Most DJ’S will never be signed in America to play at all the top parties we read about and dream we could attend. Most DJ’s will never leave the confines of their bedroom preferring instead to listen to their peers telling them they are the ‘best thing since sliced bread’. Breaking all the supposed boundaries on what a DJ should and shouldn’t aspire to achieve is half Egyptian half Moroccan West London born, Arabic speaking Nadia Zoraya Asili, AKA She Devil DJ. The first female DJ to be signed in the US and rap star Trina’s official DJ, She Devil has played in America’s top clubs at parties hosted by the likes of Kanye West, Musiq Soul Child, Pharrell, Usher, Nas and Kelis, Eminem and Paris Hilton to name a few. The wheels of steel are typically a man’s world, but She Devil DJ tells Joel Campbell that it wouldn't be nothing without a woman or a girl!
How did you get into DJing, especially given that it’s a hobby you would more associate with boys?
When I was in school I was a bit of a tomboy and I used to like Hip-Hop, beat-boxing and break dancing and a lot of my friends used to be into the same. I couldn’t beat-box or break dance very well so I DJ’d. A lot of the boys were like, ‘girls can’t DJ’ but I grew up in a musical Arabic household and had a lot of influences from my four brothers and two sisters who were into R ‘n’ B, soul, Pop, Reggae, all sorts. I got my first pair of decks when I left college and the first music I started playing was Jungle, if you can catch a Jungle beat and mix then you can definitely catch any other beat. DJ Rap was a big influence on me as one of the first female DJ’s out there, it was like, ‘if she can do it, I can do it’. She was making records and everything and had her own label and I loved the road she was taking and decided to see if I could do the same.
Where did you play your first memorable rave?
I would say it was WAG club in London years ago, I don’t think I was even old enough to DJ in the club but I did. I was doing pirate radio at the time. I did Street FM and then I moved onto Choice FM doing a slot with Commander B and people started hearing about me from there. I did everywhere, bars pubs, empty raves with my best friend dancing like there was a whole heap of people there! Those days were funny. Then one day I didn’t want to do my day job anymore and got serious. I went to China Whites in the West End and I told the manager that their DJ was rubbish and that I could do better. I got told to put my money where my mouth was and it spiraled from there. I did Caberet, Pangea, Penthouse, all of the clubs that were top.
How did you end up in America?
I got offered a job on Radio 1 Xtra but at that time I didn’t want to stay in London, I wanted to go and try and see if I could do something in America. For a while I thought that turning it down was the biggest mistake of my life, but I took my records and went to Miami, I knew it was a party town so I said I’d go and see what I could do. When I got there I met up with Horace Madison who had an apartment in the South Beach hotel I was staying in, he happened to be a financial advisor to Usher, Lil John, Outkast, Alicia Keys, everyone. We got talking and when he found out what I did he asked if I would like to DJ for Lil John’s new years party, I said cool, and it was literally right place, right time. I took a chance and it paid off. It was hard and I had to carry my records everywhere through customs and airport after airport, breaking my back because I didn’t want to put them in my suitcase just in case they got lost, you heard what happened to Sticky, and I would never risk that. Lil John’s party opened the door really, there was myself and another DJ who played and the other DJ didn’t go down to well with Lil John and he wanted me to play all night, the next day it got into the newspapers. From that story The Game’s DJ Chris Styles, who I knew already, got me onboard with Czar Entertainment who offered me a two-year contract. The first female to do that. Earlier this year I also got signed to Core DJ’s of which there over 400 members. They do all the BET Awards and stuff like that and they have world renowned DJ’s on their books some of whom I grew up listening to thinking, ‘wow, I want to be like them’. I’m the only UK DJ on the rostrum.
In the industry you’re in have you had a lot of men hit on you and how do you deal with it?
It’s hard being a female in a male dominated industry and I have had all the accusations about me sleeping my way to the top but you can’t hide being a rubbish DJ. To get where I have got can’t be done on looks. There is also the fact that if you do sleep with someone everyone will soon find out because the industry is so small you lose respect for that. At the end of the day, no one wants to listen to a rubbish DJ. I’ve had the richest of the richest guys hitting on me, but at the end of the day, I tell them it’s about not that. I’m a DJ, there are enough girls around for them to do that with if that’s what they want.
What’s the best party you have played at?
There are so many! Paris Hilton’s party at Caberet was hot. Tyson Beckford’s party was hot, Young Jeezy, Salt and Pepper, there are so many, when I stop to think about it, it’s like, Wow, I didn’t think I’d be doing things like this.
Who is the most arrogant celebrity you have come across and who was the nicest?
Usher! I rated him from when he came out but I now wish I’d never met him. When I first met him he said something that was really horrible and disrespectful, but it was only after he did that he realised I was DJ and then he would try and tease me. The nicest I would say is Chingy and not because he is cute, but because he runs a kids charity and I like when I see people doing things like that. He’s not doing as well as Fifty Cent, but Fifty ain’t got a kids charity. Chingy helps people, I rate that. Don’t forget where you come from, if I could open a community centre where I come from I would because there are not enough.
What’s next for She Devil DJ, will you be doing this for the rest of your life?
I don’t want to be DJ for the rest of my life but I love music, I can’t not do it, so I probably will DJ for the rest of my life, it’s not like a job to me. I manage a 14 year-old singer by the name of Xya and I want to get into music production and I already write poetry.
Have you got any advice for the youngsters out there?
Don’t ever let anybody tell you something is not possible because anything is possible as long as you put your mind and your heart to it. Know what you want and you will get it, nothing is impossible, nothing!
