Today we’d like to introduce you to Rae McNair.
Hi Rae, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Growing up in life, I’ve always been into the arts. I started dance lessons at 4, and I’ve been in performing arts schools since elementary school. Therefore, I was able to take a gander at different things that interested me. I quickly learned that I’m definitely not a visual artist nor an actor, so I gravitated towards spaces where my gifts could flourish. I loved dancing in plays and musicals. Although singing wasn’t my ministry, I was often thrown into the soprano section due to my high-pitched voice. Fast forward to early 20s, I wanted a change of scenery from home, Kansas City, MO not just for me but also for my daughter. My favorite cousin that I visited in Dallas as a child, gave me a lightbulb moment to move to Dallas, so I saved up my money and made it happen! I relocated and hit the ground running in search for what’s next. I thought I would be Chris Brown and Beyoncé’s backup dancer (still open to it! Lol). I choreographed a few local videos and danced for a few local artists. By me being a young adult in a new city, I hit the scene and met so many influential people! Somehow my interest for DJn was peaked so I made a Facebook post for someone to teach me. I received a few replies, but I went with Dj Static. He taught me the basics, told me what equipment to buy (terrible suggestion but I made it do what it do), and I practiced until I was ready to share my skills with the masses. When I started spinning in 2011, it wasn’t very popular for women so I had to grind extra extra hard. I started in the hole-in-the-wall clubs and worked my way up. I had always wanted to be on-air talent, which I dabbled in, in high school on a gospel teen show, so shortly after I started DJn, I attended American Broadcasting Casting School. I did a few air-checks and sent them out, no luck YET (hint hint). I’m more of a DO IT person so my full personality probably didn’t translate but the door is still open. Before there were podcasts, there was internet radio which I happened to have had a few shows on curated by yours truly. I started with After Dark with Dirty Rae where I had guests (some famous) join me to divulge all their juicy secrets. Next was Talk Dirty which was filmed along with “No Boys Allowed”. They were all great shows full of energy and fun topics.
I like my passions to join forces, so For a few of my larger Dj gigs, I bring out my dancers and we perform a full routine during my DJ set! It’s quite the experience, I must say so myself.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The road definitely was not smooth. With this being a male-dominated industry, I couldn’t always be my normal chill/fun self. As a woman, sometimes I had to handle people a certain way so that they were very aware that you cannot play with me, my money, or my body parts. Although it may have caught some people off guard initially, I’m certain that’s what made people respect me. A few things that lady DJs still deal with even today is being assigned as the opening DJ even if they have more talent than their male counterparts. Women are underestimated, but we are slowly but surely breaking down those barriers.
Another struggle that a lot of DJs deal with is undercutting. DJn has become a wave and some people would rather DJ for a hookah and popularity. As they say, good DJs aren’t cheap, cheap DJs aren’t good. I’ll say it here, the new golden rule, NO DJ SHOULD BE SPINNING IN A CLUB FOR LESS THAN $500. We always say we need to come together and enforce a protocol so there’s step 1 😊
On a lighter/funny note, when I first started DJn, one of my biggest fears was setting up. A lot of places are different so you have to know what plugs go where in different scenarios. I would be so scared like, “What if no sound comes out and the people come and they’re just staring at me???”. Fun times, but after a while you get the hang of things of course, but looking back it’s a tad hilarious.
BTW, yes, I DJd through two pregnancies and one was during the pandemic.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m an open-format DJ, so I spin all genres of music. I really like spaces where the music can go all over the place yet be cohesive. I like to bring the worlds together like mixing hip hop with EDM or Afro beats and bachata. It sounds different, but I make it flow so smoothly.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I like that there’s always something going on everywhere you turn every day of the week. There’s so many different things to do and experience, which is one of the reasons I moved here.
My least favorite thing is we need to bring boogy back! Everyone is so cool and don’t want to dance anymore.
Of course, there’s bigger issues abreast but that would take all the pages. People probably wouldn’t be so tense if they danced.
Pricing:
- Event/ club- $200 per hour +
- Corporate- $1,000+
- Wedding- $1,500+
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/djdirtyrae?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/djdirtyrae?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Twitter: @GoDjDirtyRae
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/QCXbfp9nVyE
- SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/y2etm
- Other: https://www.mixcloud.com/DjDirtyRae/top-40-mashup-mix/Bc
