When Prince toured Australia earlier this year, one thing (beyond, you know, the chance to see Prince) made the long wait at his infamous afterparties worth it — the beats laid down by DJ Rashida.
When I get Rashida on the line, she’s coming off a busy week that saw her play a birthday party for Stevie Wonder’s son and a GQ cover party for Chris Paul and the LA Clippers. She’s been Prince’s tour DJ since 2004, and her other clients include Jay-Z, Michael Jordan and Spike Lee. How did a humble LA girl end up breathing such rarefied air?
I hear you DJ’d Stevie Wonder’s son’s birthday party. Is that true?
Yeah! This Sunday, actually. Mmm-hmm. It was super, super fun, and Stevie Wonder’s obviously incredible. I got to hear him sing 'Happy Birthday'! His whole family is so lovely. It was really nice.
Is he always on? When he sang ‘Happy Birthday’, was it amazing, or were you like, ‘geez, Stevie, you’re not bringing it today’…
[Laughs] Oh, of course! He opens his mouth, and it’s like, you know… all he has to do is open his mouth! It was wonderful. I don’t know if there’s such a thing as ‘off’ for him; if it’s possible for him to not be incredible. His voice is… it’s his voice, you know?
Exactly. A few weeks before that, you became the Music & Lifestyle Editor for Jones Magazine. How’d that come about?
I’m so excited about that! I’m super thrilled to just be contributing. It’s just a beautiful magazine. It came about because I travel so much, and I guess I’m known as a tastemaker in the music and fashion scenes. That’s basically how that came about.
You do travel a lot. Obviously, you were last in Australia with Prince. That’s a pretty amazing thing to have on your resume, to be Prince’s hand-picked tour DJ.
[Laughs] Yeah. I had a residency at this place called The House Of Blues, a kind of legendary live music venue here in LA on the Sunset Strip. This was 2004. I was their resident DJ on the weekend, and he was doing his private parties in the room next door to where I was playing. I got a call one day, soon after I got that gig, that he had requested me to play one of his parties. I played the party, it was super fun, we totally hit it off, and it was just on from there. I started touring and playing his house parties and playing at everything he did.
Was that intimidating at first? Meeting Prince, and then working with Prince?
You know, it’s so funny, but it felt very organic. More than being intimidated, I think I was just excited. The first gig I played for him… I don’t think I was nervous, because I was too excited to be nervous! When I played that very first gig… it felt like a house party, but with my family or people I knew or something. It was very intimate.
I played this George Duke record, and Shiela E came up to me – it was the first time I met her, and I love her to death, she’s amazing – she came up to me and she was like, ‘yo, I played on this record!’ I remember having this conversation with her, because I freakin’ love this George Duke record, and I had no idea she was the one playing on it this whole time. So we started talking about that, and it was just really cool.
Same thing with Prince. We were talking about music I was playing that whole night; new stuff and old stuff. It was really cool. It just felt really good right from the beginning. I don’t remember having any sort of anxiety associated with that, it was just really pleasurable, y’know?
Sure. Given that you’ve been working with him since 2004, are you totally cool around Prince now? Is he just a dude? Or do you have moments where you’re like, ‘oh my god that’s Prince!’
[Laughs] Well, he and I have since become friends, and I’m very close to him. It’s never going to be like he’s ‘just a dude’, he’s a brilliant human being, but I definitely look at him as family and as a friend. But those moments when I do have that reaction are those moments when I see him perform, and I’m just like, ‘man, this person is just this vessel for this incredible music!’ I’m always in awe of that.
I’ve literally heard him play a million times in a million different contexts, from sitting on a couch to playing in an arena. I’ve seen him in so many different capacities. And I’m never not in awe of the beauty and the talent. It’s his talent, but it’s also just what’s coming out of him… it’s the music, but it’s something else, it’s… I’m not even sure how to describe it. But that? I’m in awe of that. Always and forever.
I went to the Brisbane afterparty, and obviously people loved your set, but no matter how much they’re enjoying it, a lot of the crowd is still very impatient. They’re amped to see Prince, you know? They’re waiting for Prince. Is it weird that no matter how well you’re playing – you could play the set of your life – everybody’s still going to be thinking, ‘yeah, that’s great, now bring on Prince!’
[Laughs] Yeah, well, let’s be honest… I’m just the garnish! It’s totally about him, you know? For sure. It’s not weird for me, because I get it. [Laughs] I’m just there to help make your wait for the main course enjoyable. But I have fun, and I’m always excited to hear him and the band play, too. I mean… I get it! I get it, you know? I get it.
Does what you play at one of Prince’s parties differ a lot from what you’d play at your own show?
I don’t know! It could be different, it could be the same, it totally depends on the vibe. When I’m playing for a Prince crowd, I definitely go in on all the Prince records and his derivatives. I love playing his stuff anyway, it’s some of my favourite stuff to play and I usually incorporate it into open format gigs when I can just play whatever I want.
But last night, for instance, I played a party for GQ. It was Chris Paul’s party to celebrate him being on the cover. It was him and all the Clippers, you know? It was a bunch of basketball players, it was very male-centric. So I just went in on the hip hop tip. I enjoy doing that too. So it depends. I’ll probably play a little bit of everything, but if I’m in the mood and I see the crowd is open to something, whether it’s hip hop or dancehall or whatever, I’ll definitely go in. So I don’t know, I can’t really predict it.
But the stuff I played at the Prince show you were at is definitely all music I love, so it’s possible it could be like that!
Yeah, sure. You mentioned playing the GQ party with the Clippers, you’ve played for Jay-Z, you’ve played for Michael Jordan… you know who you’ve played for. Do you enjoy mingling in that sphere?
Well, on the one hand, I’m definitely used to it. But in a way, those sorts of gigs can be more intimidating than the Prince shows, because it’s not like my family. So it can be a little intimidating. I know I have to tailor things for a certain crowd, so if it’s not a crowd I usually play for, that can be intimidating. But at this point, a lot of the stuff I do is… the same people have me play events over and over. So it’s not really a concern now, but it has been the case in the past. It can be intimidating. It can be.
Is there a particular person you’ve played for that you’ve really freaked out over?
Let me think about that… hmm… I mean, gosh, I’ve definitely had the butterflies and the nerves before certain shows. I’m trying to think of specific ones. There’s definitely been many a time. Actually, a really good one, and this involves Prince, when I first started touring with him – and this is when I was still using vinyl, pre-Serato – we were on tour in the States and he just, like, out of the blue, started having me open the shows. DJing on stage.
Up until that point I had just been doing the private parties. It’s very different to being on stage, kind of like what you were saying with these afterparties, where everyone’s just staring at the stage and waiting for him. But the crazy part is, I had vinyl, so, you know, if he took longer than two hours or whatever, I would start running out of straight-up party records! That’s one time I remember being extremely nervous. But after that, I wasn’t scared of anything. [Laughs] I remember being terrified, actually, like, ‘oh, wow, I have to get through this somehow’.
So you were as eager as the crowd for Prince to come on stage at those shows.
[Laughs] Yes! Yes, I was! And the thing is, I don’t remember what city it was, but there was this one show where he took forever. It got to the point where they were tired of me and I was tired of me! I didn’t want to hear me no more, either! [Laughs] Like you said, I was ready for him to come on, too!
The funniest part was I was, like, directly in front of those people. I was on the stage, not off to the side. The crowd was just like, ‘c’mon, you’re cute, you’re cool, we had fun for the first hour, now we’re over it’.
Awesome. Before the Prince parties and the GQ parties and whatever, why did you get into DJing in the first place? What attracted you to it?
Well, technically, it would be the mixing. I started going to clubs and parties in Atlanta, I went to high school and college there, and I’ve always been very much into music. My mother was a musician, she was a Spanish radio DJ, and my dad collected records, and he was really into rare grooves and Brazilian and soul records, he’s always been a really musical person. It really started out of a love for music. I was going to these clubs, and I would say the late night house clubs, and even raves and parties where DJs were playing drum ‘n’ bass and jungle and two-step and garage and that sort of thing… that’s where I really got into listening to what the DJs were mixing.
I was a huge hip hop baby, and I’d been to a lot of dancehall clubs and whatever, but it’s a very different style. That didn’t hit my ears the same way as when I first heard two records being mixed and it sounded like a full-on remix. DJs would really go in and do these long, crazy mixes… I don’t know, I was just interested, I just wanted to be able to do it, you know? Literally, like, in my house. I didn’t give a crap about playing out, I was already collecting music because I loved music, and then I just wanted to be able to do that. I was like, whatever that is, it’s amazing. So that’s when I got my turntable.
Cool. Well, thanks for taking the time. We can’t wait to see you in Australia again.
Yes, come say hi! I’m so looking forward to it. Can’t wait!
DJ Rashida plays the following dates in Oz
Thu Oct 11 — Melbourne Festival, Foxtel Hub Opening NightFri Oct 12 — Love Nightlife (Gold Coast)
Sat Oct 13 — Yo Yo @ Key Club (Melbourne)
