Wisconsin Life

hip-hop instrumental music

I feel like I'm a eclectic ball of awesome and exciting things. My name is Nelly Vigil and I'm a professional DJ in Milwaukee. My deejay name is DJ Loop. L, double O, P. In high school I was going through a rough time, and hip-hop was the only type of music at that time that really fit what I was going through. I'm not from this country, so growing up has been different for me. What I'm going to do with my life, the plan isn't the same as everyone else. And so that's how I got into hip-hop music. I just wanted to have my own spot in it. So I chose DJing. There's so many layers and parts to it. It's not just going up there and pressing a button and letting one side, one record or one song play, and then you press play on the other one, right? No, you gotta blend it. Every song has, you know, a heartbeat.

Its own beat per minute

how fast, how slow. Does it fit the vibe of where you are?

crowds cheers

Its own beat per minute

So connecting with the crowd when it comes to DJing, you just really got to know what the crowd wants. And it can start from you playing one song. If you see that they're really into it, they're really feeling it, you're going to play a song that's similar to it, right? You want to keep that vibe going. You're not going to play something that's completely different. You know, you want the energy to keep rising. My background is heavily influenced by hip-hop, but I also know so much music, especially being on the radio. What up, what up Milwaukee. This is DJ Loop and you're listening to Fresh and Direct. I'm a DJ and host on 91.7 FM WMSE. It's community powered, so it is a college radio music station. But I am a DJ so I curate my music. I have all my playlists ready to go. So tell me, why did you start rapping? And I'm also a host so that means getting interviews, getting content for my show because I don't want it to be me just playing music for three hours. It's from 9 p.m. to midnight on Tuesday nights. If there's something you want to tell the people of Milwaukee that are listening to you right now... I always thought, "Hey, if I'm ever going to be in a position where I have a platform to uplift my community, that's what I'm going to do." Here at WMSE, we are 100% community powered.

So that's what I do on my show

interviews. And of course I play a lot of hip-hop, independent and old school hip-hop. So NAS, Wu Tang Clan, Gang Starr, all the, you know, OGs of hip-hop. As well as like JID, Denzel Curry, Travis Scott, but I try to make sure that I don't really sound like other radio stations that could have that content. 90210. Travis Scott, coming up on Fresh and Direct. Peace.

scratching records sounds

So that's what I do on my show

So that motion is good. Both of your motions are good. It's just the timing. The Scratch Sessions started in 2017, in about September or October. They're basically at a place where we'll have women, men who just want to come in and, you know, learn how to DJ. Maybe it's their first time touching a controller or turntable. Or maybe it's their first time even thinking that it's a possibility for them.

scratch sounds

So that's what I do on my show

It's just a space where people can come in, and feel comfortable, and see if they want to DJ. Yeah, close it. Bring it back. For the most part, girls catch on faster than the boys, which I think is very interesting. It's always like that. And I feel good when I see girls, you know, getting it and just being, like, super quick about it

scratch

So that's what I do on my show

because that's part of the mission that I'm here to serve. Not only have them doing it, right, but to make women and girls feel like they can do it, which is the biggest takeaway because even if they don't DJ, they'll go do something else that's male-dominated, and be like, "I can do this. You know, I already did it." I feel like The Scratch Sessions is me trying to give back to my community and trying to give back to someone that is in my situation or somehow feels like they just want to DJ, man. You know, like, I just want to be a DJ. Ultimately I just really want to be someone that the women in my community can look up to and be like, "Hey, you know, I can do what she did, just in my own different way." I just want to be someone that people can look up to, just, like, a source of inspiration.