Caribbean Deejaying - Versatility, Skill-transferal and Sustainability 101

Did you know Idris Elba was a DJ? How about Erykah Badu? Both of them became DJs after they became popular for other performing arts. They made a conscious decision to DJ after becoming popular for their other skills. This shows that there must be something special about being a DJ.

Jaguar-XE-Launch-Party-2 Idris Elba

Erykah badu dj

Not only is deejaying about reaching many different types of people with many different types of music, it is a way to learn. We learn about the experiences of musical artists, we learn about realities which we might not relate to otherwise and we find similarities with people throughout the world – all through music.

Deejaying is one of the world’s most versatile yet subliminal cross-cultural teaching styles.

This is not an airy fairy stretch of an idea - it is already happening.

DJ Cavem considers himself a music educator and O.G (organic gardener) and has created an award winning eco-hip hop curriculum - The Produce Section.

He’s not alone in doing this and works with his wife - Arasia “Alkemia” Earth a plant based chef to host Culinary Concerts. They are reaching multi-cultural audiences by doing this from their base in Denver, where they grew up - a prime location to authenticate this kind of work.

DJ cavem and wife

dj cavem and arasia

dj cavem children

Arasia “Alkemia” Earth and DJ Cavem in the White House, at their Culinary Concert and in the classroom

Wherever you can find people from multiple cultures living together you can see the versatility of DJs at work.

We can see this teaching style in the Caribbean also but it is more subliminal. Some of the world’s most versatile DJs come from the Caribbean. This versatility is validated by how they have translated their deejaying skills into successfully sharing Caribbean culture beyond their island geographies.

How so?

The success of Caribbean Djs in chanelling Caribbean culture across the world is because they fill the need of the immigrant and quench our wanderlust about cultures other than our own.

A testimony for this can be found in two Caribbean DJs who both majored in business subjects at college – DJ Private Ryan and DJ Puffy.

DJ Private Ryan’s Soca Brainwash events can be found throughout the U.S., in London and throughout the Caribbean as a direct result of his popular cross-genre free mixes.

DJ Puffy is the world’s most recently crowned versatile DJ – Redbull 3 style champion. Although his task in the competition was to get both the best crowd response and approval of judges in mixing at least 3 genres in a 15 minute DJ set, he went above and beyond this by his genre selection and by using the strength of indigenous Caribbean music. He did this by using dubplates (musical endorsements) from Barbadian recording artists.

As a student immigrant, I often felt isolated because I was simply living somewhere other than where I grew up. It is very easy to miss the familiar faces, spaces and sounds. This isolation, led to feeling a need to preserve my cultural identity in places where I felt misunderstood. This isolation also leads DJs who may want to be a part of relieving this isolation to play music which stimulates memories of being home for immigrants. It is a coping mechanism.

However, for the financial sustainability of deejays who may specialize in Caribbean genres (e.g. soca and dancehall), they still have to be versatile in other genres to draw in new listeners, relate other pop music to Caribbean music and introduce Caribbean music in creative ways whether through cross-genre music productions, events or what they say on the mic.

So imagine now when we can find DeeJays who are ambassadors of versatility, who have been relaying Caribbean culture to wider audiences and who actually understand their roles as leaders with a touch of “Captain Planet” characteristics. This is an especially relevant discovery in the Caribbean where most entertainment events immediately and directly influence ecosystems because they are held on the beach.

These DJs exist. It is our hope that by hearing a bit about them you will either respect the DJ profession for what it is, what it could be and maybe even this might get us to further understand the power of music for our ecosystems.

Our feature Deejays have backgrounds in journalism, computer science and information management and now produce music, work for Google and work with mass media communication companies.

Leighton “Walshy Fire” Walsh

As part of Major Lazer, DJ Walshy Fire is currently on tour playing, producing music and speaking up for water issues in Haiti. He majored in journalism at FAMU and played an active role in both the FAMU Caribbean Student Association (CSA) and Florida Caribbean Student Association (FCSA). Before Major Lazer, Walshy was a member of Black Chiney sounds, back when soundclashes were the main avenue for DJs to make their stamp throughout the world.

Walshy Fire began deejaying at the largest historically black college and university which aside from being an academic environment filled with “excellence with caring” – had a large Caribbean population and ofcourse as with any college – parties were a big part of what happened at school. There were parties for a cause, to reduce stress, to define Caribbean Identity, to celebrate diversity and cultural similarities at the same time.

I first heard Walshy Fire on an FCSA panel discussion on Music Appreciation. I realized then that for him, this was more than a hustle. On that panel, he along with the other panelists taught me to better appreciate music from other islands. I was very nationalistic in college and of course I would respond most favorably to music from Barbados, everything else came second. They both made me think about how I would I feel if music from a Bajan artist is played and nobody responded, even though I knew that the song was already popular in Barbados. That happened in real life, and I learned my lesson. Good music is good music regardless of where it comes from. Music is a mission not a competition.

Walshy Fire also calls himself the Prime Minister of Miami, and as Jamaican that is a mammoth statement. Miami is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the U.S. and then college campuses are concentration of that cultural diversity, so being a deejay for Floridian college audiences was definitely a way for Walshy Fire to break down cultural barriers through music.

“I would say the influence (from school) came from just being in such a party environment. If I didn't do college parties to start my career I might have never been able to see how to entertain so many different people in one room.

Sustainability for Walshy Fire makes him think about our future. He loves where he’s from, has an appreciation for the diversity of Caribbean culture and similarities between Caribbean music and music directly from the African content. This is reflected in all of his new Walshy Fire music productions.

When I asked Walshy what sustainability meant to him – he agreed that sustaining the beauty of our environment means everything to him. “We want generations to appreciate what we were able to”.

Dion “DJ Dion” Paul

Dion Paul graduated with a Bachelor of Science in electronic engineering technology and then completed his Master of Science in computer science. He began deejaying at family functions as teenager. Then after moving to Florida for school he not only was known as “the Soca DJ” but he also took on leadership roles in the FAMU Caribbean Student Association and the Florida Caribbean Student Association to become both an ambassador for Trinidadian culture and Caribbean music in the college environment. We first met through student associations and the hosting of two eco-events together with a Caribbean twist – Green and Live Tour and an Eco-themed Halloween party.

Throughout his college career, he hosted a weekly 3 hour show on WANM 90.5 FM - “Sunday Skool” which played a variety of Caribbean genres. After being an adjunct instructor in computer science for FAMU, Dion Paul was selected for the Google IT Residency program and now works as a solutions consultant. He is tasked with keeping Google and its' users safe, while also contributing to projects like Google Expeditions and programs like Howard West which gives more students at HBCUs access to technology opportunities on-site at companies like Google.

Saying that being a deejay is a hectic career might be an understatement. Since Dion Paul was the only DJ we interviewed who wasn’t actually actively deejaying, he found the time to answer all of our questions extensively :-)

1.How did school influence your decision to become a DJ? (AM)

I mainly wanted to become a DJ in order to make people feel good. I grew this craft during my college days to fill the void of indigenous Caribbean music not being played in parties and on the radio. School helped me by providing the infrastructure and network to scale these efforts. DP

2.When you hear about sustainability, what do you think of? (AM)

Caribbean lifestyle and culture has a huge influence on who I am today. Much of what I continue to do is premised on sustaining the authenticity of our people, the beauty of our environment and ensuring its preservation for generations to come. (DP)

3.What does a Better Caribbean mean to you? (AM)

A better Caribbean looks like a paradise where everyone in every island could afford to live together yet disparately in peace and unity with their basic needs met without fret.(DP)

Patrick "Salt" Bellamy

Aside from being a DJ in the Salt n’ Don show and a radio announcer, he is also a calypsonian and songwriter who has found a way to sneak in some mentions about the environment is his music. He graduated from the University of the West Indies with a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology and after that began working as a field engineer. He then started as an intern at the inception of Slam 101.1 FM. Very quickly he went on to become a DJ, producer of morning call-in shows and announcer for Slam 101.1 FM which was one of the first Barbados- based stations to stream online to a worldwide audience.

I first met Salt as the producer of The Alex Jordan Morning Show for a feature on the Green Business Barbados program. I had been listening to the radio shows “What Drive You Crazy” and “No but Seriously” throughout my college experience overseas. I listened mostly to hear familiar Bajan accents but it also turned out to be productive in other ways. For me, the show was a way to stay in touch with not only what issues were happening in Barbados but what kind of publicly raised problems I could work on when I graduated.

So when I met Salt and Alex Jordan it was because I thought their show would be the most solution oriented channel for featuring the Green Business Barbados program. I knew they not only had some degree of environmental awareness, I also consistently heard how they redirected people to solutions after hearing complaints on their call-in talk shows.

But talking is one thing and action is another. I realized that Salt wasn’t just bringing up environmental issues for ratings when I saw his reaction to fog in parties. He consistently reacts to fog as though it is an absolute deal-breaker. He knows how this pollution not only affects his voice (i.e. his productivity) but everyone else’s experience also. He will stop the music and he could bring the party to a screeching halt if fog machines are used anywhere near him. He has also made the case on-air for banning confetti on party cruises because of the impact on the ocean.

When I asked him about if college science classes played a role in why he is more aware about environmental issues than your average DJ, as the son of a meteorologist and someone who loves to just spend time outdoors he said he has always just loved the outdoors and therefore had a natural interest in the environment.

Being able to weave the relevance of one issue to the next and to get your audience to act is a underrated skill. Being a DJ is the subtlest form of using the mastery of that skill. Their delivery and skills reflect both a leadership learning style and culturally relevant teaching competence. Even if they might not see themselves as everyday teachers, we are definitely learning from the leadership they take through their career.

From the names they call themselves (Prime Minister of Miami and the Principal in Sunday Skool) to their presence on SXSW panels and in school classrooms - these DJs understand their role as leaders who listen and lead by example, in a sustainable way.

Our cross-posted article on OnlineCareerTips.com -

Playing Music to Foster Sustainability Education: Caribbean DJs

- Ariana Marshall Ph.D. - an environmental and social scientist who feels badly for bad and boring DJs. She also enjoys going to parties and then calling them social experiments for "work".

<----- At work, obviously.