The Mixtape Vol. 97

By Ian McNair

Phatstoki is the public name of a relative newcomer to the world of DJing and party promoting, as well as filmmaking and photography. She is also credited as a primary impetus for the creation of the ‘for-femmes’ monthly club night in Joburg – Pussy Party.

The story goes that after creating some ‘Boobs and Honey’ mixtapes – named after her closest friends Buli (Boobs) and Monique (Honey) – the latter contacted Rosie Parade (aka Coco of the bar currently known as Kitchener's) to try get her booked. After Coco rejected her on the shortness of the mix and her relative inexperience, Honey approached Coco to demand what she needed to do to gain entry into the scene as a DJ. 

Thankfully she did, because through that process Coco and Ri (of Broaden A New Sound) realised the need for a feeder event for the industry at large that would allow femme musicians and DJs to prove their mettle and access a receptive crowd. And so, Pussy Party was born.

They obviously invited her to play the first of these events. "She blew everything out the water," Coco explains. "She is one of the most intuitive DJs I've ever witnessed, reading the room perfectly, timing the drop and the sway like ballet.“ It was then that Phatstoki became a permanent member of the team and has since been integral to what the nights represent and how they operate. Her photography is used for the poster art and he multidisciplinary skill sets are being put to amazing use in an upcoming music video for a collaborative track from Pretoria’s DJ Spoko and Comeme’s Matias Aguayo. She’ll also be working with filmmaker Zandi Tisani, creating a doccie for the almost-all-women-organised Ikonika tour to SA, which happened Saturday 25 Feb at FKA Kitcheners, and coming up in CT with Not Sorry Club on the 4th of March.

She has prepared a beautiful 27-minute mix to get straight into the mood and chatted to us briefly below…

What does this mix mean to you? What are you communicating with the selections and flow?

I was asked to do the mix leading up to Iknonika’s tour presented by Pussy Party, British Council Connect ZA, DEF and Red Bull. The mix kicks off with one of Ikonika’s remixes and transitions into a blend of electronic dance and gqom. My communication is pretty straight forward with this mix; jiva boss.

What qualifications do you have? Do you need qualifications and training to get into film, photography, DJing and event promoting?

Personally I'm not a big believer in qualifications. I’m not even sure how to answer this because qualifications tend to feel incredibly exclusionary to me. I went to the Market Photo Workshop, I’ve exhibited my photography multiple times in Johannesburg, once in Germany and I’m listed as a co-director in a documentary film that got screened at film festivals, including The Encounters Film Festival and The DIFF in 2016. But I don’t think any of these things make me any more qualified than a really talented kid with a camera who didn’t have access to the information I later did. I’m no better than the kid who believes they could do it all if they were given the chance to. I was once that kid. I am very fortunate that a lot of the times I was given a chance. People trust my capability to deliver on the basis that they like the work I do, and it doesn’t make my work ANY less valid because I didn’t learn what I know formally. If anything, it makes it more authentic.

What do you feel you have learned most in the process of being a part of the Pussy Party team?

I would say I’ve learnt that a lot of people feel very strongly about the same things I feel strongly about, which is cool. I’ve also learnt not to lose hope in the idea of (good) changes in spaces that are usually incredibly violent to bodies that resemble mine, the party has taught me a great deal about getting up and doing something that’s necessary, as opposed to just talking about it amongst my peers.

What other femme-centric events or movements do you draw inspiration from in your work?

There are many popular ones all over the world I could mention but I think for me, personally, it’s the events 'influencers' draw a large part of their inspiration from, but don’t want to be associated with; the events where black women/womxn will dance freely, legs spread out, with their hands placed flat on the bonnet of a Citi Golf, stopping someone to a halt (someone who’s just trying to get some ice at the garage for the cooler box that’s holding all the drinks for the ‘end of the month weekend’). I draw inspiration from the women/womxn who follow the sound of music from their homes to a speaker standing upright on a wall shared by people who watched each other grow from birth into grandparenthood. The femme-centric events that inspire me, are the ones that don’t get featured much.

What does Pussy Party represent for you personally?

Personally, a space that gives me the room to not feel like I should mind my own business when I confront hyper-masculinity or any other problematic issues that hinder the comfort of femme-representing/identifying energies. It wouldn’t be fair to call it a safe space because at the end of the day, there are all types of people we can’t necessarily stop from walking in because we don’t know what everybody’s intentions are, which automatically makes it unsafe the moment a space is shared with those that have bad ones. But what we can do is try make it a comfortable enough environment for people to not hesitate to call violent shit out, and Pussy Party is that for me. It’s a space where I feel like there are people in there who have my back, people who aren’t necessarily my friends, but know the kak we go through in club spaces while just trying to have a good time.

What are the principles that you consistently push in your work that makes it recognizably and uniquely yours?

It’s hard to say without being vague, but my principles are about staying true to who I am. I try not get too influenced by trends in the industry, I avoid pressuring myself to fit in. If you’ve had a look at my work, it would be easier to point out the obvious use of space, lines and shapes which are visual consistences, but more so my principle is on feeling. The work always has to make me feel something, or at least just feel right. This includes my short mixes too. I guess that’s what I try to do, I can’t really explain how, I can only hope the audience feels it too.

If you had to choose only one discipline, due to overwhelming success in that realm, would you choose to pursue promoting, DJing, photography or filmmaking? Why?

Haha, I tried! But I can’t choose one, sorry.

What’s next for you now that you’ll have an event to promote, a doccie and a music video under your belt, and a thirsty, receptive audience watching your every move?