[groovy electronic music]
- I feel like I'm a... eclectic ball
of awesome and exciting things.
My name is Nelly Vigil and I'm a professional DJ in Milwaukee.
My DJ name is DJ Loop, L-O-O-P.
In high school, I was going through a rough time,
and hip-hop was the only type of music at that time
that really fit what I was going through.
I'm not from this country,
so growing up has been different for me.
What I'm gonna do with my life,
the plan isn't the same as everyone else.
And so that's how I got into hip-hop music.
I just wanted to have my own spot in it.
So I chose DJing.
There's so many layers and parts to it.
It's not just going up there and pressing a button
and letting one side, one record, or one song play,
and then you press play on the other one, right?
No, you gotta blend it.
Every song has, you know, a heartbeat;
its own beat per minute, how fast, how slow.
Does it fit the vibe of where you are?
[crowd cheering]
So connecting with the crowd when it comes to DJing,
you just really got to know what the crowd wants.
And it can start from you playing one song.
And if you see that they're really into it,
they're really feeling it,
you're gonna play a song that's similar to it, right?
You want to keep that vibe going.
You're not gonna play something that's completely different.
You know, you want the energy to keep rising.
My background is heavily influenced by hip-hop,
but I also know so much music, especially being on the radio.
[groovy electronic music]
What up, what up, Milwaukee?
This is DJ Loop and you're listening to Fresh and Direct .
I'm a DJ and host on 91.7 FM WMSE.
It's community-powered,
so it is a college radio music station.
But I am a DJ, so I curate my music.
I have all my playlists ready to go.
So tell me, why did you start rapping?
And I'm also a host, so that means getting interviews,
getting content for my show because I don't want it to be me
just playing music for three hours.
It's from 9 p.m. to midnight on Tuesday nights.
But if there's something you want
to tell the people of Milwaukee
that are listening to you right now...
I always thought,
"Hey, if I'm ever gonna be in a position
"where I have a platform to uplift my community,
that's what I'm gonna do."
Here at WMSE, we are 100% community-powered.
So that's what I do on my show: interviews.
And of course I play a lot of hip-hop,
independent and old school hip-hop,
so NAS, Wu Tang Clan, Gang Starr,
all the, you know, "OGs" of hip-hop
as well as like JID, Denzel Curry, Travis Scott,
but I try to make sure
that I don't really sound like other radio stations
that could have that content.
"90210," Travis Scott, coming up on Fresh and Direct .
Peace.
[records scratching] [hip-hop beats]
So that motion is good.
Both of your motions are good.
It's just the timing.
The scratch sessions started in 2017,
in about September or October.
They're basically at a place
where we'll have women, men who just want to come in
and, you know, learn how to DJ.
Maybe it's their first time
touching a controller or a turntable.
Or maybe it's their first time even thinking
that it's a possibility for them.
It's just a space where people can come in
and feel comfortable, and see if they want to DJ.
Yeah, close it, bring it back.
For the most part, girls catch on faster than the boys,
which I think is very interesting.
It's always like that.
And I feel good when I see girls, you know, getting it,
and just being like super quick about it
because that's part of, like, the mission
that I'm here to serve.
Not only have them doing it, right,
but to make women and girls feel like they can do it.
Which is the biggest takeaway because even if they don't DJ,
they'll go do something else that's male-dominated,
and be like, "I can do this.
You know, I already did it."
I feel like the scratch sessions
is me trying to give back to my community;
and trying to give back to someone that is in my situation
or somehow feels like they just want to DJ, man, you know?
Like, "I just wanna be a DJ."
[upbeat electronic music]
Ultimately, I just really want to be someone
that the women in my community can look up to and be like,
"Hey, you know, I can do what she did,
just in my own different way."
I just wanna be someone that people can look up to,
just like a source of inspiration.