Q&A With DJ Delish

For years DJ Delish has been getting busy racking up accolades and gaining notoriety on platforms like Resident Advisor, Boiler Room, Power99 FM, Bandcamp & Philadelphia’s WXPN. DJ Delish is not only a mainstay DJ in the Philly scene but on the national festival circuits. 

During her lifetime, DJ Delish has called Philly, the Tri-State area, and Virginia home and made a name for herself in all three locations. This interview kicks off with a tale of her serendipitous and simultaneous entry into both DJing and Ballroom. And if you are lucky enough to be following DJ Delish on social media, you’ll find that she can be super opinionated about the Ballroom scene and the trajectory of the art form. Of course that's something we had to dig into here. But please don’t be mistaken, DJ Delish can’t be pigeonholed to just Ballroom - the all-around musician has produced numerous tracks that have gone viral on TikTok, and her upcoming mixtape will feature both singing and rapping. 
This interview is a bit lengthy, but that’s how you know it’s a good one. Check out some of her music on Bandcamp and dig in.

Melissa Simpson: So tell me about that first event that you DJ in Virginia.

DJ Delish: Let's start, where do we begin, honey? So the guy that booked me, his name was Amp Lanvin. At the time, he was Amp Lacroix. He had booked me for this thing called Sunday Night Heat and there was an Easter edition coming up. He usually would book another DJ who was not available. He heard that throughout the grapevine, in the neighborhoods and through the girls that I would just bring my laptop out and we would just bust a move child. I would just take out my laptop and start DJing. We'd already be smoking and high and ready to vogue and I'd just start tearing it up. He heard about how I was doing that and was like, “oh, well you can come and DJ for my ball.”

I said, “okay, how much do you have for me?” He's like, “$60”. So I did my first event for $60. Mind you, the event was like three hours long. It was at the Goal Post Lounge, which is now closed, but it was this, this little clubby bar situation. I had Dell Inspiron 1100 that had a horrible habit of overheating and cutting straight off in the midst of me doing stuff. That was part of the reason why I never really put myself out there as a DJ. My equipment is not prepared to do something substantial. That night we get to the Goal Post Lounge and I say a prayer to myself, and I will always remember this prayer. That was my first time at a ball. Mm-Hmm. That was my first time DJing anything. And that was my first time DJing a ball. So I hit three things in one night. Up until that point, I had only been around my good girlfriends. When I was in high school, none of my gay friends knew about Ballroom. Like, they knew about ballroom through me, but I knew a ballroom through YouTube. So whatever I learned, I gave it to them. And we would all kiki and kaka with that. But I never really, you know, outside of maybe one or two people, I never really got to meet that many

The night went on and to keep my computer from overheating, I put my computer on the side of the table leaving half of it hanging off because that's where the fan was.

Melissa: That's high key. Smart though.

DJ Delish: Thank you, it was. Also, keep in mind, that the battery did not work.

Melissa: Jesus. Oh, so you couldn't unplug it?

DJ Delish: It wasn't even just a matter of unplugging baby. If I so much as move that table wrong. I was really DJing on a string, like on a literal cord string hanging off the hanging off the side of the stepstool. It wasn't even a laptop stand. It was, it was a ghetto mess. And I loved every moment of it.

It will always be the moment when I realized that this was what I wanted to do because it worked. And, and, and something in my soul was just like, God would not let something like that work after I talked to him. Before the ball I said, “Lord, just don't let it fail.” And he didn't. He don't answer prayers like that just for no reason. feel like it was divine intercession. The Lord really kept that fan blowing and kept that cord from moving.

Melissa: That’s so beautiful.

DJ Delish: That's why every set, I always pray and be like Lord, get it, Lord.” Because of the amount of stuff that could happen, I mean, I'm not, I'm not even talking about technical stuff. I've heard about DJs getting killed. You know what I mean?

Melissa: Oh Wow.

DJ Delish: Before I got to Virginia, there was a DJ named DJ Hutch who was killed. They told me about him. They used to just go off about DJ Hutch and be like, “Oh his beats, he would play the nastiest beats.” I never got a chance to meet him because somebody had ran up at a party and killed him. Not to be morbid or whatever and take it to a dark note. But that's what I mean by having a hedge of protection over me in a way where I can call on my protector and be like, “you know what? I'm all right.”

Melissa: So I'm going back to the conversation we're having at Dahlak, but tell me about your gripes with the Ballroom scene here. I be on Facebook and I see your complaints, but I'm not privy to everything that goes on, but you have a lot of opinions and a lot of thoughts. So yeah, what is all that?

DJ Delish: [laughs] What is all that? What is it really? That's a lot to unpack right there. But I think the short version of a long story is I, like a lot of other Philadelphia DJs are falling behind, not because of my talent, not because of a scandal or anything ('cause I don't have any, okay). But I think mainly because Philadelphia has a very bad habit of not supporting itself. And we can say that about every city known to man, but I'm talking about this one particularly

Melissa: Right.

DJ Delish: It's a bother because it doesn't get to that point until you've given your all. I have definitely devoted a lot of time to the Philadelphia ballroom scene, be it mainstream or Kiki scene.

Melissa: What's the difference? Because I don't, I don't know what that means.

DJ Delish: I'm trying to think of a comparison. Mainstream is Cardi B Nicki Minaj. And Kiki is like Leikeli47 and Doja Cat.

Melissa: Gotcha. If that makes sense. I don't know if I put Doja in the wrong category, but, you know, like Kiki is more for the newer, the different.

DJ Delish: And I've done a hell of a lot for both. In mainstream. In Philly, I was the resident DJ for the Breakfast Club for the remainder of the time that it was running. I did the Crystal Ball in 2014. I've just done a lot as far as mainstream, as far as participation, being the DJ, and being there consistently. Kiki wise, I started the Silly in Philly event. A lot of people don’t know but the Silly In Philly phrase itself came from Samantha, James, may she rest in peace. We were having that night on 50th and Market. I started the Silly and Philly event which ended up growing into a name that they all just use now. But that originally came from me and this other, woman named Big Kim. Kim was Cousin, Danny's cousin. And that's how we ended up getting that space because she was a family member of his.

Okay. So let me get back on track. My gripe with the scene is that it has become too much like the thing that it was fighting against when I came into Ballroom. I enjoyed it, not just because it was a way for people to play dress up, but it was a way for us to go against what they told us we couldn't do. Now it seems like it is dead wrapped up in everything that we weren't trying to do. The way that we move now has been so wrapped up in television and capitalism that I fear we're losing our sauce and we're now making our sauce for everyone. I fear that is is going to come to a point where it's no longer ours.

And don't get me wrong, you know, we just celebrated 50 years of Hip-Hop, right?

Melissa: Yup.

DJ Delish: So it, it's not to say that we'll be erased completely, but there is an erasure, and I've been seeing it since Legendary began. When I first got that email about doing music for the show, and it said that there’s a TV show that’s coming out about Ballroom and it's going to be eight houses, yada, yada, yada. When I got to the end of that email, it felt like I had just gone 80 in a 25-mile-an-hour zone. And the biggest thing I want you to take from that is that the car is out of control. It’s done now.

Melissa: Because there was no conversation around preservation while still doing the show?

DJ Delish: There has been. But unfortunately not enough because of generational curses child. We talk about generational curses, the biggest one we need to break is not listening to old folks. The generational curse of the younger kids or the new people coming in and creating something mainly for themselves and not really for the whole diaspora of the thing. And, you know, they end up leaving out a lot of people who are essential for these conversations. The ones who have tried to speak are too tired now to talk because no one wants to listen.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels this way, but I know that I'm probably the only person who is stern enough in their feelings to either boycott it or say something about it. This is my first time ever really being this vulnerable about ballroom to any publication at all. I've, I've always kept it to myself because I didn't wanna lose them. And, it's easy to lose black folks when you start saying no to white folks and they like the white folks too. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying everybody cooning out, but honey, I've had too many arguments concerning white people in Ballroom. And I promise you there was never a reason for it to be an argument.

Melissa: I think also this tension is coming from like a place of scarcity where people wanna be able to do what they want to do and get a bag from it. Right? They’re sacrificing integrity in the face of getting a bag. But then you can argue that you don’t want to come for anybody for just trying to eat.

DJ Delish: Absolutely. And I don't wanna come off like a hater. Like, it's so easy to come off like a hater since that word has been invented, it has been so easy to be a hater.

Melissa: I swear to God.

DJ Delish: I'm not one. I'm not telling nobody to not do anything. I'm saying do it and look at what the fuck you're doing. If you're going to do it, then make sure it's in full imagination, it's in full creativity, it's fully authentic, and it’s fully you. We all gotta put on a little dress and put on a little shirt and put on a little pants and put on a whatever to show the world. That's fine. Get as close to your mind as possible when you go to do it. And that’s where they lose the integrity and when I know it's for something else.

Melissa: So that brings me to my next question. And not that I expect you to have all the answers to this, but how do you think people can advance Ballroom with integrity? What are some key things you feel people should keep in mind or practice when it comes to getting a bag and more notoriety?

DJ Delish: I think they can start by coming as themselves. When I came into it I didn't know what my name was gonna be, and I eventually fell upon Delish. I had to find where I felt most comfortable. A lot of people are doing things that they're not really comfortable with. Instead of being frank and being real with themselves, they are kind of hiding behind certain things in order to appear a certain way or in order to get the bag. That would lead to my next point: stop trying to get the bag. There is no advancement in Ballroom because Ballroom is a one-stop shop. Now, it's not to say Ballroom can't be done for years, but it's a learning platform.

And too many people get caught up in the thing of, I'm gonna get famous through Ballroom when Ballroom itself is not even famous. You know what I mean? It's famed, it's admired, it's sought after, but it's not famous. Because we're still coming to the club. We're still going to the Ball. They're still fights at the Balls [laughter]. There are still panels that chop people who are known around the world. Ashley Icon had chopped Leiomy one time or something. Leiomy has been on Oxygen, she has taught Beyonce. And it's still that. They still have to come back. You know what I mean? So that's why I say you go into it with an authenticity. Come in immediately humble, and therefore you don't have to get humbled, therefore you can come back and it don’t have to hurt.

And I wanna be very clear, Ballroom is not what's getting people famous. Instagram is what's getting people famous. TikTok is what's getting people famous. Let's be very clear. There were several challenges made last year with my beats under 'em on TikTok.

But the biggest thing that you can do for yourself is not have that end goal, not even having the end goal of being a legend. How about having the end goal of being the winner of the night, or if you can't do that, how about having the end goal of having a good time being gay, encouraging friends, just for the sake of it. You know, Ballroom was put to me and several other generations from Paris Is Burning as this gay open house cornucopia. You can come and be here and be yourself and be your most fabulous self. And when we get there, it’s still mean looks and nastiness.

Melissa: Here's my question with that, right? So I think by nature, certain art forms require you to have a certain attitude. So my homie asked asked me if I thought he was the best rapper in Philly. And I’m like “that’s a rapper ass statement to make”. Because the nature of rap is to be better than the next person. So here’s the parallel I’m trying to draw with Ballroom - from the outside looking in there seems to be a shade element that seems to be required in Ballroom. You're supposed to be playing somebody's light, acting like you're better than them. That seems to be the nature of the artform.

DJ Delish: It was, it's not now. And I promise you it's not now. We have a whole different world from that point, from pronouns to gestures, to identities, to legends. The guards, the gods have been changed, you know what I mean? I promise you this much, if Ballroom was the shade box that everyone really wanted it to be from back in the day, nobody who's involved right now would be involved. They have all been graced by the changing of times. And I think that's where, I think that's where people also get in misconstrued with Ballroom, where it's like, oh, the shade is, is part of the nature. It is part of the history, but the nature is for us to come together and be competitive.

Melissa: So what are some of your favorite things about Ballroom?

DJ Delish: Oh goodness. It's a movie [laughter]. It's a movie, honey. It's a movie. Every time you walk in the building, I don't care when you walk in, oh, it's a movie. It's so interesting to watch it unfold. Oh, Jesus. You never know what's gonna happen. I mean, really, it's truly a movie every single time. It's a brand new Steven Spielberg bestseller film. At a ball child, you set that camera up right behind the judge's panel, and now you are looking right along with everybody else who needs to be looking. And you not only can see the performance, you not only can hear the music, but you can see the actions on the side. You can see somebody start fighting. And you can also hear jack over the microphone. You get the best joke of the year. You don't even know where it came from. And it's phrases that we have heard at Balls that we're still saying, to this day. Oh goodness, child. I can't tell you how many times I say “cut the music.” I say cut the music profusely because of Ballroom. That is the best term of instruction I have ever heard to silence anything in a clammed space.

The other thing I really like about it. It's such a place to learn how to stand up. Ballroom has created some of the firmest people you'll probably ever meet. And I can say that for myself at least. Ballroom taught me eye contact. I like flat out, I had the hardest time speaking to people and looking at them in their faces. And this was at 19-years-old. I could not look at people in their faces when I talked to them. Especially people who were older than me and people who seemed larger than me. Now, child, I walk right up to Kelly like “Hi, Kelly. How you doing? Oh, all right. Okay. Mm-Hmm” [laughter]. It teaches you audacity. It teaches you to stand up and say no.

Ballroom can break your heart and you can still stand up and be like “child anyway”. You can still pick up and move on with your life after you’ve been chopped. Because if you've been chopped at a Ball you can handle a no anywhere - I don't care what it is. You walk up to seven people looking at you dead in your face. You try to do a little dance they all, and at least two of them will say no.

Melissa: A minute ago you mentioned that you had a bunch of songs on TikTok go viral. And I'm familiar with, um, your remix of Masego's, What You Want To Try.

DJ Delish: Yes.

Melissa: So tell me about that. How’d you ended up making the remix to that song, and the obvious tie-in with your name and how that song went viral?

DJ Delish: So Khadijah In Detroit actually was really funny because I literally opened up my TikTok and saw an ad for his album and it started with “I’m in Detroit with Kadija. I said, oh, “I ain’t heard that name in the song in a long time and of course, it’s my name. I don't know, it just kind of made me feel like Ari Lennox a little bit. It was like oh “he loves me [laugter]. My name's Khadijah. He probably made that song about me. He loves me.”

I heard the song and it was over. I love the song. So when I heard it and, you know, I got attracted to it, I was like, okay, lemme see what I can do. And then I started just messing around with it. And that's really how a lot of my viral tracks happen. I jump onto an idea or I hear something and I'm like, okay, you can work it like this. But it's usually stuff that people would never think of like Broadway music or something. That's where a lot of my songs come from. They just come from me hearing something or feeling something in the moment and just being like, here it is. And I try to make it as close to my mind as possible without going too far off the deep end. Detroit With Khadijah sounded like something completely different before it hit y'all's ears.

Melissa: So you mentioned in the past that you wanted to take a break from the ballroom scene and that not being what you want to be known for. What do you wanna be known for and what do you want your focus to be?

DJ Delish: Honestly, I've always said this and I don't know how to say it any other way, but being an all-around musician. I produce music but I'm also still learning. My talent is really based off of like trial and error and I wanna be known as someone who got it right when they did it. I do want to produce for Sade if she ever did come back out. I would love to produce for Tweet. I’ve been wanting to produce for Tweet for years. On my next mixtape that’s coming out, I have a drum and bass remix of one of her songs.

I said before I wanted to work with Missy, but I don't know. I like Missy still, but she seems to be on a newer wave and I'm, I'm still old school with mine. She might have to go back in time a little bit with me if we gonna really do something.

I want to create music that makes a good time. And I want to be able to always give people a certain level of joy. I think my ultimate goal for me is just to be happy in music, be happy with doing it, and be happy in doing it.

Melissa: So what has been the highlight of your career so far?

DJ Delish: Hmm. The highlight of it? Honestly, I think the highlight has just started, honestly. I've been getting a lot of in-person adulation for my work and even down to this happening. Like I'm people taking pictures and conducting interviews. The highlights have really just begun. I’ll be releasing R&B stuff soon, so people will hear me sing. People will hear me rap a little bit, and that is scary, but it's also a big step forward. I am gonna be able to showcase everyone a bigger part of me that has lived, not through Ballroom, but. alongside it. Kind of like a parallel.

I would say like in the last two years or so, I've, I've kind of hit like a little bit of a highlighted career where all my work has kind of paid off, you know, or is paying off where like, stuff that I've worked on for years, even out of this one beat that's like six-fucking-years-old, it's called Siamese and now all of a sudden it's viral. It's me and Kevin. This beat is so old, how y'all just hearing this? It's a little tricky because ballroom music takes longer to process. It takes like two, three years before people start listening to it.

Melissa: So you mentioned the people that you would wanna work with, right? But are there any other milestones that you had for your career?

DJ Delish: Comfortability is a milestone for me, honestly. Like having enough of a repertoire and enough income in what I'm doing to stabilize myself. That’s a milestone that I haven't reached. Um, what's another milestone? I want to make it at least 20 years of DJing. I've already hit my 10. Hallelujah.

Melissa: Woot Woot

DJ Delish: Right. Another milestone is being so stable or having done so well with music that I end up being able to help my friends and family out. I've always wanted to do that. Like, that's why any house I ever had, I was like “child come over”. Like everybody can come. I always wanted to be able to have a space to give to people, and if I couldn't give that, then I wanted to be able to give people something that they could get it with.

I kind of want to be, for lack of better terms, the Timbaland and Missy of my time, which I think I kind of am a little bit.

Melissa: Is there something that we haven't touched on in this conversation that you would want the public to know? And that can be anything. A hot take or whatever.

DJ Delish: Ooh, a hot take child. You trying to get me in trouble [laughter].

Melissa: Wherever you want it to be.

DJ Delish: Well, I do have a hot take. Everyone needs to go back to the drawing board. Everyone needs to go back to the drawing board with everything at all times everywhere. That's my hot take: everyone start over because yeah, it's cute, it's great, but it's not complete. The pandemic knocked everyone and everything back about a good centimeter so everything's been leveled. But that don't mean copy everything you see. That don't mean rush to do everything you think you should do. That means get back to the drawing board. Because since 2020 we have been able to wait until 2023. What makes you think people can't wait until 2026? Slow down and go back to the drawing board.

As far as projects Elektrokution Kak : The Mixtape will be out in December or November. It's a mixed tape I've been working on that does a lot of blending of the old and the new. It is exciting because there’s two sides to it. One side is gonna be my ballroom beats. And then the other side is the mixtape with R&B. You're gonna be able to hear me do the singing and rapping and that whole bit.

Melissa: I always love when people like do something that they aren't known for. Like I'm big on fuck around and find out energy. Do something new. Do something different. Do something unexpected. Because a lot of times that's where the growth happens and that's where the beauty happens. So I'm here for it.

DJ Delish: Yes. I'm so glad. I'm hoping everybody else is too.