Making waves

>> London’s DJ Kayper is a hit in
the clubs, and on the BBC

NO CRAP BEATS: DJ Kayper

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“I was a good kid when I was in primary school,” says the U.K.’s Kay Bakrania, aka DJ Kayper, who’s headlining the Lymetyme crew’s Canada Day party. “I don’t know what happened when I got to high school, but I just turned into a monster.”

Bakrania earned the nickname Kayper with her Bart Simpson-esque antics, which ranged from decorating bathrooms and school buses with toilet paper to defacing teachers’ cars with markers to things she won’t confess to this day. There wasn’t much more to do in her South London neighbourhood, besides getting into more serious trouble, as some of her friends went on to do.

“I managed to stay out of that by coming home and finding something that I really, really enjoyed doing, which is DJing,” she says.

At only 12 years old, inspired by DJs like Jazzy Jeff and Montreal’s own wunderkind turntablist, A-Trak, Bakrania began practising incessantly on her brother’s abandoned decks, which he’d purchased on a whim prior to leaving home for university. Her cousin was an amateur DJ too, so there was no lack of encouragement from her family and her friends. But the picture wasn’t always as pretty outside the comforts of home.

“The first proper gig where I was actually paid and put on the flyer was when I was 15. It was the worst club I’ve ever been to in my life.”

The tiny venue was situated in the middle of a roundabout, between random shops and a parking lot. Outside the “dirty and grimy and dodgy” club, Bakrania had to battle a skeptical bouncer who didn’t believe she was a DJ, and not just because she was underage. Luckily, her older brother and cousin were there to protest.

“That’s when I realized that it’s actually an issue that I’m a girl and I look this way, that people are kind of shocked about things like this. I was baffled myself, I couldn’t work it out.”

But Bakrania’s career hasn’t been significantly stymied by ageism, sexism or racism, issues that were likely rendered irrelevant by her undeniable talent. In 2003, five years after the roundabout gig, she became the first female to win England’s Vestax Juice DJ competition. This led to prominent gigs in the U.K. and Europe, among them DJ parties, opening slots for famous hip hop acts and her own weekly club night in Cambridge called Ebonics at the Fez Club.

Hip hop and R&B have always been Kayper’s specialty, though she’s flirted with techno, house and drum & bass, and now includes soul, dancehall, bhangra and Bollywood tracks in her sets. Her use of the latter styles got her booked at the BBC Asian Network’s Desi Divas event, and it wasn’t long before the Beeb offered her a radio show.

“I’ve always been quite shy, believe it or not, and one thing I could never do was get on the mic. BBC asked me to do some pilots and see how it goes, but training is basically going on air and just doing it. I was like, ‘Oh my God, how am I gonna do this?’ but I think to be thrown in the deep end is the best thing to get over a fear.”

The Hype Show airs on the BBC Asian Network on Wednesdays from 10 p.m.– 1 a.m., British time. And between her radio show, her residency and her tours, Bakrania aims to produce her own music, having recently completed a university degree in music technology.

“It’s definitely something that I am going to get into but it’s so time-consuming, and if I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it properly. No crap beats.”

With the Lymetyme Squad, DJ Midas,
Wilson Hart, DJ Atomik and G-Fresh at Club
Seven on Sunday, July 1, 10 p.m., $15