DJ Ayna – My Music Stash

So I guess in a way like music was I guess a key role in my mental health like just to sort of um balance myself out a bit if that makes sense. Well I think since I moved to Melbourne I um when once I made the transition to Serato I think I just opened up my world to other types of music before that I was just like very fiercely into hip-hop and I was quite staunch about it and looking back a bit of a snob you know.

But I got into soul I got into funk I got into R&B because of I had to and um reggae, dance hall, disco, new disco a little bit of house just yeah but everything so I guess now I’m pretty versatile as a DJ.

I think asking if it is is a good question it’s not organized at all I’ve tried so many times however I keep um coming up with new strategies that fail. So my vinyl collection consists of pretty much only hip hop um maybe a little bit of funk and soul but just it’s just mainly hip-hop um few bangers and a few quite a lot of underground hip hop um needless to say that doesn’t get that much play in this year and age but the rest of my stuff is a mix of of everything really.

Yeah these are a couple more I found Slum Village Tainted um Gangsta as always and Def Squad, Redman, Keith Murray and Eric Sermon The Game featuring Biz Markie.

I Shazam tracks I don’t know if I should be saying that out loud and telling people but sometimes I Shazam tracks but sometimes I don’t look at them again so I go on DJ pools um I find out what the you know the new club tracks are but then I end up going down into what I really like so DJ pools a lot I think SoundCloud uh mixes sometimes yeah it’s getting harder to find good music I think. Speaking of albums I really like Lyrics Born and they were amazing live as well um I have a there’s a track that’s not on this album called I Like it I Love it and that was just that was a phenomenal track um really like Cardinal Official not this track particularly but um yes Sick is a sicktrack.

There’s been a lot of money spent on vinyl a lot of money spent on vinyl but in recent times probably on a trip to Japan my trip to Japan was amazing and I think the the digging there was just next level like it lives up to his reputation um I found tracks that I’ve been looking for for years so it really brought back that love you know the the memories of you know when you start out and you’re like digging and like the tracks the vinyl the records like it just brought all of that back for me whereas like the last few years have been quite digital so it brought back the passion I’d say yeah.

I found I found a track by Bahamadia I don’t know if you know her she’s a female rapper and I’m a real beats girl so um strong hard beat strong hard verse I was so stoked to find that and um I found a track by the Nexment that I’d wanted for a while I found a whole bunch of stuff and we can find it and go through it if you like cuz it was exciting. This is the one I found in Japan the um Bahamadia track I think yes it was or was it Following Goals great tune amazing tune her verse is so good.

Okay so once in a while I get I’ll get a track that the crowd and I can agree on and I think one of those is Anderson Paak um NRP I think do you know that one um another one is is um Megan thee Stallion and Captain Hook I absolutely love that um the crowd’s really into like you know the the young people they’re really into the Doja Cat and I kind of like got to say I kind of I like I like some of her stuff I like her rapping.

The one that comes to mind is Rules maybe not a dance hall track but her verses are sick so if she can rap I’m happy you know well the last one that’s um kind of an important track is actually off the Moment of Truth album by Gangstar The Rep Grows Bigger I just really like that track and um I think I impressed my husband when I quoted that as being my favorite track I think that’s sealed the deal for me and him I think um it’s actually signed by Gangstar by Big Shug and Guru and um it’s actually not my record but it’s mine now you know it doesn’t really say his name on it so it’s my record now yeah.

The artists or releases that changed me um I guess I guess my journey has been long I think I started off listening to like Salt and Pepper and TLC when I was young was about 12 I think they were for me at the time kind of like role models just empowered females of that generation you know um and I really liked some of the lyrics that Salt and Pepper I like what they stood for you know like not caring about what other people think and you know being empowered to do your own thing without criticism or that kind of thing um as I grew up I listened to Gangstar a lot I list I really was into Slum Village I’m still into Slum Village um the Beatnuts with my go-to party tunes that you know really revved me up um I used to like I liked sort of a lot of the hardcore like the hard core beats and I think that just brings out I don’t know it brings out something in me angry Ayna maybe. I think in terms of um the male artists I was really into the DJ Honda track On the Mic that was one of my favorite tracks.

I never listened to albums so much like I was I think like too short of attention span I would get it for like that one track and then jump to another album another track like I was I didn’t really listen to albums back to front so much but I did listen to The Lost Boys album quite a bit and I listened to Lauryn Hill’s album quite a bit she was actually quite inspirational for me when I was about 16 yeah. This was the one I mentioned earlier DJ Honda um On the Mic. This is sick! I wish you can listen to in your own time know um what else what else is there KRS one, Bumpy Knuckles I was really into Bumpy Knuckles The La hard hardcore beat loved it a lot of DJ Premier beats I think that’s probably the underlying um the common denominator. You know.

Well there was one time um I was about 16 and I had a party and my entire CD collection got stolen by this guy and I was so upset I was so angry and I don’t condone violence in any way but I actually kind of stalked him and spoke to his dad I like calling his house all the time tracked him down got my my friends to teach me how to punch like and then I tracked him down put a really big ring and punched him in the face like in his eye. I mean you just don’t mess with a girls music.

So what does music mean to me it means everything it means yeah it means the world like it just is such a core part of who I am that I don’t know what to do with myself without it. Lockdown was an example where I was just feeling lost because I didn’t have gigs to go to and playing at home wasn’t the same thing but I noticed like a therapeutic benefit from it when I did do it you know. I think that I would like to like work with children or work with adolescents maybe and um use music as a tool to empower them.

I guess I want to work with young girls or I want work with young kids or adolescents neuro divergent adolescents and I want to incorporate music into my counseling practice which I’m opening up soon um just like sort of like a group workshop um it’ll give them some kind of sense of belonging and empower them and learning skills and that kind of thing and also it’ll be an ode to my late maid of honor who actually got me into DJing in the first place and who I guess my last meeting with her really set the set the stage for a change in my life so yeah as it has meaning for me.