Most people picked up a new hobby in the pandemic, but very few are still sticking with it—let alone building a booming career out of it. But Auckland DJ Poppa Jax is one a kind, and her rapid ascent to do-it-all queen of the club is proving it.
After starting on the decks in 2021 with lessons from her boyfriend, Poppa is showing up everywhere with no signs of slowing down. She’s already opened for international heavy-hitters like Jyoty, wowed festival crowds at Souled Out, and is now fronting JD Sports’ New Wave campaign in New Zealand—going from “the girl putting up the posters” in retail to the one featured on them.
While Poppa is relatively new to performing, music’s been a fixture in her life since she was young. She was introduced to an eclectic mix of influences—Dolly Parton, reggaeton, 2Pac and Lauryn Hill—through her family, and trawling through LimeWire with friends helped round out her diverse taste in music.
“My group of friends would always look for the hottest new music, burn CDs and then we'd go out that weekend to someone's house to play our CDs,” she said.
“It was always like, ‘Oh, I found this song first’ or ‘I played this song at my party two weeks ago.’ That was how music was growing up for me, and I feel like it’s stayed the same now I’ve transitioned into DJing. I guess it’s more or less what it is.”
But hip-hop and dance music is where Poppa is making her name, taking her DJ sets from Twitch and SoundCloud to the clubs and festival stages. One booking turned into another, and soon she was hosting Poppa’s, a monthly club night, which she’s made an inclusive space for emerging DJs to be themselves and show what they can do.
Between hosting her eponymous club night, a growing number of touring dates, and a radio residency at New Zealand’s George FM, Poppa is in high demand. After our conversation, she’s right back on the grind to produce event graphics for her next slate of shows.
In her conversation with Complex AU, Poppa talked about creating community in the New Zealand club scene, working with JD Sports, and how she handled her first festival experience.
How did your journey as a DJ get started?
I was a full-time nail technician and had my own nail business for about three years. Then the lockdown happened and I just had so much time to play games, do nothing and figure out my place in the world. In the last three months of lockdown, my boyfriend came home with his uncle's DJ controller and taught me the basics.
My goal was just to make a mix of all my favourite songs because my birthday was coming up, and I wanted to get on a Zoom call with all my DJ friends to showcase my mix to them.
It's so funny now thinking back to that first mix. I made it in like two months' time with no experience. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I just remember all my DJ friends in the chat gassing me up like, “Yo, this is crazy," and they were so nice because it wasn't anything incredible.
But once I did that first mix, it lit a fire under me. It was so much fun, and the possibilities of songs and genres to mix were endless. Once I started mixing songs and playing them a bunch, I needed to go out and look for other music. I was jumping into subgenres I had never heard of before. The discovery of new music and DJs, and watching DJ sets on YouTube really unlocked a whole new world for me.
What did you grow up listening to?
I grew up listening to a lot of New Zealand reggae, country music—my grandparents loved old Dolly Parton—and classic old garage Māori bangers that every Māori auntie, uncle, and granddad would listen to. My dad listened to a lot of Tupac Shakur, rap and hip-hop.
My mum also influenced my musical upbringing. She listened to Lauryn Hill and did workout exercises to Vengaboys. Music has always been a part of my life, but in my teen years, I was really into hip-hop and R&B.
You run the monthly club night Poppa’s down in Auckland. Can you tell us the story behind starting that?
There have been times when I and my peers felt limited in what we could actually play. I always feel like DJs play their best when there are no rules. Poppa’s is a way for me to throw an event where all the DJs are the stars.
I go to a lot of gigs and I see a lot of talented DJs who don't get the love or appreciation they deserve. They might just be on an opening set or a closing set all the time but have never had the chance to play a prime-time set.
I think that's a really cool thing to be able to do, give DJs their flowers and put them on so that other people can be exposed to them. They put heaps of hours into their sets because they're showcasing themselves as artists.
It's also about having a space for people to come, listen to good music, dance, and feel welcome. That's really all that Poppa’s is—just a good party where everyone is feeding energy off each other.
We try to do a stage with the DJ in the centre, so it's a 360. It's just energy exchanged all around the room. I love it so much. There are no egos. Sometimes you go to a party, and everyone is in their little cliques, maybe too shy or too cool to socialise. But literally, anyone can come to Poppa’s and feel welcome.
I saw your vlog from Souled Out; it seemed like a wild experience. Can you tell us a bit about that?
Big events and festivals rarely book young women, minorities, or Black Indigenous people of colour. When I got the message, I was like, "Oh my God, such a huge deal." If a young girl or my cousin watches me on stage, they'll see they can do it too. It was a huge achievement.
They asked me to play only two weeks before the festival. For those two weeks, I couldn't sleep, figuring out what songs to play. I knew I had a lot to prove and had to come hard with my set. By Monday, I was putting a playlist together, and by Wednesday, I was practising. It was a lot of hard work.
When the day came, I played two 20-minute sets in between artists. During the first set, my hands were shaking and then it started raining. My laptop was getting rained on, so they pulled the stage off, and I went backstage.
From previous gigs, I learned that stuff happens, and I can't get upset. I have the best poker face. I could be having the worst time inside, but I just let the music do the talking.
I had another 20-minute set, so I came back and gave it my all. It was a huge opportunity, and it was so much fun. It felt surreal to be on a stage that huge artists play on and to bring my friends along.
How did the JD Sports campaign come together?
I was driving home and got an email from JD Sports about shooting a campaign in Sydney. I read it ten times, thinking it was a scam. But they sent a detailed pack with info about me, so they had done their research.
The whole month leading up to it, I was just like, “Oh my god, I'm gonna be in JD Sports.” The team was super nice. Everyone showed so much love. The clothes were fire and they sent me everything we used in the shoot, which was cool.
Their team really saw me for me and it wasn’t just like, “Oh, we’re going to get her because she’s popping at the moment and she’s got followers.” They can see what I’m doing, what I believe in, and I actually feel welcome.
I love JD Sports—their clothes, their collabs with people like A.GIRL and all the others. I feel proud that I can say that I’m part of the team, and there are so many big names they work with that I’m like, “Wow, they think I’m as cool as the people.” It was so gas; I loved my time working with them.
You can shop JD Sports' winter edit online and all their latest threads in store.
