Interview with DJ Brooke Bailey
By: Where it Begins
Q. What made you want to be a DJ?
A. Well I was engaged to a deejay. One day his manager came up to me asking if I wanted to learn deejaying since we had all the equipment at home and there was a huge shortage in female deejays at the time. So that’s how it started. However, it really made me want to be a deejay was the fact that deejaying enabled me to share acrobats on a bigger platform. I had always loved my roots and deejaying finally gave me a platform to display this.
Q. What differentiates you from the rest of the DJ’s?
A. I mainly play Afrobeats. That’s what I am good at. It’s what I’m proud of. I can go to a Hip-Hop party and still play 60% Afrobeat and people will dance. I can make my audience LOVE afrobeats (at least for a night). So that along with good mixing skills really set me apart.
Q. How would you define your “style” or approach to providing DJ Entertainment?
A. I try to stick to my Afrobeats based sets, but I add a little of the local sound to whatever country I got. This makes the audience feel like you also appreciate their local sound and most of the time this has a positive effect on the crowd. I also try to socialize with the audience wherever I go, so I come in a little early and stay a little after I have played.
Q. What made you go into predominantly Afro beats?
A. I’m mixed Ghanaian and Belgian, growing up in Belgium I faced a lot of racism, so I always felt more comfortable with my African side. So Afrobeats became a way for me to feel more African in a non-African environment. It was hard at first because no one really cared about Afrobeats a few years ago. But I decided that it was Afrobeats I wanted to represent and I’m glad I did.
Q. Can you give any advice to upcoming DJs?
A. Push through. Play the music you love even if it’s not a mainstream music genre. If you can become a master in your niche, you can still become a star in your own little market.
Follow Brooke Bailey at @dj_brookebailey.
To read the full interview go to https://issuu.com/cecewibnet/docs/final_wib-revision__8_
