Traxx Girls founder Melissa Scott began her career as a touring DJ at venues all over the United States. Her life took an interesting turn when she left her days of the spinning turntables behind and began hosting parties catering to the lesbian community. Scott’s success sky rocketed in a matter of weeks and now she is hosting events with crowds well over 50K in attendance. The Augusta native is prepping for Atlanta Black Gay Pride Weekend next month, so rolling out had a chance to speak with her how this festival came about, why she started Traxx Girls and what attendees can expect this year.
Here’s the highlights below:
Why did you start Traxx Girls?
Traxx girls is a premiere lesbian promotional company and is the largest in the country. We stepped out of the LGBTQ a bit, but now we have Atlanta Black Gay Pride Weekend coming up so we are back in full swing. With regards to the history of Traxx Girls is definitely started by accident. I use to fly all over the country and DJ for male gay clubs and I gained quite a following during that time. I was then contact by Traxx Atlanta who is the male counterpart of the company and they wanted to throwing parties for the lesbian community in the city. The first event I did had a couple hundred people and two weeks later the numbers grew to almost 1500 attendees. I was so amazed had how quickly this thing was developing. Now we have evolved into a major company that host events for thousands.
How did the festival come about ?
Nine years ago my business partner Avian Watson was a bartender at the club I worked at. Every night she would make hue tips and the next day would come back broke as ever. I was so confused as to what she was doing with all her money. I later found out she was spending all her money on groceries for homeless people at a shelter and that is just the kind of person she is. We tried to come up with a creative way to throw events that could raise money to feed the homeless. The festival’s first year we had 10.000 people and the next year that numbered doubled. We are truly humbled by our success.
What can you tell us about your event?
The event is called Pure Heat and we gave it that name before it was even hot. We have Chris Brown on the bill this year and I am so excited. We have wanted him to perform at our festival for years, but I am one of those people that it has to make sense. Everything just fell into place for us and we also have the beautiful Teyanna Taylor joining the line-up. Monica has a new project coming out called Code Red, so that made perfect sense for our event we are having on that Friday night at Compound. Lil Kim is going to be hosting a day party for us and there are just so many other surprises we have planned. Things have just continued happening for us so right now I feel like I have the midas touch. Its going to be amazing weekend.
Do you still DJ?
I get offers for me to DJ all the time. I am a the point in my life where I feel like it isn’t fair for me to DJ anymore. I do have DJ’s who work for me under my company. I got a called yesterday to DJ in the Bahamas and don’t get me wrong I won’t waste a gig opportunity, so instead of me performing I take a DJ with me to do the event. Doing that gives me a chance to help my DJ’s get bigger. How can I be the biggest promoter if I’m not working alongside the biggest DJ’s. As a business leader I want to put my team a position to help them excel in their careers.
Why do you thing the LGBTQ community is thriving so well in Atlanta?
I think Black Gay Pride grows in Atlanta, because for one the black people in Atlanta have money. We all know money equals power. I was born in Augusta and raised in Baltimore, but the black people in Atlanta are different. People in Atlanta move and shake differently in this city. The black Atlanta community is strong. I think people are happier hear then they are other places. Atlanta is place to move.
