EXPLORING DJ AG'S MUSICAL COMMUNITY @ END. LONDON FOR AIR JORDAN

Voted as Time Out’s Londoner of the Year 2024, DJ AG’s rise to prominence has been meteoric. Climbing to the surface of the cultural zeitgeist for his joyous and community centred live streams across London and beyond, DJ AG’s outdoor musical journey has been punctuated with a variety of twists and turns.

Originating as a way to enliven his mixes, and spurred on by his kids, AG – real name Ashley Gordon – decided to take to the streets and livestream his sets in favour of posting his mixes online. Quickly amassing followers for his uplifting video content across TikTok and Instagram, AG sought to spotlight the lesser-known musical community, creating a platform to celebrate the breadth of talent that the city has to offer that may have gone unnoticed otherwise.

Now, with a combined following of over 800 thousand, DJ AG’s videos have amassed millions of views, capturing the attention of music fans and musicians alike. Attracting a wide array of guests such as Central Cee, Skepta and JME to Idris Elba, Lady Leshurr, Craig David, Daddy Freddy and Tippa Irie, DJ AG’s appeal is in the community feeling he is proliferating. Using his sizeable platform as a way for people to share their talents, AG’s M.O. is to keep building and spreading joy.

Performing live from END.'s flagship store in Soho, London, DJ AG hosted a livestream to celebrate of the pre-launch release of Michael Jordan's legendary Air Jordan 1 High 85 Bred sneaker, with performances from Tay Jordan, Slew, Rushy and more.

Ahead of the launch of the Air Jordan 1 High 85 Bred, END. sat down with DJ AG to discuss his musical history and what drives his passion.

What first kickstarted your interest in music?

Essentially, all of my family were into music. My mum, my dad, my uncles and aunties. On Sundays, when we were cooking Sunday dinner, we'd have 80s, soul, groove, reggae, dancehall playing in the background and from a very early age, it was one of my fondest memories. Sunday, just chilling with my dad in his room. He's got loads of vinyl from Greensleeves Records and you know, just going through the records, all these dubs that he had. It just runs in the family, really!

In secondary school, I used to save up my pocket money – five pounds a week – and rather than catch the bus, I’d save that money and go to the local record store and buy a CD every week. It used to cost like 2.99 or 3.99 for a single and I’d be delving into your jungle, your garage. I remember grabbing the Sunship remix of Flowers by Sweet Female Attitude. In terms of the subgenres, I was listening to a lot of garage, R&B and jungle. They were my forte at that time. My dad being into sound system culture, with him going out on weekends to DJ and my uncles all being a part of sound systems and DJing was what really started my interest in becoming a DJ. For my 13th birthday, my mum bought me a pair of CD mixers and from that point, I wasn't DJing but I was selecting. I did that for a few years and when I hit sixth form, which was when I was 16, I kind of delved into MCing. I did that for a little while and then I kind of stopped MCing and in 2011, I decided to go back to DJing and the rest is history.

What compelled you to return to DJing at that time?

The joy that you give people. The fact that you can change someone's mood from being sad to being happy. Obviously, you can do that with your MCing but being able to do that DJing in a club or at a wedding or at a party, there's something in terms of the emotion that you can't replace.

What was the initial inspiration to start DJing out on the streets of London?

My inspiration was seeing Suat, who is a YouTube streamer, and he was DJing outside, but he was doing walking DJing. So, he had it on his back - imagine having like 20 or 30 kgs walking around causing havoc with his chunky beats. I looked at that and I was like "oh my days", I didn't even know that you could DJ outside, I didn't know that you could get a generator that was so small. I just had no idea. At the time, I was about a year into my TikTok journey and I was thinking, "why don't I try and replicate that" and that's what we did, we kind of built exactly the same thing but playing my own style, more urban style delving into sort of chart pop, bit of house, bit of garage and just doing it my own way. Eventually, I was just like “you know what, this is too heavy. Let me try something different. Let's put it down.” I put it down in the middle of the road, in the green and my viewer numbers still stayed the same. I had about 2000 viewers at that point. So, I thought, I don't actually need to carry this anymore. People are happy to watch because I'm outside.

Had it always been a part of your plan to get people on the mic during your performances or was that how your sets evolved over time?

It’s evolved over time because when I was DJing outside my friend Chris suggested it, but I thought he was crazy, man. I'm outside, people are throwing eggs at me, they're throwing water at me, people are trying to touch my decks at the same time and they don't understand what's going on. It obviously needs a lot of care and attention. So, I thought I certainly can't allow for that as well and then eventually someone who was there at the green was like “do you mind if I come and jump on”, for some reason I let them give it a try and the rest is history. That was when I realised that we can actually do this and then as we got further along on the journey, I thought, "rah, there’s actually a need for this", because there's so many places that are shut down now. There are fewer pubs, fewer bars, fewer open mic spots, so people don't really have that opportunity to showcase their skills. Not only showcase their skills but also sharpen their blade when it comes to performing, to hear that instant feedback. I think it's really important. I thought that this actually has a place and we need to help our people where we can.

Did you find that it was mostly people who you knew who were getting on the mic, or was it complete strangers?

It was literally strangers - no one that I knew - and I wanted to have it be organic, so I didn't really want to do any outreach or contact people because, in all fairness, the whole point of the platform Is very much community, being for the people and I didn't want it to be a case of where I was talking to my friends saying come on, come on. I just wanted to go outside and DJ. The primary focus was always about DJing, sharing the love, being with the people, dancing with the people, letting them interact. It wasn't solely focussed on the music, that's just been more of a gradual thing but now that seems to be like 80% of what I do now is allowing people to come on and perform and showcase their skill. But it's just great when it's those organic moments. There's nothing better than when you come across someone that's an unknown talent and they've just got such a gift and it's only right that we share that when we can.

Performing in public, there’s a certain degree of unpredictability that must come with that – what’s the craziest thing that has happened when you’ve been livestreaming?

We’ve had our fair share of interesting moments! I've been arrested once. That was in Shoreditch, back in 2024. Arrested for playing music, which was very, very interesting. I've had people walk past and pull their pants down to show me their butt. But it's mostly people just touching the decks, fascinated by the flashing lights. I've had eggs thrown at me because people didn't really understand what I was doing, or thought it was a joke. We've had our fair share of turbulence. It's all exciting, for good and for bad. I suppose this journey certainly teaches you how to be resilient, how to show empathy because even with the bad moments you don't really know what someone's going through. There might be a reason why they're reacting in a certain way or doing a certain action and it's just having that empathy, trying to have that third person view of what they're going through and how can we be a bit mindful of that.

Since you’ve blown up on TikTok and Instagram, and won Time Out’s Londoner of the Year Award, have you seen much of a change in who is turning up to get on the mic?

Considering the weather, which is cold and rainy right now, maybe you'd think people are not going to really turn up, they're going to wait for the summer and then they're going to come out in their droves. Which will probably happen anyway, but loads of people have come out. We've had loads of people reaching out, whether they are legacy performers or people just trying to get a chance. The reception has been really, really good and we've certainly had some success stories and some viral moments that have given people opportunities. We've had artists that have gone on to audition on The Voice, which has been amazing. We've had artists like Ragga Ruggie who's getting bookings pretty much every other week. We had Inspeckta Veg, who went viral as well and that gave him a lot of attention and it grew his account three or four-fold. There's been a lot of success stories for sure. And the care homes, as well. I went to a care home in Enfield and as a result of one of the videos the Enfield Council decided to support the care home more with a bit of funding. There’s a lot of success stories, so it’s very fulfilling. I'm just glad that my kids gave me that encouragement to go on TikTok and try. As a result of that, I feel like I've found my purpose, which is a very fulfilling thing. The days are hard, the days are long and there's always a lot to do but there's nothing better than being able to do what I'm doing right now.

You’ve been up against it with the council over the past year or so, how has it impacted what you’re doing dealing with the bureaucracy of permissions?

I just go somewhere else. Obviously before, when I got arrested, I used to fight it a bit more, and tried to stay where I was, but I guess I could have probably avoided getting arrested just by moving on. I learnt from that and my thought process now is that I feel like what I'm doing is extremely valuable, so if a council or an area doesn't want me to be there then I don't need to be there and I can go somewhere else where I’m wanted. I'm never going to pay for a permit, that's never going to happen and we're going to just spread the love where people actually want us!

We need to bring some life, some energy to people. Some people are just miserable, they’ve got nothing to look forward to, it's just Groundhog Day every day. But when we're in King's Cross or Brixton, we're playing our music or whatever we're doing, people are happy, man! I get messages from people saying, “you know what, I had a bad day, but it lifted me” or “when I'm going home, I'll stop by and I'll listen It gives me that little bit of lift, a bit of hope.” I think hope is a word that we need to focus on. We need to give hope to our people. Not just in the care homes or just for the artists but give hope to all of our people in whatever way we can.

Why is representing or platforming the music community of London so important to you?

Because there are so many artists that are trying to break through and they haven't got the support in terms of the education on how to combat the various algorithms and they don't have the platforms that aren’t necessarily free. You’ve got BBC Introducing, but there's only so much that they can do. If you go onto other platforms you've got to pay £300-£400 to get on there and a lot of artists don't have that sort of money because it's tough times right now. How I see it is nice and simple; I don't want to ever charge anyone to come on. My thing is just about getting support from the record labels because obviously we're feeding them people, right? This platform is an A&R's dream! All you've got to do is scroll through it. There'll be some people that are just starting out and they need a bit more support but there'll be some artists that are ready, and they just need a bit of help and a bit of guidance to navigate through the industry. For me, keeping the platform free is essential and we can always monetise in a different way. You just hope that the record labels will support you and get support through various brand deals because they believe in your message and what you stand for.

UK music culture is so varied from region to region, each with their own specific influences and subcultures. Where would you like to take your performances to next and why?

If I'm honest, I want to take it everywhere. All the major cities but also the smaller towns as well, man. They might not be able to afford to get to one of the major cities The key thing is to take it to as many places as possible, but it shouldn't just stop in the UK. I've got ambitions to go to Jamaica shortly, to support my artists over there because there's loads of artists there even when it's such a small island. What a powerful island, full of talent.

We want to go to Africa, we want to go to Brazil and Colombia to do some reggaeton, because I'm open for that. There's no limits or boundaries to where we can go, and we should be trying to go to as many places as possible.

If you could pick a couple of your favourite moments from the live stream, what would they be?

I'd say Ragga Ruggie is one of my favourites. As an artist, he's been doing this for over 20 years but didn't really have the visibility. So, to be able to get him to come on with different costumes week in week out is great. You never know what he's going to do, if he's going to throw fairy dust at you or if he's going to turn up in a chicken costume. You never know what's going to happen with Ragga Ruggie, and he is an amazing talent. Long may his journey continue and prosper! But also going into the care homes and playing music for the people that are often forgotten have been some of my highlights. A lot of the residents, they don't get no visits. They're forgotten, so to have those moments where they're singing and dancing, the music makes them remember certain points in their life. Whether that be going out, whether it’s their husband or their wife courted them to that song. Powerful moments, and those are just a couple!