GRIOTS REPUBLIC - AN URBAN BLACK TRAVEL MAG - OCTOBER 2016

The story of DJ SuperNova starts
at the crossroads where determination,
professionalism, and preparedness
meet.
Bronx raised SuperNova majored in
Computer Engineering at Penn State
University, but his prowess on the 1’s
and 2’s quickly earned him DJ spots
at all the coveted parties on campus.
This hobby quickly blossomed into a
full-fledged profession spider webbing
through the east coast college circuit,
to theater, to becoming a resident DJ at
the largest urban radio station in South
Africa. Pivoting from computer engineering
to music full-time meant that
breaking down cultural barriers in his
family was difficult, but his determination
proved fruitful. This fall in New York
City, SuperNova will be able to invite his
mother to see his skills at work on set
of Othello: The Remix, a Q Brothers Production
presented by John Leguizamo.
From family, to music, to theater, SuperNova’s
goal to create common
ground and understanding through music
is clear. His mixes are a masterful
blend of genres like hip-hop, top 40,
EDM, latin, classics, reggae and afro
beat served up weekly across Botswana,
Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and
South Africa. As an American DJ, his relationship
with the continent of Africa
started with preforming a play at an arts
festival in South Africa. Before long he
would become a resident DJ, travelling
a couple times a year, cross pollinating
their hip-hop with our hip-hop. Having
built up a solid rapport with artists, he
gets all the new music first and when
asked if language barriers hinder him
from breaking new artists, SuperNova
remarks “South African twitter is a real
thing, they talk about all the gossip and
new tracks, so it’s easy for me to stay
in tune…”
With his hand on the pulse of music
stateside and in the motherland, SuperNova
is fully aware of the structural
racism and parallels of the treatment
of people of color in Africa and the U.S.
“My overall goal is to make it cool for people
to work together, specifically people
of color. We all go through a lot of stuff
in society...if we can make it cool for us
to work together, some of these artists