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What do you get when you combine sultry and scantily-clad ladies with $1,000 in cash prizes and, topping it all off as the main event, a white-hot DJ who has spun for crowds around the world? A can't-miss Saturday night in Atlantic City, that's what.
On Saturday (Aug. 15), the Casbah night club at the Trump Taj Mahal will be hosting its Midsummer Night's Dream party, an annual event where lingerie is the preferred dress code and cash prizes will be awarded for the sexiest couple, the most original outfit and the hottest girl.
Stationed behind the wheels of steel for the event will be Las Vegas-based performer DJ Girl 6. When asked what folks can expect at the Casbah on Saturday night, she said, "tentatively, a lot of half-naked women." Also on hand for the event will be DJ AP of the Negative Reflection Crew -- who DJ Girl 6 said has been affiliated with the likes of 50 Cent and Jay Z -- as well as Shaun Bless of Newark-based production duo the Soul Diggaz.
"I'm bringing a ton of celebrities, actually, to be honest with you," DJ Girl 6 said. "I'm not going to blow up the entire spot, but the DJ convention (the 2009 International DJ Expo) is in town, and I will be dragging some of the celebrities from that with me, so it will be a star-studded DJ booth on this particular occasion."
Metromix Jersey Shore recently spoke with DJ Girl 6 about getting her start in the DJ game, the story behind her stage name and more.
To start off with, can you give me the rundown on how you first got into DJing?
Well, do you want the short and dirty or you want the medium or what? (laughs)
The short and dirty's fine.
The short and dirty is when I was in middle school I was stupid and I spent (the money I made when) I was a hotel maid before school and like after school, to buy my then-boyfriend like two turntables, a mixer, headphones, needles, slip mats, records and just everything, because I was stupid. And then he broke up with me before his birthday for a girl who looked exactly like me.
I was a dancer at the time, like I would teach old people how to dance like ballroom and stuff like that and dance team and cheer squad and all that other kind of stuff, so I was always into music. So, you know, then I was bitter and I got turntables so I spent like the next three months learning how to scratch "fuck you" into his mom's answering machine. And I'm like, "Hey, this is pretty easy for me," because I was a drummer and I was a dancer and my whole family were like musicians, so I was like eating, breathing music and I always have, so this is easy for me, really easy for me.
Now, having that background in drumming, I'm guessing that made the transition to DJing easier for you. How did that affect your style at all?
Well, first of all, when you drum you use your hands and your feet, so you multitask very quickly and easily, so I just acclimated rapidly, and plus it's rhythmically-oriented, so if you're beat-matching, which sometimes I do, or you're beat-juggling or you're hand-drumming, it's just natural; it's like a duck to water, it all super, super easy. I think probably more initially I was drawn to, at the time, more hip-hop-oriented music, anything more rhythmically-driven over melodic, over like R&B or anything of that nature. So I'd go for like the James Brown over R. Kelly, you know what I mean? Because you can feel the drum more.
And what inspired you to take your stage name from the Spike Lee movie "Girl 6"?
Oh wow, how much of that story can I tell? I can tell you half the story. The half of the story that I can tell you is, obviously, I think most female entertainers can relate to that character, because in the beginning she struggles with her role of how does sexuality play a role in my job as an entertainer? How much is too much, how much is not enough, when is it appropriate, what do I do with this, where does the line exist? And a lot of the movie is about that, really. And let's face it, it's a little more meaningful than Qbert. I know Qbert used to be short, fat and he had puffy hair, and I know that, but most people have like meaningless DJ names, so for me, that's half of why that is a pretty meaningful name, because I do struggle with that more than most female DJs.
Can you tell me a bit about your work in video DJing and what that entails?
Well, it's really fucking hard to be honest with you. I remix my own videos and I use a series of programs. ... Like when I'm at the Casbah, all the songs that I'm playing I made video remixes for them so you can watch them; it just means it takes me 10 times longer to build my set than everybody else, because I can't just whip out a frickin' 1960s James Brown remix, I've got to make sure at home, if I'm even contemplating ever playing it that I found the footage and frickin' made something for it.
So what inspired you to incorporate that into your show? Like you're saying, it makes your workload so much more, but I'm sure it's really cool to see from the crowd.
Part of it is if you look into a lot of different things that I did is at first I got forced into being the first at everything because I'm a girl, which used to annoy me, because I don't know, I was in the Core DJs, I don't know, maybe four years ago, and they're like, "Oh, you're the first Core DJ who's a girl," and I'm like, "Why can't I just be a Core DJ? Fuck you, whatever dude." And then on the battle scene they're like, "Hey, you're the first female battle DJ," and I'm like, "Dude, I'm just a DJ and you just got beat, so just shut up and just let it go."
So, I always got forced into being the first, so I decided to start owning it. I'm like, "All right, I'm cutting-edge," and then they made the first ever all-female "How to DJ" DVD ever in like 2004 and then I was one of the first ever people to do this, like the video remixing, I was the first female video DJ, and now I'm the first female video remixer, so I just wanted to be on the cutting-edge, I just started to own it after a while. You know, if you're going to make me the first female this and that, fine, I'll just do it. So now I'm always looking for the most recent technology and stuff and I own it and I teach it, so fuck it.
