Poppa embarked on her DJ journey during the lockdown, learning the basics from her friend’s uncle. Initially, she merely intended to create a mix for her birthday celebration, sharing it with her DJ acquaintances on a Zoom call.Poppa embarked on her DJ journey during the lockdown, learning the basics from her friend’s uncle. Initially, she merely intended to create a mix for her birthday celebration, sharing it with her DJ acquaintances on a Zoom call. Despite having no prior experience, Poppa persevered and crafted a mix within two months. Although it wasn’t exceptional, her friends’ enthusiastic encouragement gave her a confidence boost.
“My group of friends was always looking for the hottest new music, burning CDs and then we would go to someone’s house that weekend and play our CDs,” she said.
“It was always like, ‘Oh, I found this song first,’ or ‘I played this song at my party two weeks ago.’ That was how music grew up for me, and I feel like it has remained the same now that I have transitioned into DJing. I guess that’s more or less what it is.”
But hip hop and dance music is where Poppa is making her name, bringing her DJ sets from Twitch and SoundCloud to the clubs and festival stages. One booking turned into another, and soon she was hosting Poppa’s, a monthly club night, where she has created an inclusive space for emerging DJs to be themselves and show what they can do.
Between hosting her eponymous club night, a growing number of tours and a radio residency at George FM in New Zealand, Poppa is in high demand. After our conversation, she’s back to work creating event graphics for her next series of shows.
In her conversation with Complex AU, Poppa talked about creating a community in the New Zealand club scene, working with JD Sports and how she dealt with her first festival experience.
How did your journey as a DJ begin?
I was a full-time nail technician and had my own nail business for about three years. Then the lockdown happened and I just had so much time to play games, do nothing and figure out my place in the world. In the last three months of lockdown, my friend came home with his uncle’s DJ controller and taught me the basics.
My goal was just to make a mix of all my favorite songs, because my birthday was coming up, and I wanted to do a Zoom call with all my DJ friends and show my mix to them.
It’s so funny when I think back to that first mix. I made it in about two months without any experience. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. I just remember all my DJ friends in the chat egging me on like, “Yo, this is crazy,” and they were so nice because it wasn’t anything unbelievable.
