Dee Diggs joins us for Phonica mix 132, a 90-minute session that traces a fluid line through U.S, deep house and disco.
Based in Brooklyn, Diggs is a DJ, producer and curator whose work foregrounds the Black and queer roots of dance music. Her sets balance emotional depth and rhythmic precision, drawing from a wide palette while maintaining a strong sense of narrative. First emerging through New York’s queer party circuit, she’s since built an international profile through thoughtful mixes for platforms like Honcho and Dekmantel, as well as her own event series, House of Diggs. With each project, Diggs makes clear that dance music is both personal archive and political practice. We had a chat with Dee about her Phonica mix and about what she has coming up:
Hey Dee Diggs, thanks for joining us! Can you tell us about your mix and what the idea behind it was?
Thank you for the invitation! My mix is a mostly vinyl mix made in my studio in Ridgewood, Queens, NYC over the course of 3-4 days.
I had a draft ready to send before I went to Movement Festival weekend in Detroit, but my intuition and my ears weren’t satisfied with that take, so I let it linger over the weekend, returned to the birthplace of techno for my pilgrimage, bought some more records there and then came back to mix making when I got back home to New York.
I love when life weaves through the mix like this. I picked up so much inspiration in Detroit. Going there always reminds me where I fit into the wider legacy of Electronic music and allows me to touch base with the Black American tradition of sound that I represent and come from.
This mix includes some deep house, some tribal house, some acid house, many b-side remixes, and most of the tracks are from the 90’s with only 2 being more current releases. All around this mix is a collection of reverent sensual soulful music for the party or dancing whenever life allows it.
I try to let the music speak and tell me how it wants to fit together into a story braided from all the messages of all the songs. I sat on many picnic blankets in direct sunlight in Detroit, a place where the music has brought me time and time again to teach me something specific about why I do what I do. I soaked up all that light and alignment with my purpose and put it into the atmosphere of this mix.
What are your preferred methods for finding new music—do you still enjoy digging around in dusty crates, or do you prefer to buy online?
As a hybrid, digital and vinyl DJ, I dig both ways. Sometimes I buy the digital file, while I wait for the vinyl to arrive in the mail or if I need it asap for a mix or a gig. Other times, having just the digital or just the vinyl copy will do. I like the flexibility of playing and collecting music in both formats.
Vinyl or digital doesn’t matter – revealing your taste and demonstrating the ability to create a connection between all the things you hear and want to share is what the art of Djing is to me. I like old music that sounds new and I like new music that sounds old. It is equally as refreshing to find or make music that sounds like the present, the here and the now. I’m not precious about playing old music vs new music. I consider and play it all together.
What are five records you couldn’t live without?
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going on (Album)
Ava Cherry – Spend the Night (Deluxe Edition)
Larry Heard – Sun can’t compare (single)
Louie Vega – Expansions in NYC
Sade – The Best of Sade
What has been one of your most memorable sets over your career?
It’s super hard to choose one. I’ve been so blessed over the past couple of years with opportunities that keep one upping the last one. My gratitude practice is to keep a long list of moments when I feel in my soul that music has brought me to the perfect place at the perfect time in perfect alignment.
Here’s my short list:
- Dekmantel Festival 2022
- Opening set for Beyonce’s Renaissance Concert in Minneapolis, MN July 2023
- Movement Festival set in Detroit,MI May 2024
- Opening set for Honey Dijon at her party Jack Your Body party in Panorama Bar in Berlin, DE October 2024
- Sonar Lisbon set in April 2025
What do you have up your sleeve for 2025?
2025 is a stacked one. I am doing a lot of touring and traveling. In the midst of all this, working on my debut album which is about 60% done. I am aiming to finish it and have it out by late 2025. I released my new single, Love Cruise last month!
I’ve just turned 30 in the last couple of months and I will hit my 10 year DJ anniversary this year too so I am feeling really good about the foundation I’ve made for myself in my 20’s. I’m feeling a lot of imposter syndrome melt away because I have seen how far my diligence and passion for music can take me.
I have nothing to prove, but this groove is inside of me and it deserves to get out and be played loudly. The success of my DJ career has shown me there is a need in this world for my sound and my energy, so completing and releasing the album is my main focus this year.
I say sometimes ‘love has a sound’ and that’s my vibe, but now I want to show y’all rather than tell ya.
