Queen of the Crates
Marking 20 years of hosting New Orleans' Hustle dance party and 30 years of service at WWOZ, 2024 is a big year for DJ Soul Sister and the many who not only celebrate with her but also celebrate her and all she does to support generations of musicians, dancers, and lovers of funk, soul, and R&B.
This love affair began much longer than 30 years ago, though. DJ Soul Sister shared that she began collecting records when she was a child: "When I was six, my dad brought me to a tent sale at Sound Warehouse record store in Metairie. I pointed to Kool & the Gang's Music Is the Message album because it looked cool, and Kool & the Gang was red hot in 1980."
It seemed she was already well on her way to becoming DJ Soul Sister, as she explained, "Also that year, my cousin Michael bought me the The Gap Band III album, and another cousin named Skippy, who I only met once, bought me Chaka Khan's Whatcha Gonna Do For Me album, which came out in 1981. Between those and the record collections that my dad and cousins Joe and Michael had, with all the hip music, I was already wanting to have my own collection of records."
She added, "In the meantime, I had a little radio that looked like a mouse, and I'd go to sleep with it on, listening to WAIL FM 105, which only lasted a few years in the early 1980s but really influenced me. So I grew up listening to R&B, jazz, funk, electro, and disco based on radio and records in my family's homes."
So while Music Is the Message may not have been her first record, it was the first album that the fledgling DJ Soul Sister selected for her crates. She clarified, "I didn't buy it myself, but [my dad] bought it for me, and I loved it so much. Still do. It's my favorite album of them all. I don't remember much else about that except probably wondering why 'Celebration,' the big song at that time, wasn't on it. And then I didn't even care. I was just into the music. Today, I continue to dig for records because I'm always wanting to hear some good music I don't have yet. No one has all the records. There are too many. So it's a never-ending hunt, but it never gets old."
Being able to regift music to others seems to never get old for her either, as she professed, "I love music, and throwing parties [like Hustle] is just one way I'm so lucky to be able to share it. In addition to DJing and throwing fun parties where I get to cultivate the sounds and vibe that I think work best for me and people who follow my parties, I also share music through my Soul Power radio show on WWOZ and a number of other events I produce, including crate digging mixers, film screenings, and so many more things I plan to do in the future."
For 30 years now, DJ Soul Sister has gifted her time to WWOZ and her musical expertise to the airwaves of New Orleans. She recalled, "I started volunteering with the station [WWOZ] sometime in 1994 when I was a freshman in college. I didn't start at the station with my radio show. I was just there to help the station, which I loved listening to. Before WWOZ, I did a small radio show at Loyola University on their WLDC AM station, which you could only hear on campus or for an off-campus radius of about one block. The show was called Nostalgic Noise."
If you ask DJ Soul Sister, she will claim that WWOZ is the gift. She said, "All on-air hosts are volunteers, so it's less of a celebration of the work and more of a gratitude that I'm still here to share the music I love. Doing the show on WWOZ is no different from me listening to records I like at my own house, outside of more people being able to hear it via the radio station."
She emphasized, "I'm also glad that a concept like community radio and WWOZ exists for us. When I started listening to the station when I was in high school in the early 1990s, I would learn so much about music I didn't know from the on-air show hosts. So for me to be one of those people I looked up to is always a thrill, and I always hope someone is enjoying or learning just as I did so many years ago."
At the start of our interview, DJ Soul Sister revealed her sentiment that "everything evolves," before going on to disclose, "The older I get, the more I slow down—which is a blessing. These days, at my choice, I only do one event a month—sometimes two or maybe three at max. Also, I like talking and educating about music, music history, and music culture. I love learning, and I love sharing knowledge, and that's what I gravitate toward more these days."
"But when I do want to throw a party, I'm lucky that I have many places that partner with me to make it happen," she concluded. "Special shout-out to the Hi-Ho Lounge, which has been my happy home for my Hustle party for many years now. We haven't skipped a beat."
