Daily Inspiration: Meet DJ Nine

Today we’d like to introduce you to DJ Nine. 

DJ, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Since a kid, I was always intrigued by Music & Entertainment. I’m from the south so growing up at a very young age a lot of church was involved, I sang in the choir, played the drums & any other instrument you could think of. That’s really where the love and passion I have for music comes from. As I got older things began to change & I began to get exposed to many different things, I had transferred from private to public school, my family moved to a different side of town, I was able to have access to the internet, etc. Once I got to middle school, I was very social & started meeting a lot of new people, I had siblings and friends who had just graduated or were currently attending the school I went to so my credibility was there and unconsciously I started bulling a network of people who’d be a part of what was to come in the near future. During this time, I continued to stay active with the arts I had joined the middle school band & also attended a local music and arts program for youth on the weekends. My 8th-grade year I started going to a lot of teen parties at the “Ranch” a local skating rink in Raleigh which is now called united skates. There I began to meet a whole new group of people outside of the people I went to school with who were on the same type of time that I was on. Getting to high school it was a whole new ball game I had unconsciously built a network of individuals who genuinely rocked with me & again I was in a position where I had siblings and friends who were currently attending the school. As a freshman I hung with the older crowd because that’s who I knew and who I could connect with, I had a select few friends from my class. 

May 2014 during my freshman year was when I hosted my first event, it was a teen party at the Garner Road YMCA put together by my boys Bryan, Trey, & Myself. At this time “The Ranch” had stopped hosing its teen parities which left this market untapped. Our first party had a great turnout and ended up setting us up for a great year 1/2 run doing parties almost 2 -3 times a month.During this time is where I got a lot of my early hands-on experience organizing and hosting events. During this time hosting events was cool but I wanted be more on the entertainment side of things going forward, I was still attending the arts program that I mentioned & ironically the CEO of the program owned a Numark NS7 (DJ Controller) so early 2015 was when I first touched a Turntable / Mixer. Being into music at a young age I was always into different instruments & what I would do was YouTube tutorial or review videos on different products I was interested in at the time to get more insight and knowledge about these products because I didn’t know when but one day, I’d be getting my hands on some of this stuff. So, when I was able to finally get my hands on this equipment, I wasn’t starting from ground zero I had already watched so many YouTube videos I knew the majority of the basics & after that, it was just staying consistent repetition and learning one thing a day. 

At this time, it was now the beginning of my junior year I had gotten my first DJ controller & had been practicing but I’d yet to DJ my first event. It wasn’t until the end 2015 when I DJ’d my first event, it was a college house party for Shaw University’s men’s basketball team. I grew up with one of the players Larry Richardson who knew I had just started DJ’ing and was willing to give me a shot, going into the event I was a little nervous because one it was my first event, and two I knew I was going to be the youngest person in this party & I’m in charge of providing the vibe fo the entire night. The party ended up having a great turn out & going forward they began to use me for every party they threw and there I began to get my first experiences as a DJ. The content and recaps from the college house parties that I was able to share on social media helped me gain some traction and start getting booked for more events & by the end of 2016, I was DJ-ing almost every weekend multiple time a weekend. From college house parties, teen parties, graduations, birthdays, & working with companies like Fresh Empire I was booked and busy. 

By 2017 I had made a lot of noise and my name was buzzing around the city heavy, it was literally to the point where I could post where I’ll be playing at the week of & have a guaranteed packed house. At this time also my guy Larry who was booking me for all the college events had graduated so that market slowed down & a lot of my work became teen house parties/teen events which was cool at first but over time the things that came along with doing those events were starting to take the fun out of DJ-ing. When I got into DJ-ing it was because in, I have a passion for music and I love the craft of DJ-ing & mixing music, it was never for money or clout so when I seen certain things take place that kept me from enjoying my craft I had to step back and realign. The teen house party scene got really crazy after a while here in Raleigh so I made an executive decision that it would be best for me and my brand to stop taking those type of events because like I said the stuff that was going down was taking the fun out of what I do and also the last thing I need is to have any incidents attached to my brand in any way. So, I took a step back and made a game plan to work my way into the club circuit, I knew it would be a little harder because I was still young probably just turning 18 but I was determined to get my foot in the door. During this time in 2017 with me stepping back I had a little extra free time so I began to learn music production & basic information on the music industry. 

Going into 2018 I had met a club owner by the name of “B Rose” who I began to work with hosting & DJ’ing college parties. There I began to get hands-on experience on how the clubs and promoters work the good & the bad. We worked together for about a year but just like the teen house parties which were cool at first, over time the club began to give me that feeling of not being satisfied doing something I love. The reason I began to feel that way about the club wasn’t because of any drama or anything going on inside of the club but because the nightlife scene here in Raleigh just isn’t that advanced compared to a lot of other cities. North Carolina as a whole is always late to new music & trends (music and fashion) but that’s one of the reasons I’m still here. A song could be buzzing in NY, LA, ATL, etc. today but us North Carolinians probably won’t know about the song until a month or two later and that’s not good because as I DJ I stay in tune with the latest and greatest music but it’s like I have to scale back my library when I play here in NC in order to make sure everyone knows what’s going on and can vibe out. But doing that over and over, time after time only sets you back because you won’t be prepared when you get booked to play in bigger cities, you have to be ahead of the curve because an album can drop on Friday trust me there going to want to hear something off the album in the club that Friday night. It’s not like that in the clubs here they listen to the same 5 songs. 

Experiencing that I had to re-evaluate what I really loved about Dj-ing and what market would suit me and my playing style the me best, and it was Concert Style Dj-ing. So, I made some adjustments and stepped back from the club scene to focus on getting my foot in the door as a Concert Dj in the local area. 2019 I began doing shows with a local artist by the name of Stephen Jailon & working with Steph I was able to get experience playing concert-style events vs playing at a club, two totally different playing styles. During this time, I was also able to network with a local promoter who’d eventually begin booking me as an opener for a lot of local shows. Ever since then I’ve been locked in with the concert-style DJ’ing trying to stay as consistent as I can and I’m just now starting to get a taste of what the road and tour life is all about. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a roller coaster getting to where I am today, I can’t just point out one or two struggles because so much has happened during this journey. 

One thing I can say is everybody’s human, no one is perfect, & everyone is going to struggle in some aspect at some point in their life… 

As a creative/entrepreneur (stress/hard times) can come from you career as well as your personal life but at the end of the day, you have to learn to balance, refocus, realign, and never let those emotions influence anything you say or do so that you keep you head above water. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a DJ & Music Producer, I have been Dj-ing for 5+ years & I specialize in concert style DJ’ing. I’m most proud of my growth, I’ve done some big things over the past 5 years but seeing my overall growth is what really stands out to me because I can literally remember the days I just started learning how to Dj and the day I would talk about / manifest the things I’m actually doing now. 

What sets me apart from others is the fact that I found my own lane and stuck in it. I never tired to go compete or be buddy-buddy with any promoter or DJ in my city to be accepted or respected. All the DJs in the my city play the same old music in the same rotation every weekend. Me on the other hand I play the latest and greatest & actually still like breaking new records. Simply it’s no DJ from my area who’s done what I’ve done they way I did it. 

What does success mean to you?
In my perspective, I would define success as something reaching its zenith. 

Everyone has their own idea of success but what I will say is success shouldn’t viewed through materialistic things. 

Contact Info:

• Email: info.dj9inegmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dj9ine/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealDJ9
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DJ9ine
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz-JF6Wm8AIK9lFbB5yC6Aw
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ali-road-841016808/road-talk-vol10-hosted-by-dj9ine

Image Credits
Tommy Coyote
Shot by Elm$