Last month, techno fans found themselves in the sort of tizzy usually reserved for limited pressings of Jamal Moss records, when dance music website Resident Advisor posted a video feature on Moscow DJ Nina Kraviz.
An investigation of life on the road for touring DJs and the pros and cons it brings, the video has quickly become infamous for a scene of Kraviz in a hotel bathtub, prompting reactions that range from outraged (“I’m so happy blatant uses of sexuality and superficiality can take the place of hustling vinyl and spending countless hours in the studio”, moped Crosstown Rebels regular Maceo Plex), to cynical (“Was the bathtub scene really necessary?”, asked one RA reader) to mildly creepy (“Xosar next for the bath?”, asked another). Our favourite reaction was probably this parody video by Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, but then it would be.
Following yesterday’s blog post by reel-to-reel veteran Greg Wilson, in which he concludes that “Nina’s making her own statement, and regardless of whether or not you might agree with her, or even like the music she records and plays, she’s saying something – she’s causing a reaction and sparking debate. I find it refreshing that she often doesn’t do what people expect her to – in an ever more conformist world it’s reassuring to see anyone out there with maverick tendencies”, Kraviz has decided to address the debate herself.
On her Facebook fan page, Kraviz opens with “Thank you Greg. It’s a great article and I appreciate it and I am actually really honored”, before adding that “sometimes I just wanna scream into the Universe”. She continues thus:
Guys, are you serious”?” Aren’t you not bored about this 10 times dead topic about females in the industry, the idea that any boy can do what ever he wants and it’s all fine and girl needs to behave?Behave like not even put make up because “oh my god, she can’t be taken seriously if she is pretty and feminine-means if she is her self” Since when, guys? Please don’t put me in your marketing box. I don’t even have a manager. I refused them all. I do what I wanna do. And actually I am the most well behaved dj ever. Who doesn’t take any drugs(and I’ve been djing for 10 years now) who is professional and true to her self. Who never played a single record to please anybody. And stop with this snobism really. Its old fashioned. Even though I was in a fight with RA because they didn’t want to remove some episodes after following me for 3 days non-stop I found it a bit too focused on me as a female. They wanted no talks about acid techno, dance mania and all that they wanted it because they knew it would create a little mess. Of course. Finally the removed a lot but even after that the innocent and in my opinion lovely shoot in the bath makes you mad. So funny.This video is about dj on the road. And djs take baths sometimes. The party in Bulgaria was on the beach. So you wanted me to be on the beach in winter cloths? Just not to be miss understood? Since when wearing a swimming suit on the beach is too much? Ha? And the last thing. In the video I said “being a female in the industry is not easy sometimes because all relationship turn into distant relationship”. For many people I am just too real. But if you think I am gonna change because you don’t feel it or because you are full of cliches and sexism. You think you can control people and tell them what they should be. No, sorry it doesn’t work this way with me. I am producing, exploring, digging for records since ages, sharing music with people -all by my self. I have my right to be who I am and you can like it or not. I love my job and I am just too real for some of you. You think there must be a mistake. There must be something wrong. But no there is isnt’. You can’t control artist and their creativity. Sexism and all similar bullshit must die. And the first step to it is to let artists be who they are regardless of their gender, skin color, sexual orientation ect.. People cliches are for those who have less crafty brains. I hope one day you will find your self on the other side of the road. God bless you all.
You can watch the full video below.
