Today we’d like to introduce you to LaPlayah C.
Hi LaPlayah, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always operated at the intersection of high discipline and creative expression. Growing up in the South, I balanced two demanding worlds: competitive track and field alongside classical training in dance and multiple instruments earning a college scholarship for both the bassoon (of all things lol) and track and field. I didn’t end up continuing playing after graduating high school as my main focus was on athletics at the time.
Athletics took priority through university until my senior year, when a medical retirement abruptly ended my track career. It challenged me to redefine who I was outside of athletics. After graduating, I moved solo from Dallas to the Bay Area with no network and had to build my community from the ground up. I knew I wanted a change so when I received the job offer I immediately took the opportunity.
Once I got plugged into the scene out there, I realized there was a void. The sounds, the energy, and the cultural fusion I was craving simply weren’t in the room. Instead of waiting around for someone else to build it, I taught myself to DJ and poured everything into music, movement, and fashion and launched my brand under the name LaPlayah which was actually created by my dad. It is a nod to a childhood nickname he gave me at five years old for being smooth and confident (Lay-uh the playa). He always said I was smooth and moved with that easy “Louisiana player” vibe. So when I started behind the decks, leaning into LaPlayah felt like honoring my roots while stepping into my own power. Since then, I’ve scaled that vision into performing nationally and internationally across music, movement, and fashion. That journey taught me how to read an audience, build a brand from scratch, and turn adversity into momentum….and I’m still just scratching the surface.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Walking into this space as a woman of color, you’re often fighting an uphill battle against assumptions before you even touch the decks. Nightlife and DJ culture can be heavily gatekept and male-dominated, so from day one, you feel the pressure to prove you actually know your craft twice as hard.
I was blessed to have a few early champions who saw my vision and took a chance on booking me, but I had to fight for every inch of momentum. Early on, that meant taking the thankless opening slots to empty rooms, playing for cut rates, playing for free…just putting in the reps and showing up with relentless consistency.
The biggest lesson from that season was that you cannot wait around for someone to give you permission or hand you a lane. If the room wasn’t being offered to me, or if the scene wasn’t playing the sound I wanted, I stopped waiting for an invite and started creating my own platforms. The friction forced me to stop asking for a seat at the table and just build my own.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
By day, I’m a corporate baddie holding down business; by night, I’m behind the decks shaking the room as LaPlayah.
I specialize in high-energy, open-format sets, and I’m known for unexpected, genre-bending mashups and edits that collide cultures in ways people don’t see coming. Because of my background in classical music and dance, I don’t approach DJing like a standard selector just queuing up radio hits, I hear music in layers, phrasing, and movement. I want the room to feel a sonic whiplash that somehow makes complete sense on the dance floor.
What I’m most proud of to date is my headline debut, because it was the first time my entire creative ecosystem collided without compromise. I didn’t just show up to play a set; I built a full production. I produced custom, exclusive edits and mashups ahead of time, brought in dancers with live choreography, and even designed and customized my own outfit. It was DJing, movement, and fashion operating as one cohesive performance and I loved every second of it and can’t wait to do it again!
What sets me apart boils down to pure boldness. I refuse to play it safe in my sound, my style, or my stage presence. Whether it’s putting two genres together that shouldn’t work on paper or commanding a room on my own terms, I don’t wait for permission to be audacious.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
Nobody gets to where they are alone, and my journey is covered in the fingerprints of people who took massive leaps of faith on me before I even had a proven track record.
First and foremost, credit goes to my ex for literally putting the tools in my hands. While I was recovering from surgery, stuck in bed with nothing to do, he bought me a Pioneer SRT-1000 and nagged me relentlessly every single day to practice. He saw the spark before I fully believed it, and he even plugged me into my first-ever paid gig out in Brooklyn. Shout out to him for that push.
Right after that, the founders of frnds only gave me my second paid booking for their 4th of July day party and after-party. They knew me before I ever touched the decks, so they booked me purely on trust. The funny part was, I had never touched club-standard CDJs in my life until that day. Let one of them tell the story, and he was completely baffled watching me try to figure out how to get my laptop connected on stage but it was all love, and they let me rock.
From there, the momentum went global thanks to my boys Sheed and Sule from No Destination. Only months into my DJ journey, they trusted me enough to book me internationally in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and later out in St. Martin. That kind of trial-by-fire experience pushed my confidence to an entirely new level.
Locally, the Black girl DJ community in the Bay Area has been my backbone. Navigating nightlife can feel isolating, but having a sisterhood of heavy hitters like Lexapeel, Tye-dye, Hauna Bauna, Mix Z, Zuri, Rubi, Christie, and Jekari (to name a few) sharing knowledge, hype, and space with me has been everything.
And finally, the collectives who became creative homes for my vision: Afrobeats Oakland, who believed in me enough to host my full headline debut spectacle, and Play2Win, who backed my sound and where I now hold down a residency. Alongside my family, my day-one friends, and even people I’m no longer close with; anyone who ever spoke life into my craft when it was just an idea they all built the foundation LaPlayah stands on today.
Pricing:
- For availability, rate cards, and customized quotes, inquiries can be submitted via email at LaPlayah.Collabs@outlook.com or through Instagram at @Laplayaaah
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laplayaaah?vrfl=bHZuMm9ib2wxNG15&utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@laplayah?si=FOfgFMh3IRa_o1kS
- Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/kDFF8VrkOsKY1YX1vy
