dance and make them happy.

Laura:

Although it doesn’t always feel that way.

DADA COZMIC
It stops being fun when it’s centered around unhealthy competition. Or it’s just about money. You know, whenever you feel like a jukebox. There’s a lot of things that can make it not fun.

Laura:
In the face of difficulties, community plays an incredibly important role for this group of women. For instance, Ultraviolet invites her peers to her House of Yes residency nights to showcase their work. On the night of her second residency, she included two DJs in the lineup. The first, Dada Cozmic.

DADA COZMIC

Actually, that was my first time playing at the House of Yes. So yeah, my gig at the House of Yes was made possible by Ultra.

Laura:

The second was:

SAILOR GOON

Sailor Goon. Goon, with a G. Yeah!

Laura:

Sailor Goon has been in this line of work for a decade and has witnessed the movement taking shape around her.

SAILOR GONG

It’s the community now!

Laura:
Perhaps because of that experience, she is keenly aware of the challenges. For instance:

SAILOR GONG
So there was this one DJ, male DJ, that see that I bring traction. Right? Like, I bring people out or people support me. So wanting to take advantage of that, there was other people on the bill on the party that I know, and they’re telling me their rate or what they got paid and I got paid $150 less.

Laura:

She sees a common denominator.

SAILOR

Men. They didn’t want women to be in the front. They didn’t want us to play. They would give us a shorter pay. So I can’t specifically say which DJs because I’m not messy like that. But they were men.

Laura:

It isn’t easy for any of these women. The hustle is there constantly. Jazmin again.

DADA COZMIC

I think that’s, that comes with, that just comes with the work, especially when you’re a young artist. Young as in new. I think that just comes, that comes with it.

Laura:

And the hustle, along with the energy to go through it – that’s why I personally wanted to document this community’s journey.

I, too, am a woman in her early 30s who recently went into unimaginable debt to move to New York City to make audio documentaries like this one. I’m also betting on myself. I am finding my professional path for the next decade, not knowing if it will end well, but relying on my ability to work hard and produce a decent outcome.

As I navigate this situation, I report on these DJs to understand where they find the faith to keep going at it.

Carla says:

Ultraviolet:

If it goes bad, it goes bad because you can’t control everything. Like, even with the DJ stuff, like, I try not to be in control of anything. I’m just like: si se puede, se puede. Si no se puede, that’s OK.

Laura:
Erica thinks about the support system.

Dana Lu:
You know, being in this industryIT? Is very important to have support. Um, whether that be financial support, emotional support, mental support, whatever, because you can’t do this alone, like, you really, really can’t.

Laura:

Jazmin describes it as:

Dada Cozmic:
I believe in my peers so much. I believe in them as much as I believe in myself, um, I I’m very hopeful.

LAURA

Where does that certain… that certainty, that hopefulness, come from?

Dada Cozmic:
I say I’m hopeful, but I actually just mean I’m certain. Um, jus, it just comes from the fact that we’re all doing what we have to do. I’ll speak for myself. I’m doing what I have to do, and –- and there doesn’t seem to be an end. And that’s it. Yeah.