DJ Gemini Gilly
DJ Gemini Gilly
DJ Gemini Gilly is a Milwaukee DJ who combines her love for Black music with her love to entertain. Growing up in a household that was heavy on music, she was often handed the AUX cord at parties and social events in high school, which is where she first discovered her love for DJing. Since her first gig in 2019, DJ Gemini Gilly has performed with the Milwaukee Bucks, Summerfest, Black Futures Lab, Motown Accelerator and many more in addition to having a number of residencies.
Reflecting on the role music played for her growing up, Gilly said, “It’s always been an integral part of my life. My dad used to buy CDs every Friday when something new came out and he had a six-CD disc changer in his truck; we would go on road trips for basketball and he’d play so much stuff. My brother at one point wanted to be a music producer so I’d sit in his room while he was doing all that; he was really into sampling, so I was being exposed to so many different types of music like hip hop, disco and funk, which was really cool at five years old (laughs).”
“I was hearing and consuming so much that I started building my own music library when I was in 4th or 5th grade. I was heavy into music forums even as a kid and I’d make mix CDs for people as birthday gifts with like 10-15 songs. People loved that; when their birthday came, they knew they were getting a CD from me (laughs). I was always around the Milwaukee music scene for various reasons, but it was not until I was in grad school when I told myself that I was going to do this.”
Looking for an Outlet
Gilly attended grad school at UW-Madison. “I didn’t have the best experience there,” she explained. “I dealt with a lot of racism, and it affected my mental health a lot, and I felt that I needed an outlet. I was scrolling on Twitter in my seminar class one day and saw an article about women DJs; I was reading about what they do and what gigs they had and I thought it’d be so cool to do that. I left class and went to Guitar Center, bought my first DJ controller and decided that I’d at least try it. I thought it’d be a cool hobby to take all these songs in my head and just mix them all together.”
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From there she put in the work of teaching herself the techniques and watching videos of others doing it. “It was winter break, so I was off from school for like a month and I’d stay up from sunrise to sundown because I was so interested in what I was doing. I kept making mixes, and then nine months into me doing it a DJ out there named DJ M-White asked me if I wanted to open up for him. He was one of the only DJs in Madison at the time who played hip hop music out and I’d reached out to him and sent him some mixes. I had so much fun doing it but it was also really empowering to control the crowd off just music. Right after that, I bought a domain name—and the rest is history.”
Since then, Gilly has worked with over 20 clients and has amassed a number of mixes encompassing hip hop, R&B and Afrobeat music available for listening on her website. Her DJ name comes from combining her zodiac sign with a nickname she had in high school. She finds the full-circle moments to be most impactful, saying, “I could remember being places as a kid and now I’m DJing at them. For example, Summerfest—that was such a huge thing for me because I’d go to concerts there growing up, and to have people see me perform and say that they came to see me is an indescribable feeling. I’m really an entertainer and I’m really somebody that people want to see—that’s something I don’t take for granted at all.”
“I also grew up playing basketball, which is really my first love. I was super heavy into it and always had dreams of going to the WNBA; obviously that didn’t happen (laughs) but DJing for the Bucks is a really huge accomplishment because I feel like I made it to the league in a different way. It’s so cool that I still get a chance to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff and interact with the organization.”
At this point, Gilly could DJ anywhere from bar gigs to corporate gigs to Bucks games. She currently has a residency at Pourman’s with DJ Nic Stokes for Happy Hour from 6-10 p.m. on Fridays as well as their Sunday Fundays from 4-8 p.m., plus select Fridays and Saturdays at The Outsider. “I’m able to rock any type of gig while still being myself,” she said. “That’s so key as a DJ and I take a lot of pride in that.”
She’s a full-time DJ as of a couple weeks ago when she quit her full-time job, explaining, “I was DJing and working full-time for the last three and a half years. I was a full-time DJ for like six months when I first moved back to Milwaukee in 2020, and the only reason I stopped was because I missed social work which is what I have my master’s Ddgree in. But now I see no signs of me going back to that.”
A goal she has for the coming year is to DJ at a festival outside Milwaukee. “I love Summerfest and want to continue doing Summerfest, but my ultimate goal is to be a festival DJ. I would also love to have another residency somewhere, like somewhere that people typically won’t go and see a DJ but would come out for a good time. I love DJing hip hop, but I just did a house event with DJ Bizzon and FreakishNerd which was amazing; we played house for four hours and I enjoyed it so much. Maybe I’ll curate my own thing where people come out and hear whatever it is I want to play.”
Visit DJ Gemini Gilly’s website here.
