If you’re looking for the next hot new female DJ in New York City, Olivia Dope should be on your radar. After working with a number of big names in the industry (e.g. Russell Simmons and Lil’ Kim), DJ Olivia Dope is definitely on the rise to stardom. Olivia is an up and coming DJ on the New York City entertainment scene. She has performed for such clients as Shaggy, Mac Miler and Chris Brown. She exhibits a keen ability to blend different genres such as hip-hop, R&B and reggae, catching the attention of artists like Jennifer Hudson and Rita Ora. What sparked her artistic prowess? Dope was inundated by the arts at a young age. With humble beginnings as a classically-trained dancer at the age of 3, she was surrounded by the arts and the music
Dope.” According to Dope, the name took on a life of its own where it has changed the meaning of the word “dope.” She plans to use her music and image to spread positivity. “You’re gonna hear ‘no’ a lot and you have to have thick skin to deal with that because ‘no’ comes a lot more often than ‘yes’; even when you hear ‘no,’ just take it as a blessing because that means that ‘yes’ is gonna be so much better than each ‘no’ that you’ve heard,” says Dope. “In the creative field, because you’re [playing] to the beat of your own drum, you’re not going to a job where they’re telling you what you’re gonna do. You’re telling everyone else, ‘This is what I have to offer.’ So everyone else has to either say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ There’s a good chance people are gonna say ‘no’ before thy hear what you have to offer.”
YOU HEAR ‘NO’ “ WHEN JUST TAKE IT AS A BLESSING.“ scene of New York City. Growing up on the streets of Brooklyn, music was always the driving force behind Dope. Influenced by Black female DJs Jazzy Joyce, Salt-n-Pepa’s Spinderella and Cocoa Chanelle, she looked to them for inspiration. She was also influenced by rappers Junior Mafia, Biggie Smalls, and Lil’ Kim during the ‘90s. That exposure was where she found her calling to DJ. With her friends teaching her how to mix different genres together, she developed the ability to hear a good mix and eventually learned how to put a good mixed together. Having the instinct of a dancer--where mixing things together came naturally to her--, she eventually started getting requests to DJ parties and events around her neighborhood. One of those events was an after-party of fashion designers The Blonds where Lil’ Kim was a special guest. “It was kinda like a 180 because growing up in Brooklyn in the ‘90s you hear about Junior Mafia, you know about Biggie, you know about [Lil’] Kim. So to go from being that 10-year-old where the first CD that I brought was Junior Mafia’s Conspiracy Theory, to now nineteen years later and be able to DJ for one of the artist I admired for so many years,…it was a surreal moment.”
With the rise in popularity of EDM (electronic dance music), DJs like Skrillex and David Guetta, both on Forbes list of the world’s highest paid DJs, are becoming more prevalent in the music industry. According to CNN, EDM is becoming one of the fastest growing musical genres of the past ten years. Dope believes the growing number of DJs has a lot to do with the party scene nowadays. “We’re in an age where the club is the place to be. A lot of artists are doing club appearances…so when people go to these clubs, they want to hear the hottest tracks and the hottest music. Now the DJ is the star; the DJ is now on the same playing field as the artist. Just as the artist is of a certain caliber, artists want to make sure that the DJ is a part of their brand, is of a certain caliber. As for the 29-year-old, 2016 sounds like a good year with career building and goals for the future to be realized. “You always wanna build your career. You never wanna get comfortable. You wanna keep striving. I never think of actual goals because things come along that aren’t front-of-the-mind goals…and that has always been a blessing.
She first came up with her stage name in college where her friends told her she looked like Kerry Washington. After Scandal came out, her friends would make jokes on social media sites calling her “Olivia Pope,” which was later transformed into “Olivia
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