For a long time, DJs held a crucial sphere of influence. An artist or a label would know they had a hit song when it was being spun frequently by the DJs of the day – either on the radio or in the clubs. DJs were always the go-betweens for music-loving audiences and the music industry, responsible for introducing new genres into the market and our lives. And even as DJ culture as we know it has had to contend with the streaming era and a global pandemic, the format continues to connect people through music. In African music especially, DJs have been instrumental in shifting tastes worldwide and bringing new genres, such as Amapiano, Gqom, Afrobeats and Alte, into the fold on a global scale. Looking at the electronic soundscape of Southern Africa specifically and the impact it’s had in recent years, the role of DJs cannot be undersold. DJs like Charisse C, who turned the 2020s’ Amapiano hype into a mainstay of the club circuit.
Charisse C is a Zimbabwean-born DJ and artist (and former music journalist) based in the UK. Whilst she gained renown in Amapiano, a Charisse C set is always brimming with musical heritage and influences from across the subcontinent and diaspora. From dropping her own music and supporting acts like Scorpion Kings, Major League DJz and Benji B, to performing at Glastonbury, Boiler Room and AfroNation, her mixes have captivated crowds and changed the outdated narratives surrounding the music. “I’m a storyteller first and foremost,” Charisse tells iMullar. “I really wanted to define what it is that I say through my DJing, what do I want to communicate?”
Her Abantu Radio show takes her role as a storyteller seriously. Since kicking off in 2020, Abantu has developed into an event series, narrative-driven podcast and record label, using every opportunity to uplift Southern African art and talent along the way. “Abantu means ‘people,’” she explains. “So when I say I care about people, I really do move with the people first.” Through thoughtful curation and creating space for community, Abantu proves that DJs can be the bridges between cultures.
Frederick Adjavon speaks to Charisse C about her life as a touring DJ, Abantu World, releasing music and bringing her musical roots into the future.
This interview has been slightly edited for length and clarity.
A brief introduction…
I was born in Zimbabwe. I left when I was three years old and grew up in the UK for pretty much my whole life. Culturally, my parents are Shona on my dad’s side and Zulu and Ndebele on my mom’s side – she is South African but was raised in Zimbabwe. I’ve grown up around a lot of influences, different cultures and I have a melting pot experience of identity, culture, music, and history which has formed a big part of who I am as a person and as an artist.
Starting to DJ
I started DJing in 2017 when I was at University. I grew up in Reading and moved to London when I was 18 to study journalism at the University of the Arts London. I’d been writing about music since I was 15 and one of my first jobs was as a music writer and then editorial assistant at 16. DJing was quite serendipitous with the way that it happened. I met a woman called Loren Platt who at that point had been running a party called Work It for about 9-10 years in London. She also went to the university and wanted to support some students in bridging the gap between university and the real life creative working world. So she along with some friends of mine came together and formed this collective called KNKTU and we started running parties. It opened up our world in a lot of ways…… I’ve never stopped since.
Being a woman on the decks.
I think I was quite fortunate in the sense that when I came in there were quite a few examples of women in London that were killing it. My mentor Lauren, who was also a DJ, had really made a concerted effort to support women who were DJing. There was Rivah 45 who still DJs now, and people like Siobhan Bell and Tiffany Calver coming through to the parties. There were quite a few women that were playing the Work It events, so I definitely had some level of representation. While those women were pushing, they were also open to sharing all the things that they had overcome so I could learn from them. They were there to guide along the way which made things a lot easier. I was fortunate to have come into the space at a time where I had examples of women who were beating the odds and refusing to be sidelined. As soon as I was given the opportunity, I took it with both hands and made sure there was absolutely nothing to stop me.
Finding your niche.
When I first started playing, it was open format. I played pretty much everything that I liked; R&B, hip-hop, dancehall, Amapiano, Gqom, dance music and house. 2018 was when I really started playing Amapiano, it was really becoming present in my sets. I’m a storyteller first and foremost, and I wanted to define what it is that I wanted to say through my DJing. What do I want to communicate? What did I want to represent? I wanted to hone into a particular niche that I could call my own, bridging the gap between the UK and Africa — places that have raised me musically and also as a person.
Touring as a DJ.
I always wanted to travel when I was young but we couldn’t afford it. DJing has completely opened up my world in that way […] It expands your horizons to be able to travel and experience different cultures and understand what’s happening in other parts of the world. One of the things that came from being a touring DJ, was playing a lot of festival lineups and spaces that I’d never even been to before and also introducing a genre like Amapiano, that was still unfamiliar in a lot of places. Last year felt like a training ground, getting to understand how different worlds work, and bridging the gap without changing who I am […] Being able to play these iconic stages without having to compromise myself has been really special and has set the tone for my career and my future as a DJ.
Starting Abantu.
During the lockdown, everything paused. I wasn’t able to DJ anymore because the world was shut. I was seeing Amapiano becoming a global phenomenon but felt like, unlike other African diasporas, within the UK, it didn’t have as much of the cultural context. Southern African people are quite a small diaspora in comparison to people from West Africa or the Caribbean. So, I started a radio show which documented the vastness of the music from Southern Africa including Amapiano. […] During lockdown JoJo at No Signal asked me if I wanted to do a radio show. I thought, if I’m going to do a radio show, what is it going to be about? What do I want to say? What do I want to communicate? When you understand people and their culture, and you are participating or enjoying the music, you can connect with it a little bit further and really be a part of it. You understand why the music sounds the way it does, picking up the languages, slang and the references. I wanted to create something that tells the stories of the people making Amapiano but also shows that there’s more to us than Amapiano.
Every two weeks, on the two-hour show I would do interviews, guest mixes and my own playlist spotlight curation. After lockdown, it evolved into doing actual events and creating real-life spaces. The most recent evolution this year is a record label — everything I’m doing with Abuntu as a record label is in partnership with Platoon. [Abantu] has become a holistic hub for Southern Africa, which is what I always wanted it to be.
Taking the plunge and releasing her first single, “Wrecking Bassline”
Making music builds on your story as a DJ, it adds another dimension. Most times when I’m playing I’ll find that I wish I had a song that sounded like this or a song that did that. For example, transitioning from one genre to another, I’d wish I had a song that was a hybrid of these sounds that would bridge this gap. When you’re able to think of those ideas and know where to place them, it adds another layer to your sets that you can’t achieve when you’re playing other people’s music. It adds another layer when you bring it to life yourself. At the time, I’d been working with PYY Log Drum King who was just ahead of his time in the way that he was producing. We worked well together and released “Wrecking Bassline” as the first song.
Releasing her debut solo EP, Evergreen
Evergreen was me introducing a new dimension of my artistry. A lot of people don’t know that I sing and write music. I released a body of work last year, The Ascension with Koek Sista, but with that project, I took on the role of executive producer. This time it was about Charisse C. I hadn’t released music for two years since “Wrecking Bassline” and so much had happened in that time. How do I express that through music? How do I put that in a body of work? I was ready to step in as an artist, all of me. That meant bringing in my voice and my storytelling through the music more explicitly. I wanted to go back to creating to express and to release and it was the perfect time to do that.
I’d worked with Kwamzy before. We got into a really nice flow and just continued with it. We have a really great creative chemistry. He really understands me and my process and he’s incredibly talented. He’s someone that likes to explore and experiment in the way that I do and create sounds that connect to what’s happening right now, not just to where we’ve come from but also very much looking towards the future. I’m about the pursuit of making things that are timeless, that can be experienced and enjoyed across generations. The title speaks for itself.
Adding vocals to her songs.
I’ve sung since I was a child. I sang in school and in church. My dream as a child was to sing, but I shied away from it for a long time. A big part of me being a DJ was making music, I really care about the art of what I do. There are things that I want to be able to communicate. I have so many different influences in music. At the beginning I was an open format DJ, playing all these festival stages, an eclectic range of places with a wide range of crowds, and I wanted to make music that connected these worlds. It was time for me to step into myself in entirety and see what comes out. I also had a lot that I needed to get off of my chest, so I just did it.
Plans for Abantu
This is really just the beginning. I’ll be releasing more music as Charisse C on my label. I will be signing other artists to release music on the label and work with them as well. I am really interested in artist development and helping artists bring their ideas and visions to life. Abantu means “people,” so when I say I care about people, I really do move with the people first. I think the industries that we work in encourage moving in a way that is at the expense of people. It’s all about business, clout, numbers, metrics, and whatever. But music at its very core is about people. It’s about our lives, our stories, our feelings, our expressions, and if people aren’t at the center of it, then this thing dies and all we have left is metrics and numbers. Building these infrastructures that put people at the core is really important. I’ve consistently created the type of stages and lineups that I wanted to see and now a record label that releases the music that I love the way it deserves to be released.
Women and the future of the DJ scene.
I think women have proven that we are unstoppable. There are so many women DJs who are absolutely killing it and have also completely changed the game. In anything, if a group of people are pushed out of something or told that they can’t participate, they tend to innovate and break the rules — which never should have existed in the first place — to create something new. And that’s what art is. We’re watching women doing that right now. You have somebody like Uncle Waffles come in and everybody has so much to say. About how DJs should dress, asking questions: Why are DJs dancing? She should just focus on playing the music. But who ever decided that? It’s music. It’s a dance floor, this is the very space that should be the most fun and free, like why are we making it so sanitized? [Uncle Waffles] continues to push and disprove those who have tried to suggest that it’s fickle or a fluke. She’s consistently raised the bar in what she does. When you observe it, it takes a lot of time, practice, rehearsal, curation, and execution. Big kudos to her. There are so many women that are coming in and doing it on their own terms, setting the tone for so many others. At one point, going into this space as a woman felt like this big, daunting hurdle but now, there are so many of us that are killing, playing all of the lineups that they said we couldn’t play in, technically advanced and really creative. And I think that’s what the future is, that we become equal players in this market.
Plans For 2024
I’m actually going to be in Ibiza at the end of this month for my first time at the International Music Summit. I’ll be there as a speaker and as a DJ. I’ll also be in Amsterdam on the 27th of April. Abantu is doing its first ever Festival stage in May and I’m super excited about that. That’s another big moment and achievement for us. I will be back at the GALA Festival, which is one of my favorites. DLT is doing Malta again so I’ll be there. I’ll also be back at Glastonbury which I’m super excited about. Abantu has a few more events planned throughout the summer. You’ll also find me with Major League Djz. They’re doing their balcony mix in August and I’ll be playing there. Last year, we only did one Abantu event but this year there’s quite a few planned.
Stream Her Evergreen EP Here.
