Introducing a new series of articles about the gaze of representation of different genres of music in Puerto Rico and beyond. In this issue, we will talk about «Disc Jockey» or better known as DJ music. We will share a list of artists making some noise with their own DJ set, Live DJ set, and Beats Music.

As an introduction, in the ’60s and ’70s, with the expansion of «disco» in Europe and the US, the creation of a specific technology for this type of music starts with the mixer ‘CMA-10-2DL mixer’. It is also the time of the birth of Hip Hop music. It’s not until the ’80s we get the first big names of DJ’s, names predominantly male.

Ncube states that «[n]inety-five percent of music producers are male, and although there are female producers achieving great things in music, they are less well-known than their male counterparts.» The vast majority of students in music technology programs are male. In Hip Hop music, the low percentage of women DJs and turntablists may stem from the overall male domination of the entire hip hop music industry. Most of the top rappers, MCs, DJs, record producers, and music executives are men. There are a small number of high-profile women, but they are rare.

Ncube, Rosina (September 2013). «Sounding Off: Why So Few Women In Audio?». Sound on Sound.

Clandestino PR.NY invite you to take a look at this list of Puerto Ricans Fierce, Feminists, and Queer DJ’s, not in a particular order, representing and loudly braking barries with there talent and empowerment. Check them out!

• Nina Flowers
  Jorge Flores is NINA FLOWERS was born in the city of Bayamon Puerto Rico in 1974. Nina began there career in music in 1989, where they became a resident Dj at one of the most prestigious clubs in the Caribbean, Krash Klub Kafe. As a DJ/Producer, Nina brings an infectious understanding of how to bring music alive on the dance floor. As a recording artist, Nina has collaborated with some of the most talented Dj’s/Producers/Remixers of this new Era in music. Today Nina Flowers holds Dj residencies in several cities in the US and, and continues to captivate fans around the globe with a powerfully engaging connection to the audiences, and progressive sound filled with tribal beats. Follow Nina: Facebook

“The lights, the music, the stage, and the crowd – putting it all together – magic in the making” – Nina Flowers

• Payola Isabel
  The co-founder of the project Radiored, is an online radio station and an artistic exchange platform founded in 2015 in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Photographer, producer, director, and music creator, Payola Isabel is been a key person for the independent music scene in Puerto Rico, she is a virtuosx in the creation of content media and her good vibe and music put us a gozar! Follow Payola: IG | Facebook | Vimeo

I like to wear multiple hats in productions, photography, direction and editing are my passions. I create audiovisual experiences through lights and music. Perceiving the environment, feeling the energy of the place making the crowd dance the night away.

Payola Isabel

• Rosamalia Pérez
  Maybe her name sounds new to you, but Clandestino met her back in January at the release party/concert of Emina, and we were impressed! Rosamalia proposition is new sounds and energetic rhythms. With the hand of Jams Audio Creative Studio, Rosamalia is starting to create music and make her own path, just like she explains below.
  
  Bio: Rosamalia is a slave to the rhythm. Her love for big sound systems, naughty basslines, and infectious percussion fill her sets with high-energy dancing gems, blended as a harmonious wall of sound. Armed with a playful, energetic, open-minded music philosophy, she brings a broad variety of influences into a smooth, sexy, sleazy bundle. Immersed in music since childhood, she studied jazz piano at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, but DJing has possessed her soul.

My albums #Sexified #Improvs are collections of music I’ve made since 2013 to present. I’m hoping to attract likeminded people with this release; people who share the same appreciation for DIY, who value authenticity & genuine experiences, who take pleasure in searching and reaching beyond the surface into the depths of the unknown, who love to challenge what they know and embrace the alternative, who use knowledge as currency. These songs are my diary: welcome to my world.

Rosamalia Pérez

• MANO SANTA
  Nestor E. Lebron González is MANO SANTA! Trust me, if you want to have fun and move your entire body at the same time, you need to listen to MANO SANTA. Without a doubt a DJ to look up for further musical collaborations and their own music. Influence by Afro-music, Caribbean-music, Afro-house, Funk, HIp-Hop, Neon-Disco, Soul, Soka, Salsa, Mambo, Boogaloo, and Reggaeton. Follow MANO SANTA: Facebook | IG | Spotify Playlist
  

La cuerpa se reconstruye al quebrantar las rodillas. La pelvis con la retaguardia calientan el suelo, conectando con nuestros movimientos ancestrales. Siéntelo, muévelo…

MANO SANTA

• Bairoa
  Bairoa is taking electronic music to another level of musicality. The influences of the tropical sounds of Puerto Rico, with a twist of an old school disco, creates a different and innovative vibe of sounds. Fabulously and refine rhythms, Bairoa’s music makes you remember that dancing is what matters.
  
  Bio: Born in the warm costal town of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Luis Valentin grew up surrounded by the ever-changing generation of the 90s, internet making its way, VHS vanishing and CDs turning into Torrent downloads. All of it serving as a medium of discovery and musical influences. But it wasn’t until he decided to move out of his home turf to the Big Apple where his lifelong quest for producing music started. During that time he became an active member of the fellow Puertorrican band “Buscabulla”. Bairoa’s true metamorphosis began on his recent return to Puerto Rico. When it comes to Bairoa; mystery, suavity and brewing storms are a clear driving force in his project. Having a degree in Recording Arts his work reflects passion for organic sounds with a technical turn around and love for psychedelia. His wizardry consists of bedroom productions, layered synthesizers, driving guitars and weird sampling sources. Although little is know where he may stand, he’s been seen opening for the likes of «La Mecanica Popular, Alegria Rampante and for his fellow bandmates Buscabulla».

• Kaya-Té
  Unapologetically correct, Kaya-Té brings fresh air to the electronic and DJ set music in Puerto Rico, they start to collaborating with producer and musician Shanti LatiTa in the project SonicArtsForAll. The magic of their presentations is the intersection of performance and music, makes it so vivid in Kaya-Té style and sound like they explain below. Follow Kaya-Té: IG | Facebook

I had my first experiences playing live shows when I got together with my friends and we formed a band, LAVANDA, where we got to explore with writing, composing and performing our own music. At the same time, I started dj-ing as Kaya Té, where my solo exploration of my feelings through music began. Selecting songs, working on telling the story I want my audience to feel with me. In collaboration with fellow artists @maricecilia and @lembrapr, we’ve created a series of musical and bodily performances where we improvise with drum machines, synths, keyboards and pedals while moving to the sounds we create. Being a fluid drag artist, I create my own mixes for my performances, which gives me the freedom to tell whatever story I want with the songs and sound effects I select. I also have the privilege to teach with @SonicArtsForAll, where kids learn all about creating their own electronic music and they get to dj with actual equipment.

Kaya-Té (Interview by 4TH WAVE Mirrorworld – 2019 Pride Kickoff Party)

• DJ Ien Grave
  Ien Grave is a young, fabulous and fierce new generation of Dj music creator. Ien Grave is based in Puerto Rico. Ien Grave has a collective called GRAVELOG is a music-centered event production collective for subcultures and micro internet cultures in Puerto Rico, promoting music sets by DJs, performers, and art in different forms in a themed environment. Follow Ien: Website | Facebook
  
  Bio: Dj and event planner based in Puerto Rico. I curate music, create playlists and play at local night clubs featuring a wide range of niche music scenes.

• La Emperatriz
  Innovative, strong and smooth sound, that’s how better describe to La Emperatriz. Influence by 80’s music, Urban beats, nature, water, electricity, visual art, friends, love, tarot cards, magic and their cats Majo, Alexa, and Dalí. A true creator of new beats and sounds, La Emperatriz is definitely on our list for next to watch in a live show. Looking forward to hearing more from La Emperatriz. Follow La Emperatriz: Facebook | Bandcamp

My name is Luzdaris Morales (Luli) AKA La emperatriz Im from Florida Puerto Rico, I’ve been a few years working as a professional singer, dj, and music teacher at a Waldorf school were I’m a co-founder and at Sonic Arts For all, a non profit that give free workshops of music technology to kids.

La Emperatriz (Interview by 4TH WAVE Mirrorworld – 2019 Pride Kickoff Party)

• Dj Perra Mística
  Karina González Plata is Dj Perra Mística. Dancing Queen and pure disco spirit its one of the highlights of Perra Mística’s music. Queer and fierce, Perra Mística brings music that incorporates the body awakening and the freedom of dance. Just like they explain below. Follow Perra Mística: Facebook | IG
  
  Bio: DJ Perra Mística is a Contemporary Dance and authentic movement performer who’s really into music, dancing and living in the present. She started to DJ using analog methods and live youtube sessions for her friends. Her spirit loves to evoque an ambiance where people feel free to be who they are or who they want to be. She’s very influenced by deep classic house and electro-pop, but she’s also Puerto Rican (a unicorn gem from the queertropics), and so her diaspora vibes are alive and kickin’. She loves and aspires to share and inspire community vibes – her DJ name translates to Mystical Fox.
  

• RosyQ is a remixer, producer, and DJ based in New York City. Her style is a very eclectic and open format.

Pride is EVERYTHING to me. I fall under a few minority categories—a female gay Puerto Rican DJ in a male-dominated industry. I had a lot of challenges to face growing up and even now in present day. Pride means being proud of who you are no matter what race, gender, religion you are and it means being proud of WHO YOU LOVE. 
http://www.curvemag.com/Culture/DJ-Profile-RosyQ-2031/

RosyQ in an interview from Curve Magazine

Beatmakers!

• Kampo
  Definitely, Kampo represents the new generation of beatmakers in Puerto Rico, with the hand of Recluso, he has achieved great music and creates incredible collaborations with other artists. His music is a combination of the millennial spectrum of the Japanese novels with the tropical bounce of the island. Follow Kampo: Facebook | Spotify
  
  Bio: A Puerto Rican music producer, began his musical journey at the age of 17 in 2013. Kampo started experimenting with different genres, from rock, reggae, reggaeton to electronic music. Currently, Kampo is focused on making Lo-Fi music with his crew the “SP CULT” (Recluso, Ejkew, Seint) that are a group of producers who use the Roland Sample Player for making beats and live performance.
  

• Recluso
  People might say, Recluso it’s not a DJ! He is a Beatmaker!, and we totally agree with it! But, his beats are beyond and superior to any other artist of its kind, plus we need to give him space on our list. Recluso’s Fania Beats, it’s one of the best production of Hip Hop and Beats, how he managed to combine the original songs of Fania and makes it his own it’s visionary. Additionally, Recluso continued his commitment with colleagues beatmakers, creating different events to give spaces to the new generation, such as «Festival de Beats» and BeatScene in El Local Santurce.
  
  Bio: After surviving a car accident in 2008, this underground beatmaker and producer decided that it was time for him not to die but to do what he loved the most, beats. So he put on a black “luchador” mask and started making live performances with his MPC1000. In the last 5 years, he has released more than 20 instrumental beat albums, then he switched his production skills to try a different sampler, he bought an SP-404SX and founded a group of beatmakers called the SP CULT with fellow Puerto Rican producers such as Seint, Kampo and Skew.One. Follow Recluso: Facebook | Spotify | Bandcamp
  

We don’t know if they’re cuir, but still, they’re fierce and feminists, plus they’re creating great music and that’s why their part of our list.
Listen to…

• Bembona is a Puerto Rican-Panamanian DJ, Multi-Platform Artist & Activist, born & raised in Brooklyn, NY. Her work represents & pushes forward the Afro-Diasporadical movement, Latinx/Indigenous/Caribbean/African, with the purpose of empowering & bridging the gap between POC communities, generations, activist work & beyond.

• DJ Perly: is a Bronx born female Puerto Rican Russian American Dj who plays Hip Hop, Breaks, House music, and practices the art of Turntablism with a passion.

• Dj David B
  Producer, drums, beats, and Dj set, David B is one of the masters of the Jam and Dub Sessions. Collaborating with the business El Nido at Bayamon, you can listen to him every Sunday.
  

• Dr. Digital Aché is a Live Dubbing Dj Reggae Set. Another great reggae, bud Dj, he is making his way in different spaces and live venues.

Tocando lo mejor de los Selections de Rocksteady, Ska, Roots Classics, Dub y Dancehall. También mezcla Dub con poesías negrista, cantos Yorubas y discursos de próceres, entre ellos: Don Pedro Albizu Campos, Lolita Lebrón y Rafael Cancel Miranda. Dr. Digital lleva sobre 20 años trabajando como bajista con el Reggae en Puerto Rico e internacionalmente.

Dr. Digital Ache

• Velcro: MC, producer, and one of the most popular hip-hop DJ’s in Puerto Rico. Without a doubt, one of the most well-known DJ’s on the island and beyond. His music transcends territories and spaces, proud of his roots, Velcro’s music is an authentic sound of the island. Follow Velcro: Facebook

• Messy Deprat
  Talking about the creator of the big names in Hip Hop and Rap in Puerto Rico, Messy Deprat’s name as to be there. Messy has been part of the project Tranquilo Quieto, which is a music space for Dj set at El Nido in Bayamon. Plus his collaborations with PJ Sinsuela, Siete Nueve, Cultura Profética and many other artists, put us on the alert. Looking forward to hearing more of Messy. Follow Messy Deprat: IG

By Arivel Figueroa