Pavla Kopecna
DJ Kayper
Issue #35
The British vinyl addict built her burgeoning career from the decks up
By Hilal Nakiboglu Isler
Published: March 1st, 2008 | 2:55pm
At age 12, a time when many young girls become obsessed with nail polish and pop stars, Kaajal Bakrania found herself developing an interest in vinyl. Her cousins and elder brother were budding DJs at the time — a fact that should have been handy had they not dismissed her for being too young and too, well, female. “I used to watch the guys. I’d say, ‘Oh, that’s something I might want to try’ and they’d just ignore me. They didn’t teach me,” says Bakrania, who stayed on the sidelines until her brother left home for college — without his equipment.
After that, she’d rush home from school and practice. “I picked it up quickly because for years, watching, I’d tried to work it out in my head: ‘OK, how did they do that? Logically, how would you mix these two things together?’”
Three years later (yes, at 15), she convinced a few South London club owners to give her a shot behind the decks. And the rest is history.
Bakrania, a.k.a. DJ Kayper, has been holding it down ever since and now hosts her own popular late-night radio show on the BBC. At 22, she’s quickly emerging as a cultural icon for young British Asians. Folks outside the U.K. are starting to take notice as well, and Kayper’s beats are in growing international demand, which makes her schedule a little nuts. In any given month she travels trans-oceanically more than once, spinning at clubs from London to Johannesburg, from Houston to the tiny African island of Mauritius like it’s no big thing.
We caught up with her the Manhattan nightspot Opus 22 to talk about what inspires her, what turns her off, and which artist she’s currently listening to (on repeat).
Does it bug you to be known as “the female DJ?”
That doesn’t bug me. What bugs me is when people think of me as being in this category of “Female DJ.” You know, like in football where there’s a girls’ team and a boys’ team. And women’s football is not as respected as men’s football. That’s what I don’t like.
The other day, someone called me up and tried to book me for a female night. I hate that. As soon as I got off the phone, I called my agent and said, “Look, I refuse to do female nights, unless Queen Latifah’s playing or some shit. And if Latifah’s doing ‘U-N-I-T-Y,’ I’m not even going to do it.” You see my point?
Totally. Who do you look up to?
Jazzy Jeff. I’ve always looked up to him. It’s Jazzy Jeff that I learned to scratch from. I had this tape, the first album he did with the Fresh Prince. There’s a track on there, recorded live at Union Square. On the track Will Smith tells Jazzy Jeff: ‘Break it down, do your thing.’ And he’s like ‘OK, cool,’ and he does this scratch. Jazzy’s known for the transformer scratch. He made it famous, and I used to listen to it every day. I’d come home from school, hit Play, Rewind, Play, Rewind — just that part where he was scratching. I’d listen to it, then I would try it out on my deck.
What’s on your iPod right now?
I don’t have an iPod! I have a Mac laptop. But what am I listening to? Kanye West’s album. When that came out, that was the one CD in my car that I would listen to from start to finish. He doesn’t blow me away with his lyrics, but he keeps me entertained, he makes me listen. I’ve also been listening to a lot of older stuff. New Jack Swing, A Tribe Called Quest. I love older music, more so than what’s out there now. No one makes good albums anymore.
Catch DJ Kayper’s The Hype Show each Wednesday night online at bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/the_hype_show/.
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