Talent: Disc Jockey, On-Air Personality
Mix Tape: Southern Stilettos
DJ Crew: Murda Mamis, Noize Mob
Contact:  www.myspace.com/brandigarcia

Whoever said a DJ couldn’t be talented, skilled, and beautiful all at the same time probably never met Brandi Garcia! “People are always surprised when they meet me because not only am I a female but I also don’t have the stereotypical face for radio,” says Brandi. “Then they are even more shocked to find out that I do mixtapes and can actually mix!”

And mixing is not the only thing Miss Garcia is capable of. Starting off early at the age of 15, this Colombian mami did an internship and created a radio station at her high school all before graduating with a full-academic scholarship to Florida State University. This afforded her an opportunity to do sports updates at the college station while also working part-time at the arbitron-rated #1 station in town 96.1 Jamz. From there, the list of stations Brandi has worked at becomes pretty extensive including WWLD, WTNT, WBWT, WNLS, WHRP, & currently KBXX 97.9 The Box in Houston. Ms. Garcia has held positions in On-air, Sales & Promotions making her a well-rounded radio star. And that’s just the radio side!

Mixing is another world for her that started back when she was hosting the weekend mixshows at the Beat in Tallahassee. “I would watch the mixers every weekend and was fascinated by the craft especially the reaction they would get in the clubs!” says Brandi. “I knew then that mixing was definitely for me.” So after maxing out a couple of credit cards and having her family think she was crazy, Brandi got her first set of turntables while in college.

She currently has a mixtape series called “Southern Stiletto’s” going strong and has recently been named “2006 Southern Entertainment Awards Female DJ of the Year”! Thru Capitol Records Brandi was able to team up with chart-topping artist LeToya to do her official mixtape which was distributed nationally. She also just finished doing the official mixtape for the 2007 Southern Entertainment Awards. There is no stopping now and Brandi has her heart set on taking over in the male-dominated industry of mixtapes. “Shoutout to my family, Murda Mamis & NoizeMob!” says BG.

Where are you originally from?

I’m from Tallahassee, Florida.

How did you end up in Houston?

Actually they called me up.  I was in Huntsville, Alabama at a radio station and the GM over here was looking for someone to fill the mid-day slot.  It ended up working out.

What made you get into DJing?

(laugh). There is a couple of different things.  There are really three types of DJs. You have radio DJs, you have club DJs, and you have mix tape DJs.  As far as radio when I was a kid I use to go down to my grandmother’s in Miami and I use to listen to a lot of the mix shows down there on Power 96. That’s as far as radio. As for as club DJing and mix tapes, I use to watch these two cats from back home.  I use to host mix shows on the weekends. I use to watch Frank Love, J Quick, and DJ Demp   in the club a lot and I was fascinated by what they use to do with the turntables and I was like man I never saw a female do that before.  I wanted to be one of the first females to do that. Of course you had other females doing it but none were in the south.

Where can people catch you these days?

Right now I do a show on 97.9 The Box, Monday through Friday.  Its called, Brandi Garcia and The Hollywood Boys.  It’s a mix show and it airs from 10 to 1.  I’m on that last hour by myself.

As a female and having to have accomplish so much, do you think that it has been more of a struggle to where you are, then if you were a man?

I would say the opposite. Being a female you don’t have to be that good and that’s just because your one of few but you still have to earn your respect.

You say that your parents has always supported you but I know that it had to be times where they had to doubt you because the fact that your a female?

Actually they didn’t support me at first.  They thought I was crazy.  They thought what is this girl doing? It wasn’t just the genre, it was also the fact of me maxing out  a couple of credit cards. Once they saw that it was something that you can make a living off of and pay bills, then they started to support me but in the beginning they thought I was crazy.

When you were in Tallahassee, did TJsDJs music conference play a big role on your furthering your career?

Actually I use to go when it first started out. I would say not so much of TJsDJs but TJ himself and as far as people that were very important. Hell, they made T-Pain. TJ has really been an advocate for the local artist.  He has  broken a lot of new artist.  If you look at TJsDJs history, its similar to Ozone Magazine expect theirs is an actually function. I remember TJsDJs when David Banner came and he was still living out of his vehicle. 

Chuck T speaks extremely highly on the Noize Mob DJs as his family.. Do you feel the same way?

Yes, I will speak very highly of Noize Mob. Everyone has a DJ crew these days and everyone is aphilliated and the important thing to me is not the name but what are you actually doing with these people. We are few crews that have conference calls, we really play an active role and help each other out.

What were you trying to get out of it when you started dropping the Southern Stilettos mixtape series. 

Honestly I was just trying to get my name out there.  Then I was DJing clubs.  I was just trying to get my name out there and I thought mix tapes was the best way.  I basically wanted to be the female version of DJ Drama. Southern Stilettos was like Gangtsa Grills. At the end of the day people do mix tapes for different reasons.  Some do it to promote their artist, some do it to make money and others do it for promotional use to basically promoter themselves.  As for me I do it for two different reasons. I do it to promote myself because I want to be known as a DJ and people know that I’m here and that I can actually mix records. And also like to do mix tapes that you can listen and play the whole way.

How did it feel to be named the "2006 Southern Entertainment Awards Female DJ of the Year”.

Actually that’s a funny story.  It goes back to Chuck T.  I was sitting with him at the awards and he was nominated for a whole bunch.  We though that he didn’t win any so the mood was like really really bad so we weren’t paying attention.  We were like Chuck got nominated for a whole lot and didn’t get any but what happened was that the awards go shut down early because the show went over the time.  The last 5 to 10 categories didn’t get announced.  I didn’t know that I won an award until about 30 minutes after the awards was over, all of a sudden Janero comes and hands it to me and was like congratulations.       

It seems like the Houston buzz is slowly dying down, do you think it'll come back soon like it was or will it take some time again?

Aww, that’s a good question.  Here is how I related it to.  When 50 Cent first came out he had a buzz that was crazy.  To me he never stopped making records.  He never stopped moving along.  You can only have the buzz but for only so long but it doesn’t mean that everything shuts down.  Right now we may not have the buzz like when we first started but its moving along.  We are making some serious music out here.  When I say that the talent is sick.  The talent out here is tremendous. I think that we’ll do fine.  It may now be a "I got shot nine times" type of buzz.

Any shout outs?

Shout out to Noize Mob and The Murda Mamis.