Moods 59: AK
The Detroit-born DJ and Blueprint resident shares songs from family barbecues to her grandmother's block and Northland Skating Rink.
May is DEMF (Movement) in Detroit, and we’re bringing the celebration home with AK. Playing Movement this upcoming weekend—along with the Detroit staple event Blueprint—AK takes a beat to navigate her extensive catalogue outside of the dance floor, and honor the legacies from which it comes.
Where, geographically, did you grow up? Was it a single place or many places?
I grew up on 3rd and West Philadelphia, Highland Park, and 6 Mile—kinda all over the place, haha. My environment played a major role in my musical tastes. Every song that you hear me play I found at a special time in my life, or heard it playing in the background as the soundtrack to my life activities, like going to school, family barbecues, block parties, and even cleaning up.
Can you pick one song in the mix and explain where you first listened to it?
I'll Be Good - Rene and Angela. I discovered this song sitting in the car at 9pm on my grandma's block. I was waiting for my mom and dad to give their 15th goodbye to our cousins. My folks had it blasting through some big body system in the back of a van. I immediately fell in love with the composition of the beat, not knowing the singer is pouring her heart out.
Who “introduced” you to these songs? Was it a person, a radio station, a CD?
My mother, 107.5, 105.9 Kiss fmFM 97.9 WJLB, 92.3 Detroit's R&B Throwbacks, and Northland Skating Rink.
Where and when did you first hear techno? Who did it sound like it was for?
I first heard techno on the radio when they would broadcast out of the club with DJ Fingers on WJLB. Interestingly enough, techno wasn't introduced to me as techno or ghetto tech. I had to discover what I was hearing on my own. It took growing older to comprehend the music as a concept; before that, all I knew was once I heard the bass kick in, it was a wrap.
It was amazing to watch people jitting and letting the music take over. Techno is a beautiful, spiritual, lineage-bound genre. I'm literally DJing the same tracks my mom danced to in the club at my age.
You’ve got the microphone. What do you want to say to the techno community?
I honestly want the techno community to tell me: are we all wearing black?
Tracklist:
Foe the Love of Money - Bone Thugs N Harmony
No Days Go By - Aaliyah
You Know the Business - Project Pat
Ten Wanted Men - Princess Loko
Puppet Talk - Flying Lotus
Tom's Diner - DNA
Lil Red Boat - Angel Grant
Hublots - Frank Ocean
Ammi Ammi - Archy Marshall
Sending My Love - Zhané
400 Degreez - Juvenile
I'll Be Good - Rene and Angela
J Dilla - The Twister
Pusherman - Curtis Mayfield
Whatever You Want - Tony Toni Tone
Soulful Moaning - Shawn Harris
Anita Baker - Whatever it Takes
Forreal - Amel Larrieux
Viper - My Hops
We've paired AK’s mix with a drawing from Do Ho Suh, whose work often explores interiors, bodies, and cultures as sites of memory, family, and memorial. His work is some of our favorite, as it often flips colonialism and patriarchy on their heads—see his piece we pulled for AK’s mix, ScaledBehaviour_drawing(InvertedMonument_1.28.1)-B. If you dig Suh’s work, we recommend this short film on him. You can also follow AK over on Instagram.
Hugs from the Moods team. <3