A. Stormy is so much more than a name. I evacuated in Atlanta during Hurricane Katrina. What I thought was going to be a two-day mini vacation turned into months of uncertainty. We were identified as evacuees from the storm. Months turned into years from this life-changing disaster. Hurricane Katrina became a part of me, so I became a Storm(y)! The perfect storm to be exact! My social media is Stormy Atl, because New Orleans raised me, and Atlanta birthed the entertainer you see today.
Q. What made you want to be a DJ?
A. I was on the business side of the music industry for years, but I always had this ear and love for music. I released an EDM/Hip-Hop EP in 2016 titled “Venom Kisses”! In the EDM genre most artists are DJ’s, so it was a natural progression for me to evolve into a DJ. Unfortunately, it was also one of the hardest tasks set in front of me…being a woman and a woman of color in a male dominated industry.
Q. What differentiate you from the rest of the DJs?
A. I believe what differentiates me from the other DJs is the work I put in building my brand and respect in this industry. Nothing comes easy or overnight to anyone. My energy, style, and ability to entertain is very unique.
Q. Who or what influenced you to be a DJ?
A. My mother was a Soca singer in the Caribbean and father an avid lover of all music genres. I am originally from Trinidad and Tobago but grew up in New Orleans in what I feel is one of the most influential music cities in America. Spinderella, Jazzy Jeff, Mannie Fresh and so many others inspire me daily as a DJ.
Q. Can you give any advice to upcoming DJs?
A. The biggest piece of advice I can give any new DJ is to be YOU. There is no need for two Stormy’s in the market. Be original at everything you do. Always seek a mentor and spend time learning the craft. Educate yourself on the history and evolution of being a DJ. If it comes easy, it’s probably because you’re not setting yourself apart. Take the time to build relationships. Take the time to invest in yourself. My motto is to always go against the grain and be bold in everything that you do.
A. Bo comes from lil football. I was 34 like BO Jackson, played RB like BO & last name is BO so the coach started calling me BO Weezy comes from always being the youngest of the crew! My college roommate combined the 2 & called me Bo Weezy and it’s stuck with me ever since.
Q. What made you want to be a DJ?
A. I’ve always been around it; my dad & uncles were DJ’s.
Q. What is one of your best experiences working as a DJ?
A. The feeling of someone asking for your business card is a feeling like no other. Mission accomplished.
Q. What differentiates you from the rest of the DJ?
A. I’m not there to DJ for a long time, just a good time!
Q. Who would you consider to be a DJ Legend?
A. Kid Capri. His music selection & vibes while Djing are unmatched. Decades later, he’s still doing his thang!
Q. Can you give any advice to upcoming DJs?
A. Be consistent, it will take you a long way! “STAY AWAY FROM THE SYNC” Work on blending the records if you can’t scratch. You’ll sound like hot lettuce, trying to force something you can’t do.
A. I’ve had that name since I was a kid playing basketball.
Q. What made you want to become a DJ?
A. I’ve always loved music and looked up to a DJ by the name of Todd Terry. I saw the success he had so it made me realize that I can make a living doing it.
Q. What are one of your best experiences working at Hot 107.9 as a DJ?
A. Having a set on a birthday bash, that was amazing because I never got a chance to go to a birthday bash because I was working for the rival station and my first time at a birthday bash, I was djing.
Q. What differentiate you from other DJ’s?
A. My versatility, I can be djing a trap spot then the next day do an upscale event then the next day DJ a reggae/dancehall party.
Q. Can you give advice to upcoming DJs?
A. Work relentlessly and don’t give up, no gig is too small or too big.
A. Well I was engaged to a deejay. One day his manager came up to me asking if I wanted to learn deejaying since we had all the equipment at home and there was a huge shortage in female deejays at the time. So that’s how it started. However, it really made me want to be a deejay was the fact that deejaying enabled me to share acrobats on a bigger platform. I had always loved my roots and deejaying finally gave me a platform to display this.
Q. What differentiates you from the rest of the DJ’s?
A. I mainly play Afrobeats. That’s what I am good at. It’s what I’m proud of. I can go to a Hip-Hop party and still play 60% Afrobeat and people will dance. I can make my audience LOVE afrobeats (at least for a night). So that along with good mixing skills really set me apart.
Q. How would you define your “style” or approach to providing DJ Entertainment?
A. I try to stick to my Afrobeats based sets, but I add a little of the local sound to whatever country I got. This makes the audience feel like you also appreciate their local sound and most of the time this has a positive effect on the crowd. I also try to socialize with the audience wherever I go, so I come in a little early and stay a little after I have played.
Q. What made you go into predominantly Afro beats?
A. I’m mixed Ghanaian and Belgian, growing up in Belgium I faced a lot of racism, so I always felt more comfortable with my African side. So Afrobeats became a way for me to feel more African in a non-African environment. It was hard at first because no one really cared about Afrobeats a few years ago. But I decided that it was Afrobeats I wanted to represent and I’m glad I did.
Q. Can you give any advice to upcoming DJs?
A. Push through. Play the music you love even if it’s not a mainstream music genre. If you can become a master in your niche, you can still become a star in your own little market.
Q. How did you come up with the name DJ Nasty 305?
A. The name came off the back of my football jersey that I would wear. It said Dr. Nasty. So, I dropped DR. and used DJ. I just added the 305 being that I found out that there is another. It wasn’t a big deal, so I kept the name.
Q. What made you want to become a DJ?
A. Well when I was a kid, I always listened to DJ Uncle Al and he gave me inspiration.
Q. What is one of your best experiences being a DJ?
A. My best was to actually get on my home radio station 99 Jamz!!!
Q. What differentiate you from the rest of the DJ’s?
A. I am just me and I just do my thing and most importantly I rep my city like no other.
Q. Can you give any advice to upcoming DJ’s?
A. The only advice that I would give to upcoming DJ’s is “Don’t Ever Stop & Don’t Accept The Word No!!!
A. Actually, I was 15 years old and was a member of my uncle’s promotional street team/setup crew. The DJ that was booked for the party was “Running Late”. At first, we thought he was just on some “Wanting the party to be crowded when he arrived” type of ego trip. Little did he know that we always had a line of people waiting to get in before the doors opened. So, my uncle gave me records to play as “Door Opening Music”. The DJ never showed up, so I was the DJ for the whole night. Evidently, I did pretty good because I was the DJ from that point on. So honestly to answer your question. I was forced to DJ to save the family’s business is how I like to put it.
Q. What are some of the challenges you have being a DJ?
A. I’m at a place in my life where being a DJ is not challenging to me. It’s actually more fun now than in my past. It was strictly business to make extra money, but now it’s more of a fun-loving hobby than I get paid to do.
Q. Can you give any advice to an upcoming DJ?
A. Remain humble and always remember, there will be someone coming after you so please pass the knowledge.
Q. Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
A. In the next 5 years, I see myself behind the scenes involved in T.V. shows, and movies.
Q. How do you feel about where the music is right now?
A. We like it. It’s always growing as we get older. Music means something different to us. Music means to us differently than the kids we think. It’s time for Hip-Hop to give some harmony to the older generations. Even on Netflix, you got shows like “The Evolution” that are really breaking down what Hip-Hop is. If you like something different, you can go to SoundCloud, we think this is a good time.
The time is good with Hip-Hop, we like to look at how it used to be called the golden era. When I was appreciative of what was going on, and now it’s the new era. Some people complain about how things change. It evolves, and the evolution of Hip-Hop is a dope thing to see and experience while we are living within it.
Q. What have you all been up to these days?
A. Working on life, and we still make music. We been making beer and getting into the craft beer to a place we all get. We can appreciate it and the diversity. The industry and different beers are changing the world.
Q. How did you get started with beer?
A. It started with liking beer and trying different flavors that turned into a business opportunity. We drank it, tried different brewers, went to different places, and it was all about us trying different beers that led to starting Atlantucky. That is our beer brewing company. We had 2 beers that we did with Monday Night Brewing. We tour 100 to 150 days out of the year. It started as going around the country. Before the shows we would go find a brewery. We visited about a hundred or more breweries over 5 or more years. We learned more by trying new flavors and brewing in the country. We went to cool places people would never go to. We got an opportunity with Monday Night Brewing to do our first beer called “Front Porch Parallel”. It sold out everywhere.
We found another revenue stream. Beer is something that will be around forever, even if we stop rapping, beer will still be around. If we can make that, we can still be creative as an artist. We saw it as a business opportunity and a passion project. Beer is sold everywhere. The beer industry is booming. It’s a $40 billion dollar industry a year. A lot of people are bringing the urban side to it. Nappy Roots are more than just a name on a can. We know how to make it.
Watermelon Chicken & Gritz is in about 4 states. Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, and New York. The goal is to do a collaboration as well as travel, so we can do more meet and greets. We are also doing a T.V. show about it called “40 Akerz and a Brew”. Craft beer is about creativity and there’s a science to it.
Q. What is “Nappy Roots” doing differently?
A. Being “Nappy Roots” and doing beer is different. They need more diversity in Atlanta.
A. I am originally from Las Vegas, Nevada raised in Houston Texas. My family has a background in music. Everyone sings. My mother sang lead for a group called “The Platters”. She introduced me and my siblings to music. We married young and didn’t really get to explore our musical paths. But now that we’ve raised our kids, we’re revisiting music and creating a platform for our message on love, relationships, and marriage.
Q. Let’s get the background of the song “Sophisticated Freak”?
A. A lot of times people tend to put their cards right out on the table. You see exactly who they are, or who you think they are. So, I’m saying that just because a woman is not marketing her sexuality right off the bat doesn’t mean that she’s not a problem in the bedroom. Looks can be deceiving.
Q. Who is the artist that influenced your career?
A. Diana Ross, she is the personification of a pop star. From being a recording artist to a performing artist. She is the prototype and total package. Even my modern-day influences, like Brandy, Beyonce, Mariah Carey have pulled from her blueprint.
Q. Who would you like to collaborate with?
A. Definitely, Cardi B.
Q. How do you feel about women in the music industry and how men do not take them seriously enough unless they are passive. What is your observation on it?
A. I’ve had to deal with push-back, but not a lot. I come to the table to do business, and I refuse to let my gender be treated as a negative or a limitation. Also, I have the right people on my team.
A. I can never be able to describe that because it is not made up. I am from New York, so you know we have an aggressive attitude, but at the same time I have Atlanta roots. They say I am a southern gentleman, so I combine both together.
Q. How did you start Tommy in the City?
A. I have always been a giving person. I have been giving back since day one. So, Tommy in the City came along. I was searching for names one day in the studio. Someone said Tommy in the city, and that was it.
Q. What do Tommy in the City do?
A. I am more like a connector when people need something they will ask me before they find out on their own. At the time you could not google anything, so I did the work for them. I took this and built a website. It was set up on Instagram before Instagram was out. The game was called find Tommy in the City. I would go around town and be places and post on Facebook. If you found where I was, we were giving out gift cards, sneakers, hair, and gas cards. People started playing, so I tried to get an app, but things didn’t work out. I am still here and going.
Q. Tell us about one of your biggest projects?
A. One of my projects I do every year is Grandmothers raising grandkids. I do this yearly. The grandmothers are stuck raising the grandkids, some parents are incarcerated, some deceased, some of their kids are out on the streets, so they give rights to the grandparents. So, we try to give back to them and help because the funds are not there for this program. I teamed up with DFCS. I started out with a friend asking to help 17 people. Now we are at 500 soon we will be able to go from state to state. Every year we get more and more and then we are going to branch out.
Where It Begins 