The Afro-Digital Migration
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GIRLS LIKE US THE AFRO-DIGITAL MIGRATION: A DJ’S JOURNEY frOM HIP-HOP tO HOUSE MUSIC BY DJ LYNNÉE DENISE DJ Larry Levan and Grace Jones at the Paradise Garage 96 ISSUE SIX Vintage flyer from “house” party in Chicago It was Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs who sent me running into the arms of house music, hands up, betrayed, like a wounded lover. I spent the majority of my childhood The culture gave a voice to socially the intricate ways that hip-hop pro- writing out the lyrics to my favourite silenced people and was powerful ducers pulled from funk, soul, blues, rap songs, making up dance steps because it was rooted in ghetto jazz and other forms of Black Ameri- with friends and dreaming of having a based philosophy and secret codes of can music developed in underground mic to one day speak my truth on the resistance. We had crews, colours, spaces, to carve hip-hop’s own place world stage. Hip-hop provided me new names and new skills by which in the legacy. with a credible summary of almost to express our chosen discipline from every corner of Black life in America. the four elements of the culture. This It was 1995 when hip-hop and I And there were many different iter- period, though the dates are debat- parted ways, and without telling too ations of Black life to be found in this able, has been aptly described as the many details about the breakup, I’ll sound. Hip-hop showed the world ‘Golden Era,’ and I had a stake in it. share a few moments in its history that we were building a movement For me the ‘Golden Era’ was be- that led to my indifference. It starts in the basements, parks and mod- tween 1979 and 1995. And during this with MTV. Though once an exclusive ern juke joints of our communities, time I discovered the musical roots space for white rock and then later, a movement that thrived off of the of hip-hop by learning that much of with some nudging, black pop, MTV multiplicity of DJs, dancers, graffiti what was being ‘sampled’ could be finally opened its arms to hip-hop artists and emcees: most critical to found in my parents’ and with the 1988 launching of Yo! MTV the art form’s well-being was the in their parents’ record collection. Raps. My friends and I watched it diversity among them. I spent hours coming to understand daily after school, like part of our 97 GIRGIRLSLS LLIKEIKE US homework included studying inter- America could offer. I worked at mu- the UK electronic music I felt drawn views, videos and the live perfor- sic stores during my high school and to was influenced by traditional and mances of each artist featured. The college years, where I was exposed contemporary music of the African show was aired for the last time in to genres of music from around Diaspora. For example, similar to 1995, a heartbreaking symbol of de- the world. I developed an intimate hip-hop, drum and bass at its core is cline. Yo! MTV Raps’ final episode was relationship with classic rock, bebop a hybrid of reggae, dub, dancehall and an indicator that even in its purest, jazz, roots reggae and so many other computer technology. Garage was most political form, hip-hop was a forms of music, but it was drum a ‘mesh up’ of UK soul, New York real contender for occupying a ‘legit- and bass, introduced to me by the City’s Paradise Garage sound and imate’ place in the American musical UK’s Everything but the Girl, that Chicago house music. There was a imagination. allowed me to escape the sterility form of diasporic dialogue happening of American hip-pop and indulge between Black Americans and the The second fatal break happened in other youth-led music movements. Black British and this transnational 1995, when Puffy’s Bad Boy Records I started diggin’ through the catalog exchange inspired a new question for began functioning as an empire. Bad of Everything but the Girl, in awe of me: How was music travelling across Boy had a roster of both R&B singers their range and evolution as artists. and between what Paul Gilroy refers and rap artists, including one of the I was feeling deeply moved by music to as the ‘Black Atlantic’? Essentially, most celebrated emcees in rap music that had a totally different social and I had to leave America, first symbol- today, the Notorious BIG, Biggie for cultural context and in it I found my- ically, then physically, to discover a short. Faith Evans, an artist in her self becoming a global citizen. genre of music that would eventually own right and Biggie’s wife, along become the primary focus of my DJ with Mary J. Blige, affectionately I had transferable skills that I de- scholarly attention—house music. known as the ‘Queen of Hip-Hop veloped as a B-Girl (research skills Soul,’ were singers who with Puffy’s from chasing samples) that made it House music developed beneath the help secured a hip-hop Hollywood easy for me to learn about UK soul radar of commercial and pop music status but the remaining acts on his with the same ferocity I did hip-hop. and claims lineage to disco, gospel, label had fleeting careers that func- Doing my homework allowed me to soul, funk and the African drum. tioned more like fillers to grow the discover who were on the front lines Characterized by repetitive ‘four to brand. The fillers, in my head, were of what was being called ‘electronica the floor’ beats, it was nurtured by mediocre artists who by topping the music.’ My curiosity led me to cities the hunger of artists and post-disco music charts lowered the standards like Bristol (St. Paul) and Brixton, club patrons who were marginalized of the craft. As far as I could see, the listening in heavy rotation to artists by the marginalized: Black and Brown sun never set on Puffy’s empire. Bad such as Loose Ends, Massive Attack, gay folk. Black and Latino queer Boy could be heard and seen on ev- Portishead, Goldie, Björk (UK trans- culture shaped house music, and the ery music television network, heard plant), Roni Size, Roots Manuva and culture around it was informed by on every urban radio station and Soul II Soul. From there, I expanded the compromised and often dehu- read about in most music magazines. my UK repertoire to include garage, manizing social positions of queer With this shift, the nature of the hip- a subgenre of dance music. people. One of the most important hop culture, or at least the culture films highlighting the role that house the masses had access to, began to By 2000, I had purchased turntables, music plays in queer communities change. The lyrics were less creative, headphones, needles and speakers and in creating safe spaces is Paris Is the videos more extravagant, and and decided I would create collages Burning, a documentary that explores these changes proved lucrative for (mixes) that represented the in- aspects of New York City’s 1980s music executives/distributors, who terconnectedness between music ball scene. The ball scene functioned saw their profits multiply with Puffy’s migration and culture travel. I had like a secret society where one could Midas touch. The fact that Arista enough information and confidence witness and take part in gender per- Records/Clive Davis bought a 50 per to officially accept the responsi- formance and build identities drawing cent stake in Puffy’s label symbolizes bility of being a DJ, a position that from a range of transgressive gender the industry’s confidence in his ability would require me to teach by way practices. to create pedestrian listeners. of exposing my audience to new and highly contextualized music. It had A commonly overlooked fact about Musically, I needed more than what become clear to me that most of the story of house music is that two 98 ISSUE SIX Queer men from Chicago’s early house days. of its most celebrated DJs/producers experience, but we were there, even ander spun alongside Andre Hatch- of this period, Larry Levan (Paradise if in smaller numbers, as patrons and ett, Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles. Garage) and Frankie Knuckles (The performers. There were women DJs, I’ve also travelled extensively in Warehouse), were members of the producers and promoters who lent search of women DJs and found that New York City late 1970s ball scene. their skills to house music as cultural we were there, in smaller numbers, Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles producers and not simply passive but part of the culture and the devel- became popular while spinning during bystanders. Most of the oral history opment of house for the past three the disco era, getting their first gigs and literature I’ve read about house decades and we’re still here. I’ve spun at the famous NYC Gay Continental music, even stories told by Black and alongside DJs Rimarkable, Reborn, bathhouses. My belief is that part of Brown queer men, claims that wom- Sabine Blaizin and Selly in NYC. why this is rarely discussed is because en were ‘few and far between.’ They I’ve spun alongside Miz Buttons and the retelling of this particular musical share that the predominantly gay DJ Satori in South Africa. I’ve spun history has been limited to a privi- male disco and early house scenes alongside Tora Torres and Cha-Cha leged class of people who have access preferred women to play a limited Jones in Atlanta and I’ve spun along- to the financial and social resources role in their entertainment, but side Keithy ‘Lady SpecialK’ Antoine, that allow for a dominant narrative, there’s still a history there and I’ve Sweet La Rock, and Amrew Weekes one that historically leaves out the had an active role in trying to unfold in Montreal.