Ty Alexander is a DJ based in Baltimore and is all about creating joy through her work. Since the pandemic, Alexander has been working on her craft and earned multiple opportunities to deejay at different events for Nike, the U.S. Open, and the Black Girls Rock Festival. What started as just an item to check off of her bucket list has become a fulltime gig that allows her to expand her horizons and get people moving to the music.
How did you start deejaying?
Deejaying is technically my pandemic baby. I’ve been in the business of just checking things off that I haven’t done. I made a commitment to myself to say “I don’t want to leave this earth, and I haven’t done things that I thought of or dreamed up.”
I took a class in January 2020 in Baltimore. It finished in March of that year, and everyone knows the world was completely locked down. I just practiced. As time went on the world started to open back up but we weren’t outside like that. At that time I was considered like the bedroom DJ. I was getting good, mixing online, and then I was posting stuff on TikTok, Instagram Live, and things like that, and a few people find out and said I should do gigs outside. This was just a hobby to me. I did my first festival in 2o22 and I opened up for DJ Jazzy Jeff. From there, it’s been a whirlwind of adventures.
How would you describe your DJ style?
I am a DJ that focuses a lot on transitions. I want you to hear the beat of the next song coming in while you’re listening to the first song and you say, “Oh, I know that song. I hear it.” I’m the DJ that’s going to blend and focus on the transition. I want each song I play to feel like one long song you’ve enjoyed for three hours.
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What are some tips you would give to aspiring DJs?
To the beginner DJ, I would say start wherever you can. I also would say to any DJ at any stage, it’s good to go to parties and go to events, especially the ones that you want to be the DJ at and pay attention to what the DJ is playing, what the crowd is dancing to, and what they aren’t dancing too. I go to a lot of events not to scope out what the DJ is doing, but more so to perfect my crowd read [it]. So if I’m in the crowd and somebody’s playing a song and I see people are reacting with their hands up, I’ll Shazam that song and make sure that I make a mental note so that I can play it at my next set. One of the biggest things that people do is that they assume that they are the end all be all knowledge of music, [but there] might be a song that you forgot about.
