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Davey D. interviews DJ B-Girl on Breakdown FM

We sat down with longtime Seattle dj/producer B-Girl Chillz from the Emerald City-Seattle. She just released her 4th album ‘Love and Fate’ which has been getting rave reviews. During our interview we covered alot of topics including the importance of being seen and known as a B-Girl. She explained that she’s a practioner of all 4 of Hip Hop’s elements and that she wanted to rep the culture to the fullest by being all encompassing. She also explained that it was important to highlight the b-girl who has always been alongside the b-boy from day one.

We talked about the Seattle scene as B-Girl Chillz talked about many of the pioneering female figures like; Laura ‘Piece’ Kelly, Toni Hill, DJ ms Broadway and many more who helped shape the sound of the city. Chillz talked about Seattle’s evolution after the country was introduced to Sir Mix-A-Lot. She talked about the important role producers like Vitamin D played in bringing national attention to the city as well as groups like Blue Scholars and their Massline label.

During our interview Chillz talked to us about the challenge facing female producers and how she goes about executing her craft. She talked about the equipment she works with and went through the process of recording a record and how she engages the many artists who come through her studio.

Joining us in the interview was well know Seattle organizer and emcee Julie C who is prominently featured on the album. She is newly signed to B-Girl’s independent record label as one thrird of the newly formed group ‘The Knox Family’ which includes B-Girl and a cat named Jermz.

We talked abiout the recent attention being paid to female emcees thanks to MTV/VH1’s new reality show featuring ‘Yo-Yo’. Chillz described the attention as the industry shining a flashlight and rediscovering a big part of Hip Hop that never left and has always been there.

We concluded our interview by talking about the music business and how Chillz stays sharp and gets her hustle on, not only as a producer running her own label, but also as someone who starting to licence her music to commercials and TV shows. She also talked about how one should get their international game on.

This hip-hop maven has her work cut out for her, but that’s nothing new.

By Erika Hobart

Published on March 25, 2008 at 7:27pm

Back in its heyday, Fifth Avenue venue I-Spy regularly featured rock and hip-hop acts. It has since disappeared and been replaced by retail and office space. DJ B-Girl refers to her opening for eccentric L.A. MC Busdriver at I-Spy as the gig that validated her presence in Seattle’s hip-hop scene. But her reference unintentionally dates her, considering the popular hangout closed back in 2003.

Breaking into music is harsh, unless you know somebody. DJ B-Girl (real name: Mia Beardsley) had a degree in audio engineering and recording when she moved to Seattle from Bellingham in 2001—but she knew close to nobody. It would be years before she networked with enough of the appropriate people and gained a business savvy about her.

As she stoically points out, “That’s why I’m sitting here talking to you right now…and I’m 31 years old.”

With three failed attempts to release albums in the past decade, it would’ve been easy for DJ B-Girl to fade into obscurity like many of the venues she’s performed at over the years. But earlier this year, DJ B-Girl released her first full-length album, Love or Fate, which helped create buzz about her talent with its slick production and exceptional track list. (Choice pick: “Murder She Wrote” featuring Sista Hailstorm and Julie C.)

“I feel like I can finally say that I’m a producer in Seattle,” DJ B-Girl tells me at Oseao Media Group, the digital music company she works for during the day and many of her evenings. “It feels like the dam that broke and released all the creative energy.”

DJ B-Girl lived with three roommates in the U District when she first came to the city. Money saved on rent went toward purchasing high-end tables and speakers to practice her craft. Days were spent working at Guitar Center, and nights were spent relentlessly pursuing gigs. She works more now than she did then, about 80 hours a week. Despite having a solid footing in the city’s hip-hop scene and her new album to support, she’s got another agenda to keep her preoccupied: helping other female artists find the connections she never had.

Last year, DJ B-Girl ensured she’d be getting even less sleep when she launched her own record label, B-Girl Media, and formed B-Girl Bench, a centralized forum (which meets at Oseao) for local women in hip-hop to meet weekly and research viable options to increase their visibility.

By drawing from her personal experiences and knowledge in digital distribution, DJ B-Girl hopes to help propel Seattle’s female hip-hop artists into the limelight. The greatest hurdle for many aspiring artists (including herself early on) is that they aren’t always well-versed in the business side of the music industry, she says.

“We have artists in Seattle who are talented enough that they should be getting national exposure—and they’re stuck at the regional level,” she notes. “How does that happen after they’ve put in 15–20 years of hard work? How can we help each other out and get to the next level?”

Two words: Media literacy. Rather than remaining passive, she says, artists must build their own momentum by understanding and using mass media to their advantage. B-Girl Bench participants, who include MCs like Julie C. and El Dia, help provide female artists with mentorship on finding promotion and performing opportunities, as well as access to different media outlets. Participants currently host Hip-Hop 101 on Seattle’s public-access television and often air on KBCS-FM (91.3), Bellevue Community College’s radio station.

“The key is to recognize women and the wealth of resources they hold,” DJ B-Girl says. “There’s strong leadership that’s scattered across the city, but we have a common goal and we need to come together. Cases in which an artist goes from the grassroots level to the national level are few and far between. We need to create a ladder for artists to climb toward that level. This is one of the steps.”

DJ B-Girl envisions the artists of B-Girl Bench (many of whom are on her label) touring at some point. She’d like to collaborate with women’s hip-hop organizations across the country and have Seattle artists performing nationwide several times a year. “My vision for B-Girl Media is to get artists as much media as possible while they still maintain their voice,” she says. “The industry tells you what to sound and look like; I want to have a label that reflects who the artists really are.”

By the time the complete B-Girl operation she envisions is up and running, DJ B-Girl could be in her 40s. She’s keenly aware of just how tough it will be to achieve her lofty plans and isn’t reveling in her success thus far. As she sums up in a voice both besieged and determined, “I’ve still got my work cut out for me.”

ehobart@seattleweekly.com