NYC DJ Khalil Takes You Inside Adidas x JFF Pop-Up

Khalil McKenzie's Caribbean roots run deep. Born to Panamanian parents with strong Jamaican ancestry, he got to experience the best of both cultures growing up in Flatbush, Brooklyn. "My earliest memories, I would remember all the music I would hear in the streets, memories of Carnival, things of that nature. I was always interested in my culture and music.”

Now as a DJ, mononymously known as Khalil, his intersection of the two has taken him to new heights and opportunities. One such opportunity was performing at a pop-up hosted by Adidas and the Jamaican Football Federation, to celebrate the release of the men’s World Cup jerseys. Khalil takes Forty-One through that experience and how he uses the sounds of his culture as a form of storytelling.

41: What’s it like having family from both Panama and Jamaica?

Khalil: So my parents were both born in Panama, and their parents are Jamaican. A lot of Jamaican people came to Panama to work on the canal back then, and they brought their culture with them. If you go to Panama today, you’ll hear people call it the Spanish Jamaica. You hear people speak Pato on the street, people making jerk chicken on the street, you hear a lot of dancehall and reggae. So with my family that culture is very embedded with us.

41: Is your family here or in the Caribbean big on football?

Khalil: No, funny actually, my family here in America aren’t big football fans. But I will say that my earliest memory of me doing anything athletic was football. My dad would come home, put the soccer ball in the middle, and we’d start playing soccer. But that quickly went away for basketball, my family in America are a very heavy basketball family. But my cousins back in the Caribbean are huge soccer fans.

I've been to Panama, Jamaica and I would see my cousins play like in the street. I think out there, in those places, in those regions, football is life. You see the commonality and vigor with the youth there, they all have dreams of the national team. And I like that. It's so big and huge and unique. They have a certain style of how they play and not trying to adhere to anything else.

41: How much of your culture inspired you to DJ? How would you describe a regular set of yours?

Khalil: I’ve been DJ’ing since I was 17. My friends back then, we hosted these backyard parties in Flatbush and I did my first set there. Looking back, I thought I was good but I was really bad. I had great sound selection thanks to what I grew up with, but I learned how to make my sets my own. I talk on the mic, and I like to interact with the crowd. I’m at a point in my musical journey that I can literally play everything. Caribbean music, West African music, South African music, R&B, hip hop, Latin. So there's a lot of stuff I could do, really, you never know what you’ll hear.

41: What were some of your favorite experiences so far?

Khalil: I ended up doing Afro Nation in Puerto Rico. That was my first big festival stage and it was a great experience. Before that, I wasn't really doing anything outside the city. And then later that year, I played at AfroFuture in Ghana. That was unforgettable, being in Accra and experiencing the city. It reminded me a lot of Jamaica. So yeah, it was almost surreal, like, wow, this thing that I taught myself to do, has taken me all the way over here.

41: How did you get the opportunity to DJ for Adidas?

Khalil: A member of the team just followed me one day. I had no idea where they heard of me from but they said I came highly referred. You know, I've worked hard at what I do. So I think people are able to see that. They see the consistency and creativity behind and want to shine a light on it.

41: So for the day of the event, how did it start off?

Khalil: I spent most of that day prepping, handling personal business, running errands. I was so tired, all I wanted to do was take a nap. But when I got home, I had to work on promoting an event with Silent Addy I was hosting in a couple weeks. It’s for Tingz, a Caribbean based platform I created. We do parties, food experiences. We have a book club, wellness events, you name it. So I spent all this time promoting that I didn’t even take my nap by the time I had to leave.

41: So then how was the rest of the night like for you?

Khalil: I grabbed some food before I pulled up to the venue. The line was around the block but my friends got me in. I never make a set before I play, so I just go with the vibes for the night. It was then Silent Addy sent me ‘Ballerina’ with Skillibeng and Rema, before it came out. So I ended up playing it that night.

And then funny story. I still haven’t eaten my food. I finally do, when my friend comes by, telling me my homeboy’s trying to call. I’m like, “...I’m eating.” And he’s saying he wants to introduce me to Lauryn Hill. And I’m still going, “...but I’m eating,” like it wasn’t clicking to me. Finally it did, and I went over but by the time we got there, she was already gone. It definitely would’ve been an honor, but I just chalked it up to everything happens when it's supposed to. By then, I went on stage and just got it rocking.

41: Coming off of that experience, how do you see your artistry evolve over time? How do you think music and soccer, especially for the World Cup, tells a story?

Khalil: I’m always wanting to push the envelope and present Caribbean culture in innovative, educational ways, highlighting things that people might not know much about. And for music and the World Cup, it just goes hand in hand. Like when Shakira did Waka Waka, it was so important and influential, because it speaks to the culture of the World Cup.

Music gets people moving. Sometimes people don't speak a language, but music can communicate a feeling or emotion from certain cultures that people can tap into. Especially with the times that we’re in now, where we have so much going on with people being silenced for telling their story or embracing who they are and where they come from. The World Cup and the music around it is a great platform to show something different.

41: What song that you’ve heard makes you think of the World Cup?

Khalil: Volare By Gipsy Kings