Go With the Flow

How did you get your start as a DJ? Was music an important part of your life growing up?

Music was definitely a part of my day-to-day life at home. My dad was a musician and could sing, we had a bunch of CDs and records, and we were in dance classes and choir and those types of things. The way I got into DJing is, when I was about 21 or 22, at Berkeley Community Center, there was a marquee outside that said, “Free DJ Lessons.” I started going to those classes and I had my first gig maybe a year later at the S.L.U.M. Fest Awards (St. Louis Underground Music Festival), and it kind of took off from there.

What did you love about DJing that made you think it could become a career?

I felt so naturally musically inclined and it was fun. It was a way to express myself and, once I hooked up with some of my other friends who are DJs and I learned a little more, I just grew confident in what I was doing. I didn’t have any plans to be this big DJ; I didn’t know where it was going to go. I was just enjoying (myself). It felt good for me.

How did you grow from that first gig to becoming one of the top DJs in St. Louis?

It was a long, gradual progression. One of my first house parties was in my friend’s grandma’s basement. From that, word of mouth started spreading that I was good at it and also through the S.L.U.M. Fest avenues. They threw a lot of shows and they would have me as a part of them, so people started seeing me at those shows and I would get hired for other stuff.

(In 2020), a lot of things transitioned online because I couldn’t do any gigs in real life. I put little videos online because I saw people posting DJ videos. Video content really started being the content that these platforms were looking for, so I would make little mixes. Before that, I would put mixes on SoundCloud every month. I did that for two years straight. People were listening, and I got a lot of stuff from word of mouth and my online presence after that started.

How do audiences respond to you, and in turn, how does their energy inspire you?

The audience’s energy is everything, especially if it’s a gig where I know there’s going to be dancing and people are going to be engaging with me. It makes all the difference. It definitely helps me curate and decide how my set is going to go when I’m interacting with people. There are certain people who are fans of me, so I can look out and know they’re here to see me because they admire what I do. 

One of the first things I learned as a DJ and one of the things that I feel really set me apart when I took that DJ class is that they taught us how to read a room. They taught us how to feel the energy of the crowd and know what is appropriate at what time and in what kind of space. I’m really good at feeling that out. I might play a popular song and see how the response is, but I also like to incorporate newer music that maybe not as many people have heard. I’ll test something and see how the crowd reacts and then that can help me make decisions for what I’m going to play next. Sometimes I will make a playlist just as a guide, but there are times I might not use that playlist at all because it might be a different energy in the crowd.

When did your yoga practice first begin? How did you grow it into such a huge content platform?

Yoga was my physical activity after high school. I played sports all through high school and then when I got out, I wasn’t doing any exercise or activity really and I started to feel it in my body. I needed to get active somehow, and I decided I was going to try yoga. I had never done it before, but I felt like it was a good way to move my body that would resonate with me well.

I started going to a local studio, and after I was going for a while, the owner said I should become an instructor because she was going to start being a registered yoga school. At first, I didn’t take it seriously. Those trainings cost a lot, but she worked out a payment plan with me, so I decided to move forward with it and went through the training. It was really intense — we were there five days a week, so that expedited it. 

I taught at that studio for a while, but it wasn’t really for me. I wanted to teach people who look like me. I wanted to teach Black people and people who don’t know about yoga and it isn’t a resource for them or something they would think about. I started teaching at the UrbArts Galleries on the north side. I never charged more than $10 unless I was doing a long class and I sometimes did donation-based classes. That really started my in-person practice.

Then (in 2020) everything shifted to online. My students were asking me, “Can you upload a 10-minute video for us to do at home?” So, I did, and I just kept doing it. I would go to work, come home, record videos, and do that every day.

How do you feel the two sides of your career, DJ and yogi, complement each other?

First, it’s about movement. As a yoga instructor, I have to have that sixth sense as to what the room is calling for. One thing I liked about my training is that it really taught me how to modify, because sometimes people come to your class and they might not be able to do certain things, so I have to adjust the class to where everybody can still get what they need. It’s the same with DJing. How can I adjust to give this crowd what it needs right now? 

In addition, I’m curating my playlist for my yoga classes and deciding what the feeling and the energy and the flow of the class is going to be. I see everything — the music and yoga — as bringing joy to people through movement, through their exploration of their inner selves. It’s exposing people to something new, whether it be a new pose or a new song, and pushing people a little bit past their comfort zone and encouraging them to still have a good time within that.

In 2024, you joined the Greater St. Louis, Inc. team at SXSW in Austin to DJ and lead yoga classes in the St. Louis House there. How did it feel to represent St. Louis to that large national audience and how did you bring your St. Louis experience to that space?

It was really exciting because I had been to SXSW in 2015 as a patron, so to get to now actually be part of it and to be part of something that was directly connected to St. Louis was awesome. 

Everywhere I go, I’m making sure that is evident. Whether I am DJing or doing yoga, I tell people where I’m from and how proud I am to be from here. To represent St. Louis in a wellness space feels really good to me because we’re not known for that. I’m trying to spread peace, joy, and love, and we have a lot of that here. During my DJ set, of course I played some St. Louis favorites and it was a full circle moment for sure.

What does it mean to you to do this work in St. Louis? 

My favorite saying about St. Louis is, “You can’t spell ‘hustle’ without STL.” We have some of the hardest working people, and again, it’s because a positive light doesn’t shine on us all the time. A lot of people ask me, “Why aren’t you in New York, Chicago, or LA?” I don’t need to be there. I’m literally worldwide from my home. I am reaching people all over the world — people comment on my YouTube videos in different languages. It can all be done here, especially with the internet.

If you’re working for it, somebody is watching, and as long as you are consistent, people are going to follow you and trust you as their guide. You don’t have to wait to go somewhere else to make something happen for yourself and have all of these things. You can start now where you are with what you have available.