Sporting a casual green hoodie, jeans, a pair of Adidas, a baby face and a smile as bright as the chunky pink G-shock watch around her wrist, DJ Diamond Kuts (aka Tina Dunham) is more laidback in person than she is on the radio.
It’s almost hard to believe, upon meeting her, that she’s the same girl who amps up Power 99 from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. on her weekly Saturday Night Live show. But if you’ve ever tuned in, you definitely know her name, as it’s echoed frequently and loudly—“ DJ Diamond Kuts, Diamond Kuts, Diamond Kuts ”—over each track that she spins and mixes with the ease of a veteran.
She landed the position four years ago, when—at the urging of her mentor DJ Cosmic Kev—she entered Power 99’s Mix Master Weekend 2005. That led to a position at the station and becoming the first female mixer in Philadelphia. Nowadays Diamond Kuts is not only shining behind the turntables and adding her name to the long list of legendary Philadelphia DJs, but the talented, young West Oak Lane native is quickly paving her own unique path.
It all started with a Christmas present. Her late father, legendary MC Grand Tone, purchased a starter kit complete with turntables and a mixer for a then 16-year-old Diamond, and she’s been cutting and live mixing ever since.
“I used to play the drums and the flute before I got started,” says Diamond. “When you’re young, you like to experiment with different things, and DJing was one of them—especially because my father worked a lot with local DJs like Cosmic Kev and Jazzy Jeff.”
Practicing every day in her basement, Diamond’s passion grew. She got a job one summer and saved up for a set of Technic 1200 turntables—standard DJing equipment—and continued to hone her skills.
In middle school and high school, Diamond would hang out downtown at Armand’s record store, where she learned even more from local DJs Fat Cat, Ambush and Obi One. By 18, she had the streets buzzing with numerous mixtapes, was spinning at local clubs and had a job DJing at Sneaker Villa.
But “DJing” is a bit misleading. Like “punk rock” the term has been so diluted, it’s all but meaningless. Diamond isn’t a DJ the way Wendy Williams is a DJ or the way the average novice who’s spinning at a bar is. She’s got more in common with producers like Diplo and Switch and DJs like A-Trak than the average DJ night sees a hack here or there rifling through their favorite tracks on iTunes.
“Putting ‘DJ’ in front of your name does not make you one,” she says matter-of-factly. “Today some people say they’re DJs and haven’t touched a turntable a day in their life—they just think it’s a way to become successful. You have to love the technique and the art of it, learn the history and always want to grow.”
Make no mistake, Diamond is a real DJ.
And it’s amazing to watch. In a nine-minute video of Diamond mixing live on-air for Power 99, she makes everything look effortless. She utilizes the computer program Serato, which allows her to spin mp3s on vinyl, and has her laptop hooked up to a set of Technic 1210 turntables and a Rane mixer.
She plays each song standing between the turntables, her laptop and the microphone—scratching, mixing and doing drops (pausing the music to talk to listeners). At one point she texts, and occasionally dances with a friend who pops in and out the studio during her set. In between all this, she drops her signature a few times. “ Diamond Kuts, Diamond Kuts ,” a sassy prerecorded female voice repeats, then fades out.
“C’mon, let’s go!” Diamond yells through the microphone to listeners as she continues to nod her head to the beat. She amps up everyone tuned in with the latest Baltimore House records and club favorites; her energy is perfect for the Saturday-night crowd, and in her words, she “gets it in.”
Aside from her Saturday Night Live show on Power 99, she also spins Fridays from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Both sets are among the top-rated urban radio programs in their time slots (with more than a million listeners tuning in each week). Diamond was recently added to the station’s morning show, Big Boy’s Neighborhood , as well.
“Cosmic tells me all the time, ‘Outside of being a female, you’re a good DJ,’” she says. “For a while a lot of people didn’t even know I was a girl because at the end of the day it’s about talent.”
Last summer, Diamond dropped “Salt, Pepper, Ketchup and Hot Sauce” and the four condiments were heard blasting at just about every tween to teenage party, dollar party, block party and club mix. The Baltimore House-inspired local hit, infused with corner-store lingo, became a mandatory soundtrack for D-Mac/Wu-tang dance battles. (The dances are local crazes identified by a series of high-energy, synchronized arm movements and comical poses that are typically done to Baltimore House and have become staples in the young party scene.) The song was an instant hit with teens, but it didn’t win everyone over.
“The kids loved that song,” says Diamond. “At first that was the direction I wanted my album to go. But people that really love hip-hop weren’t fans of the record because they felt like it was stupid and didn’t have any meaning to it. I decided I want to make songs that people can listen to forever and everyone is going to love—not just kids and not just adults.”
So Diamond called up some hip-hop heavyweights and began restructuring the direction of her compilation album. (Diamond will be the first female DJ to release a compilation album.) Her-Story in the Making is scheduled for release later this year. The album’s first single, “Main Attraction,” is already making waves and features DJ Khaled and rappers Ace Hood, Diamond (of Crime Mob) and local favorites Flyboy and Gillie da Kid.
Additionally, the ambitious go-getter is currently in between Philly and New York due to her new gig as co-host of BET’s The Deal (a thinly veiled spin-off of the station staple The Basement , which she was also featured on occasionally). On The Deal Diamond spins live and has been getting her feet wet in front of the camera interviewing artists.
“It’s totally different than radio,” she says. “TV is fun and I love it, but it’s so much more outside of actual talent. I had to go through a lot of grooming to prepare. I have to worry about my appearance now, whereas on radio you can look however you want.”
In the YouTube video of Diamond mixing live on air at Power 99, she’s in clothes that wouldn’t make it past an on-air stylist. “Sometimes I go to the radio station with my pajamas on and my hair wrapped up in a scarf, and I’m comfortable,” she laughs.
Apparel aside, it’s in her live videos where you truly see Diamond in her element. She shows there’s much more to mixing than the popular image of a person wearing humongous headphones, hunched over a set of turntables, simply rubbing their hands over records and scratching up tracks, looking up occasionally to bounce a hand in the air. In short, it takes skill.
“Before I started radio, I used to scratch records up like crazy because I learned from a lot of local DJs that were really into cutting,” she says. “I also used to play a lot of street records from [local rappers] like Reed Dollaz and Meek Mill. So I had to learn to balance it out. But I don’t have any particular method. My job is to please the listener or partygoer. Seeing people happy and grooving to the music I’m playing—there’s nothing else better than that.”
Believing that one must have multiple goals in order to be successful, Diamond is the official touring DJ for 19-year-old Lil Mamma, the rapper from New York who exploded on the scene two years ago with her own kid-friendly hit “Lip Gloss” and is now a judge on MTV’s popular show America’s Best Dance Crew .
Looking young enough to be carded, Diamond won’t disclose her exact age, yet maintains she’s in her early twenties. “It feels good to be young and to have done so much in the short time I’ve been DJing. It just opens up the door for more things,” she says.
Being on tour with Lil Mamma helped Diamond gain more confidence in front of a crowd and behind the microphone. Surprisingly, she was once the “the quiet girl in school who did [her] work and went home.” During the tour, Diamond had to introduce Lil Mamma to crowds of thousands. Nervous at first, the experience pushed her to become more outspoken. But it was her time in college that really brought out the Diamond we see today.
“When I went to Seton Hill University, I was around a lot of different people and out of my comfort zone, so it opened me up tremendously and shy Tina was gone,” she says.
Diamond left Seton in her junior year to pursue radio. She’s had much success since then, but plans to eventually complete her degree. And when it’s all said and done, her plans lead her back home.
“I love Philly,” she says. “When I’m old, settled down and can’t DJ anymore, and I’ve got arthritis in my fingers and my knees are bad, I want to open up different businesses in the city. I want to have recreation centers for kids so they can stay off the streets—hair salons, day care centers, car washes, a laundromat … I want to be everywhere like Walmart, like Cricket or what’s the other one?”
Metro PCS.
“Yeah, like Metro PCS!” she laughs. “I want to open up a club too!”
Before she heads back to her car, where she listens to artists like Janelle Monáe, Katy Perry or Britney Spears (it helps her get a break from the music she constantly spins on the radio), Diamond discloses her biggest goal:
“I want to be remembered as a great DJ,” she says. “I’m working so that years down the line I will be considered one of the best that has ever done it; not best female DJ, but DJ period. I want to be a legend when I leave.”
By Shahida Muhammad (PhiladelphiaWeekly)
