She’s the Baddest in the World: New Orleans’ DJ Soul Sister Doesn’t Need to Spin the Hits
“DJ Soul Sister in the zone,” photo by Avery White
With a moniker reflecting the honor of sharing a name with an Allen Toussaint classic, DJ Soul Sister is a New Orleans icon, known for her deep crate digging and disc spinning artistry. Be sure to keep up with her website: It carries listings of all her upcoming events. In April – 4/20 in fact – she spins the 20th Anniversary of HUSTLE! dance party at Hi-Ho Lounge and on April 28, she’s Interviewing Patrice Rushen at New Orleans Jazz Fest! – Editor
It’s no surprise Soul Sister has anchored her life in the craft of mixing and blending music. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine any other way it could have gone. Music called her powerfully from an early age. Throughout her childhood, music moved her and animated her imagination. She began collecting records at six years old. She recalls, fondly, a doll she owned with a radio inside. She clung to the doll every night, listening to the radio all night long.
“A lot of people assume that I inherited music from my parents […] that my parents passed down their love of music to me. And that actually is not so.” Her father’s small vinyl collection may have gotten her started, but her enthusiasm for music far exceeded what she found in her early environment. It seemed to tug on her throughout her life, drawing her more and more closely in.
Despite this early call to music, Soul Sister insists that she never set out to be a DJ. Throughout her story, DJing just kept calling out to her.
