DJ Lady Tribe Spins Us Round

PHOTOGRAPHY Montana USA

First she’ll spin you senseless with her turntable skills, then she’ll tattoo you with her graffiti skills, finally she’ll knock your ass out with her gorgeous looks. Look out for DJ Lady Tribe!

Feminists don’t usually come this curvaceous or scantily clad. While DJ Lady Tribe may not be a feminist in the traditional sense of the word, she is definitely a bold, pioneering woman. At the tender age of 13 a little girl called Nikki embarked on a creative, soul-searching journey and christened herself Tribe. Before long Tribe was everywhere—her moniker gracing (or defacing, depending on your point of view) walls, overpasses, and billboards throughout Southern California. Trouble is, she got too big for her own good. On one sunny California day 40 police officers converged upon her home to carry out a highly orchestrated raid. Their mission: take down the 95 lb. lady tagger know as Tribe. (If only the LAPD would put as much effort and money into bringing in murderers and rapists.)

With a house arrest “ankle bracelet” strapped to her leg and mounting legal bills, the writing was on the wall (pun intended). It was time for Tribe to move on to other interests. Forced to stay at home, DJ Lady Tribe resurrected her on-again off-again hobby of DJing. This time she had the time and inclination to make it more than a hobby. She invested hours and hours perfecting her mixing, cutting, and scratching skills. And so it was her house arrest, ironically, that ultimately led to her career as a successful DJ. Today DJ Lady Tribe can be found, on an almost daily basis, spinning the hip-hop beats at the top clubs of Los Angeles and beyond. She’s a DJ star on the rise, and one that refuses to be pigeonholed. She may be known as a hot DJ chick, but she aims to prove she’s a great DJ, period. We say DJ Lady Tribe is a great DJ AND a hot chick, period.

MORE OYE GIRLS:

EVA LONGORIA

JESSICA BURCIAGA

PAM RODRIGUEZ

CLAUDIA MOLINA

JEN JOHNSON

CC FONTANA

NIKKI TORRES

I know you grew up in the mean streets of L.A., were you born here too?
I was born in Hong Kong. My mother is Japanese. My dad is Indian and Mexican. I grew up in the Pico Union area, but my parents met each other in Hong Kong.

When did you first get into graffiti art?
I was in junior high. I was a gifted student. I was taking the bus to a magnet school, but that’s when I started messing up and I got kicked out of the school. Then I moved and went to another local school, a performing arts school. And then I got kicked out of that school too. Then I went to another school and got kicked out of that one too.

Is there any school you didn’t get kicked out of?
The reason I kept getting kicked out was not because I was stupid. I was very independent at a young age. I wanted to do everything on my own. I ended up getting home studies. And then when I turned 16 I took the GED to get my high school diploma.

Being part Asian, did you hang out mostly with Asians growing up?
Asian people…they would not talk to me at all because they thought I was 100% Latin. They just wouldn’t accept me because I didn’t look that Asian, especially when I was younger since I was in the sun a lot and I get tan really easy. I don’t know why, but Asian people just stick with Asian people. I felt more acceptance from Latinos growing up. I guess it was because I looked more Latina than Asian. So all my friends were Latin and black.

Was that hard on you?
No. I really felt unique. I felt I was my own person, and I think that’s helped me get where I am. I was so into doing my own thing. I hated people telling me what to do.

So how did you start getting into graffiti?
My friends first showed me about tagging and picking up a marker and hitting up the streets. I was tagging on the benches and then next thing you know I was tagging on the bus. It was just addicting, like a drug. Instead of me getting into drugs, I got into tagging. I loved getting my name up. I would get on the bus and go, “Oh there goes my name again.” Next thing you know every bus I took I was up on it. I got in a bus crew called RTDK, it was the most known bus crew…but nowadays, I don’t think that kids should be doing that because you’ll pay for it eventually.

Why did you love seeing your name up so much?
I don’t know why, I just liked seeing my name up. It made me feel a little more important than I was. I was just nobody. I was just an average person, but it made me feel more than average.

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You started coming up pretty big in the world of tagging, how did you get so big?
When I would go hit up I would think, I want to do something that’s harder than what everyone else is doing. Even though I’m scared of heights, I got up on my first billboard and I couldn’t even stand up straight because I was holding on to the ground…so I just set goals for myself. I wanted to be the best, but I didn’t want people to look at me as a girl. I wanted people to know me as Tribe. A lot of people saw Tribe getting up everywhere, but when they found out I was a girl, that’s when I got more props. That’s when I got a lot more respect as a graffiti artist. Of course my friends and my crew knew I was a girl, but when I would go to tagging events people would say, “I thought you were some big black guy or something.”

What does it take for a graffiti artist to gain respect?
As a graffiti illegal bomber, it’s mainly about the highest spot you get, the dopest spot you get, the most seen spot you get—and getting away with it.

For graffiti-ignorant people like myself, why don’t you define bombing and other types of graffiti.
Bombing is getting your name up on the street, on the freeway, on street poles, on trains. Illegal stuff is called bombing because you’re not allowed to do it. You’re like bombing the place. You’re vandalizing.

Piecing is harder to do. There’s more colors involved. An outline color, an inline color, some kind of fill-in, with maybe bubbles and a background. That’s a full piece. Some people do pieces bomb-like. Instead of doing a throw up or tags, they’ll do colorful stuff…which I was doing also. I was piecing on the freeway, doing colorful, nice stuff on the freeways. But anyone can be a piecer. Anyone can go to art school and start doing some pieces. But that doesn’t make you a real graffiti writer, because you never put in the work as a bomber.

A throw up can be just an outline of letters.

And then there’s a tagger who’s never done a throw up, who just does a tag, something kind of toyish. A tag is just writing your name with one-line letters.

What was it that kept you interested in graffiti and pushed you to keep doing it?
I wasn’t in it to get big. I actually liked going out and the rush of doing it, getting away with it. Getting chased was the best part. It’s like playing a video game but really being in the video game. It’s like cops and robbers. It’s just a rush. Your heart’s beating fast, the smell of the paint, being in the street…you feel like the whole world is yours. People get stuck in their little world, in their house, their job, or whatever, but when you do graffiti the world is huge. You’re always accepted by the street. That’s why I like graffiti so much. But like I said, you can’t get away with it forever. Everyone has to pay a price eventually.

A long time ago I saw a photo of a tiny girl on the front of a bus, tagging its windshield. It turns out that was you. How did that go down?
My homie and I waited for the bus. He got on the bus, put one foot on the floor, one foot on the bus like he was looking for his wallet. I had to run up to the bus, jump on the bus, hold on to the windshield wiper. I had my foot on the bumper and just caught a tag. This bus driver did not care. He took off even with my friend’s foot on the bus. Then he took off and tried to pump the brakes really hard so I would fall off. But I was so into getting the tag I thought, I’m holding on until I’m done with the tag. I finished the tag, jumped off the bus and just started running. The bus driver stopped the bus and tried to chase me.

I met up with my friends and we took off. We rolled by there later. The bus was stopped. Police were surrounding the bus and they were taking pictures of it. They were emptying out the bus and another bus was coming for the passengers.

Tell us how Tribe got “taken down.”
I had gotten caught for that bus thing. Nowadays the city has more of an anti-graffiti squad. They have like a whole crew (almost like our tagging crews) of guys that just bust taggers. They already had an investigation open on me before the bus thing, but they didn’t know who I was. With that picture I really burned myself. One rule is you’re not supposed to show yourself. They found out I was a girl. They did a huge investigation. They came and raided my house. They found like 300 spray cans. I was so young…I had a tag in my phone book with the word Tribe and my own phone number next to it. [laughs]

So I burned myself. It was a misdemeanor, so they gave me probation, no big deal. Slap in the hand, whatever. Then I just kept going. That didn’t stop me at all. So I kept bombing and bombing and bombing. Eventually I got caught in the act. They let me go that night because those cops didn’t know who I was. But then the next day an anti-graffiti squad found out who I was and they started a bigger investigation. Two weeks later they came and raided my pad again. It was a huge raid with at least 20 police cars. They took me in and they gave me a $100,000 bail.

They needed that many cops to bust you?
Yeah…I don’t know why. They went overboard. Even the first time they raided me, they blocked off the street. I got a six-month sentence, but I didn’t have to serve time in jail. For some reason God watches out for me a lot, and I got house arrest. I had a little beeper on my leg.

A lot of people don’t understand why people who break the law should be considered artists? What would you say to them?
There’s a difference…I like doing stuff that’s colorful, nice. I’d hit up on walls that were tagged on by gangsters…I’d hit up places that were already messed up. I’m adding some pink or some pretty blues with some clouds and bubbles and hearts. So I thought it looked better than the gangster tags or the nasty writing that were there. I understand that, of course, it’s other people’s property. I ended up paying a $10,000 restitution. So I paid my dues back to the community.

So you see a distinction between someone who’s leaving some ugly chicken scratch and a real graffiti artist?
Yeah, some stuff that’s out there can be considered art. But there is some tagging that just looks really bad. That’s what you call toys, and that makes all graffiti artists look really bad. I’m from crews of people that are known to do nice stuff—nice stuff on dirty, ugly walls or trains—that I think looks better and artistic.

Graffiti is all over TV. Companies are using graffiti in huge advertisements. It’s the urban thing to do. It’s the cool thing to do. The artsy thing to do. But people don’t seem to complain when it’s on TV.

The time when you were under house arrest is when you really started to develop your DJ skills, right?
That’s when I really started practicing my DJing. I didn’t know what to do with my life and I liked DJing a lot. I already had my turntables. I had some records already. My brother was a promoter and he gave me a lot of records. When I got busted I blew the dust off my records and really concentrated on my DJing. I started getting certain skills together: DJing and scratching and mixing in songs. You kind of get into a whole zone, like you do with graffiti. It’s a different kind of rush, but it’s a good feeling and something I love to do.

How did you go from a bedroom DJ into the up-and-coming DJ Lady Tribe?
It was really a hobby, but I’m the kind of person that tries to picture how I want things to be. When I was DJing at home I pictured my name on all these flyers and this girl DJ fucking it up at the club…everybody screaming, “Yeah!” Since I had that picture in my head, the picture started coming true. I think if you just visualize what’s going to happen, it’ll happen in the future. It kind of subconsciously makes your body and actions follow what your mind envisions.

What are your ultimate goals as a DJ?
I want to be on MTV and make money, yeah…but what I really want is to get my skills SO good. I picture going into DJ battles and just tearing it up. Because everyone’s going to look at me and go, “Look at this chick?! Blonde hair, big boobs, dressed like a little hoochie? Hell no! She can’t DJ.” But then I’m just going to tear it up and everyone’s going to be like, “Oh my God.” I’m going to set the pace for all the women out there who get looked down on and are told, “Oh you’re just good for making babies.” We can do whatever we set our minds to.

As you suggested, a lot of people might look at you and say you’re getting a lot of gigs because you’re a hot chick.
That’s true. I’m not going to deny it. But I’m not just trying to live off of that. Of course I get jobs because of my looks. But that’s not all I’m doing. I really love DJing. I’m there for the art of DJing. People might say those things, but I say, “Well okay, that got me the job, but I kept the job because I’m a good DJ.” I wouldn’t still be DJing at my residencies if I sucked so bad. The way I look is a good marketing tool, but it’s not me. I really want to be seen as a good DJ, not just a cute girl.

What words of advice would you have for our readers?
I would say, be confident and don’t let anybody or anything hold you back because of your race and your gender. If you really are sure of yourself and what you want to do, you can do it. Keep going strong because people tend to put down Latinos…to see Latinos really making it is great, and you just have to know you can do it too. Anyone can do it.