“There are so many great female DJ’s that are out right now, which is so refreshing to see and be a part of”.

It is undeniable that the internet has brought about an insane shift in the way we view, consume and understand music. The same can be said as it relates to the DJ culture! It used to be that a DJ was merely an aid to the party but nowadays, they are the party. Through spaces such as Mixcloud and Soundcloud deejaying has almost been legitimised as an actual art form. As we find ourselves comfortably in the middle of Women’s Month, it is important to consider the place that women hold in the deejaying space.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve witnessed femme DJ’s not only knock on doors but break them down as they appear on more and more lineups. The South African deejaying scene in 2019 is loaded with dope, talented femme DJ’s who continue to raise the standard and paint their own narrative as to what it means to create quality content in the art that is music curatorship. One of those people happens to be LoveSlavePhola.

The correlation between Phola’s name and calm laid back temperament is uncanny! When you first meet Phola, there are three things that make themselves apparent to you very quickly: 1. she’s got a great taste in fashion, hence her 9 to 5 as a digital marketing strategist for a retail fashion brand.  2. She oozes an effortless cool that only being in Joburg circa ’09 can breed – you know, back when Braam was actually cool. 3. she has a great ear for good music! This has clearly been co-signed by fellow artists of sound as she has shared stages with the likes of Bas, Kojey Radical and Angela Yee. Phola has played at popular music events such as Castle Lite Hip Hop Herstory, Weheartbeat x Feel Good Series and In-Tune to name a few. She has also been featured on various digital publishing platforms.

Phola’s music origin story can be described in the form of a playlist: it starts off smooth and soulful with the likes of Marvine Gaye, Aretha Franklin and The Commodores through the influence of her uncle. It is then swayed in the direction of 90s hip hop and R&B, through artists like J Dilla, Aaliyah and A Tribe Called Quest. She’s taken those influences and made them her own through the appreciation of fresh new sounds. Having studied a BA in Communication, the music seemed to be in the complete opposite direction to her academia. “I didn’t want to be a DJ; it wasn’t part of my plan. But I’ve always been a fan of music”. Phola learnt the skill of deejaying through a friend, uSanele from Boyzn Bucks, just as a cool new way of listening and appreciating music. As her passion for the craft grew, she began playing more at her friends’ gigs. Her big break finally came when she started playing The WKND Social, a gathering of cool, like-minded peeps in the heart of the City of Gold. From there Phola has managed to cement herself as a key player in the music scene all over the country.

The realities of being an artist in South Africa and most places around the world is such that you still must have a 9 to 5 in order to survive. Granted that Phola loves the work she does in the realm of content creation; she says music truly does have her heart. “Music is my passion and if the gigs started flowing in regularly enough, I would definitely transition into deejaying full time”. When answering the question of how she juggles work and being a DJ, Phola states that it’s very important to make your craft a priority through being transparent with her employer about the work she does as a DJ. Her hope is to dip her hands in the pool of producing and finally make the leap of being a full-time DJ. “There are so many great female DJ’s that are out right now which is so refreshing to see and be a part of”. Phola notes that there has been a huge shift in the South African DJ scene since she first started out. The only notable femme DJ’s at the time belonged to a very specific sound and there was only a handful of them.

Nowadays we have an army of female DJ’s like Brown Pepper Ann, Gina Jeanz and Fif Laaa who join Phola in equalising the playing field and ensuring that the world knows that South Africa has dope female DJ’s.  Phola represents an important face as a youth in South Africa. Without realising it, she embodies what it means to truly live out your dreams as a young woman. She has entered a male-dominated field and is killing it against all odds! She continues to do what she loves, on her terms and increases visibility for young girls while doing it.

Pictures by: Gift Dick