
Detroit DJ Whodat talks house music, Black women artistry
Clip: Season 51 Episode 19 | 5m 17sVideo has Closed Captions
Detroit DJ Whodat talks with “American Black Journal” contributor Chien-An Yuan.
Detroit DJ sensation and a true luminary in the electronic music realm, lifelong Detroiter Terri McQueen, popularly known as Whodat, is set to headline the highly anticipated 2023 Movement music festival in Detroit’s Hart Plaza. Whodat shares her love for house music and talks about being an African American woman in the music industry and what motivates her to create her unique sound.
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American Black Journal is a local public television program presented by Detroit PBS

Detroit DJ Whodat talks house music, Black women artistry
Clip: Season 51 Episode 19 | 5m 17sVideo has Closed Captions
Detroit DJ sensation and a true luminary in the electronic music realm, lifelong Detroiter Terri McQueen, popularly known as Whodat, is set to headline the highly anticipated 2023 Movement music festival in Detroit’s Hart Plaza. Whodat shares her love for house music and talks about being an African American woman in the music industry and what motivates her to create her unique sound.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(soulful music) ♪ When all the love is gone ♪ My heart to be all alone ♪ Sunshine, it's what you are to me ♪ (people chattering) ♪ Can't imagine my - Becoming an artist takes a lot of work.
For me, actually, the beginnings of it is learning to become an artist.
Believing that I was an artist.
I never considered myself an artist.
I think early on, I was trying to help other people with the things that they were doing and understanding things that needed to be done and helping them navigate through things.
And over time, I just realized you really have to take care of these things like a job.
(upbeat music) I started to understand promotion better when I heard people talking about visibility.
So by the time I did Movement, you know there's not many people that look like me that do Movement.
There's usually just a certain few.
So understanding that, like people need to see that because that's not something that I seen when I was younger.
And probably after Movement, I started seeing more people that look like me and they're like, "Yo, I seen you here.
I heard you here.
I had heard about you, but now I'm seeing you more, and you inspire me to do it, it lets me know that I can do it.
When I get frustrated it's like, well, if she got here, then I know I can get there.
I'm just gonna have to work through whatever I need to work through to get there."
And it's important.
(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Being from Detroit and making music is we stick to what we know.
This is what I'm doing and how I'm going to do it.
And I'm not changing my mind.
I don't care what you think.
I don't care what you like.
I don't care what you don't like.
When you're creating art, you're not necessarily thinking about like, "Yeah, everyone's gonna love this or like this."
You're just getting your creative output out.
It's what people need to do.
But when the money comes into it, you're like, "Oh man, I might lose my livelihood," or "I might lose my house," or "I might, well, I already lost my house, I don't really care.
I have nothing to lose 'cause I've already been through that.
What else you got?"
And that's a Detroit thing.
People getting laid off or losing their job and plants closing and somebody being on drugs or somebody dying at a early age or them just having a hard life growing up or you getting like in a car accident or just whatever.
It's just like our makeup.
Like yo, I don't really care.
I'm working to get here and this is where I'm going.
You either in it for the ride or you can get out.
That's it.
(keyboard bass humming) My new toy, my first, maybe second mode 'cause this actually is the first one that works that, but you had to put together like a little kid.
(keyboard bass humming) So probably mostly basslines with this and experimentation.
So we made the main bassline on "Don't Know" from this sequential, but we have no idea what patch was.
It's somewhere in here.
But that's fine 'cause that song's finished.
(laughs) I wanted to make it a new one.
Timeless.
(quirky music) (upbeat music) If you're a good person and you have a good heart, most things'll probably just coming to you.
For a long time I've felt undeserving of the things that were coming to me 'cause I hadn't been doing this for a long time but my mom was like, she explained to me, "You have to understand, you never look at all the things that you do for other people and you've always done that and you've always been that person.
So everything that you have coming to you, those are just things that you have already done."
Knowing that, I understand, well, this needs to be seen so that people can start understanding, okay, you can do this too and you can get over there.
You can be where I am.
(upbeat music)

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American Black Journal is a local public television program presented by Detroit PBS