A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs, club DJs, mobile DJs, and turntablists. Originally, the "disc" in "disc jockey" referred to shellac and later vinyl records, but nowadays DJ is used as an all-encompassing term to also describe persons who mix music from other recording media such as cassettes, CDs or digital audio files on a CDJ, controller, or even a laptop. DJs may adopt the title "DJ" in front of their real names, adopted pseudonyms, or stage names.
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground club culture and evolved slowly in the early/mid 1980s as DJs began altering disco songs to give them a more mechanical beat. By early 1988, House became mainstream and supplanted the typical 80s music beat.
Hip hop music has been popular in Africa since the early 1980s due to widespread African American influence. In 1985, hip hop reached Senegal, a French-speaking country in West Africa. Some of the first Senegalese rappers were Munyaradzi Nhidza Lida, M.C. Solaar, and Positive Black Soul.
Miami bass is a subgenre of hip hop music that became popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The use of drums from the Roland TR-808, sustained kick drum, heavy bass, raised dance tempos, and frequently sexually explicit lyrical content differentiate it from other hip hop subgenres. Music author Richie Unterberger has characterized Miami bass as using rhythms with a "stop-start flavor" and "hissy" cymbals with lyrics that "reflected the language of the streets, particularly Miami's historically black neighborhoods such as Liberty City, Goulds, and Overtown".
DJ Hollywood is an American MC and disc jockey. His rhythmic MC sets have led him to be credited as one of the first-ever rappers.
The music of Nigeria includes many kinds of folk and popular music. Little of the country's music history prior to European contact has been preserved, although bronze carvings dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries have been found depicting musicians and their instruments. The country's most internationally renowned genres are Indigenous, Apala, Aurrebbe music, Rara music, Were music, Ogene, Fuji, Jùjú, Afrobeat, Afrobeats, Igbo highlife, Afro-juju, Waka, Igbo rap, Gospel, Nigerian pop and Yo-pop. Styles of folk music are related to the over 250 ethnic groups in the country, each with their own techniques, instruments, and songs.
A DJ mixer is a type of audio mixing console used by disc jockeys (DJs) to control and manipulate multiple audio signals. Some DJs use the mixer to make seamless transitions from one song to another when they are playing records at a dance club. Hip hop DJs and turntablists use the DJ mixer to play record players like a musical instrument and create new sounds. DJs in the disco, house music, electronic dance music and other dance-oriented genres use the mixer to make smooth transitions between different sound recordings as they are playing. The sources are typically record turntables, compact cassettes, CDJs, or DJ software on a laptop. DJ mixers allow the DJ to use headphones to preview the next song before playing it to the audience. Most low- to mid-priced DJ mixers can only accommodate two turntables or CD players, but some mixers can accommodate up to six turntables or CD players. DJs and turntablists in hip hop music and nu metal use DJ mixers to create beats, loops and so-called scratching sound effects.
Frederick Crute, known professionally as Kool DJ Red Alert, is an Antiguan-American disc jockey who rose to fame on WRKS 98.7 Kiss FM in New York City and is recognized as one of the founding fathers of hip hop music and culture. His weekly radio show airs on WBLS 107.5 FM from Monday to Saturday at 6pm EST.
Hip-hop or hip hop, formerly known as disco rap, is a genre of popular music,that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s primarily from African American, Afro-Latin, and Afro-Caribbean musical aesthetics practiced by youth in the South Bronx. Hip-hop music originated as an anti-drug and anti-violence social movement led by the Afrika Bambaataa and the Universal Zulu Nation. The genre is characterized by stylized rhythmic sounds—often built around disco grooves, electronic drum beats, and rapping, a percussive vocal delivery of rhymed poetic speech as consciousness-raising expression. The music developed as part of the broader hip-hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, breakdancing, and graffiti art or writing. Knowledge is sometimes described as a fifth element, underscoring its role in shaping the values and promoting empowerment and consciousness-raising through music. In 1999, emcee KRS-One, often referred to as "The Teacher," elaborated on this framework in a Harvard lecture, identifying additional elements that extend beyond the basic four. These include self-expression, street fashion, street language, street knowledge, and street entrepreneurialism, which remain integral to hip-hop's musical expression, entertainment business, and sound production. Girls’ double-dutch was also recognized as a key stylistic component of breakdancing, according to KRS. While often used to refer solely to rapping and rap music, "hip-hop" more properly denotes the practice(s) of the entire subculture. The term hip-hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music, though rapping may not be the focus of hip-hop music. The genre also centers DJing, turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.
DJ Abass is a media & entertainment consultant, broadcaster, DJ and compere based in the United Kingdom. He is the CEO of the entertainment and media management outfit, DJAMEDIA. He is also well known in the Nigerian and African community in the United Kingdom for presenting and co-producing the television show Intro and the Big Nigerian Independence Intro Jam series.
Skuki is a Nigerian Afro hip-hop duo composed of two brothers: Tumininu Laolu-Oguniyi and Atewologun Laolu-Ogunniyi. They are also known as Vavavoom (Tumininu) and Peeshaun (Atewologun).
Oluseye Desmond Sodamola, professionally known as Spinall, is a Nigerian disc jockey, record producer, and songwriter. He has released six studio albums and collaborated with artists that have included Wizkid, Tiwa Savage, Asake, Joeboy among others. He has won numerous awards for his work, including All Africa Music Awards and The Beatz Awards. He is also the first Nigerian disc jockey to play at festivals such as Coachella, SXSW, and Glastonbury.
DJing is the act of playing existing recorded music for a live audience.
Oladotun Ojuolape Kayode is a Nigerian on-air personality, video jockey, actor and media entrepreneur, popularly known as Do2dtun. After pioneering a dance group called Xtreme dancers while in the university and featuring in music videos like Same Ni by Dj Zeez, Dotun came to wider prominence as a TV and radio personality, hosting shows and concerts.
The history of radio disc jockeys covers the time when gramophone records were first transmitted by experimental radio broadcasters to present day radio personalities who host shows featuring a variety of recorded music.
Olawunmi Okerayi, known by her stage name DJ Lambo, is a Nigerian disc jockey. Her song "Drank" was produced by Reinhard and received positive critical reviews and extensive airplay. She was signed to Loopy Music in 2013 before its merger with Chocolate City in 2015. She won DJ of the Year (Female) at the 2016 City People Entertainment Awards. Nigerian Entertainment Today (NET) listed her as one of top five Nigerian DJs to watch out for in 2015.
Jimmy Jatt Amu, known professionally as DJ Jimmy Jatt, is a Nigerian disc jockey who is revered as one of the pioneering Afrobeats hip hop DJs in Nigeria. He started out his music career as a rapper under the sobriquet Master J but delved into DJing after his failure in getting signed by a record label despite releasing a handful of songs including a demo recording. He is best known for his Jimmy's Jump Off concert, an event he started in 2008 to become one of the most attended entertainment events in Nigeria. In 2006, he won the Hip Hop World Hall of Fame award at the maiden edition of The Headies for his contribution to hip-hop in Nigeria.
Gqom, gqom tech, sgubhu, 3-step or G.Q.O.M) is an African electronic dance music genre and subgenre of house music, that emerged in the early 2010s from Durban, South Africa, pioneered and innovated by music producers Naked Boyz, Rudeboyz, Sbucardo, Griffit Vigo, Nasty Boyz, DJ Lag, Menzi Shabane, Distruction Boyz and Citizen Boy.
Bobai Balat, also known by his stage name Bally B., is a Nigerian disc jockey, record producer, voiceover artist, and reality television personality. He gained popularity as one of the housemates of the Big Brother Naija 2017 reality game show, a localized Nigerian franchise of the Dutch game show Big Brother. Among other jobs, he has worked as a school teacher in Lagos as well as a statistician for the Federal Government. He is a baritone, known as Baritone Bally in Big Brother Naija. In 2015, Balat created an Afro-infused electronic bootleg remix to Rihanna's hit song FourFiveSeconds, which brought industry recognition and led to a mash-up segment on Lagos City's radio station, The Beat 99.9 FM.
Afrobeats, not to be confused with Afrobeat or Afroswing, is an umbrella term to describe popular music from West Africa and the diaspora that initially developed in Nigeria, Ghana, and the UK in the 2000s and 2010s. Afrobeats is less of a style per se, and more of a descriptor for the fusion of sounds flowing out of Nigeria and Ghana. Genres such as hiplife, jùjú music, highlife, azonto music, and naija beats, among others, were amalgamated under the "Afrobeats" umbrella.
