By ALEX HAWGOOD
AT a party last fall celebrating Terry Richardson’s photography exhibition “Mom & Dad” at the Westway, a former strip joint turned nightclub in the far West Village, the D.J. Venus X blasted through a torrent of disparate musical styles during her two-hour-plus set: Chicago juke (a low-fi interpretation of break beat); Dominican dembow (a Latin spin on reggaetón); local underground rap; South Africa house music; Spanish salsa; Turkish techno.
By the time she played the hit “We Found Love” by Rihanna, the crowd was soaked with sweat. And just as the song was about to reach its climax, she unexpectedly looped the soaring crescendo on repeat, then stopped the track entirely before starting dubstep, the latest electronica hybrid to go mainstream.
“I thought there was going to be a riot,” said the artist Richard Phillips, who was there, along with the designer Cynthia Rowley and the downtown gadabout Aaron Bondaroff. “It was one of the best parties I have ever been to in my life.”
It is disruptive moments like these that Venus X, born Jazmin Venus Soto, thrives on. “I do sampling, chopping-and-screwing live and remixing on the spot, so if something is playing the crowd likes, I will interrupt it heavily to break apart the process of continuity,” Ms. Soto, 25, said in a recent interview from her closet-size room at the Marrakech Hotel on Broadway and 102nd Street.
Read more: Profile of the D.J. Venus X – NYTimes.com.
We invite you to like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter, or e-mail us at UptownCollective@gmail.com.
Are you a local business?
