A&E

Brigitte Navarrete of LA’s Deux Twins talks hip-hop’s boom and going hard in Vegas

Image
The Deux Twins land at Drai’s Beachclub on September 6.
Photo: Wade Vandervort

You and your sister Jaimee grew up in LA—did living there influence your interest in DJing? It’s a lot of fun growing up here. It definitely was what influenced us to get into music. One of our first jobs was interning for a producer who was signed to Interscope, and he played a huge role and opened our eyes up to the music industry when we were, like, 18 years old.

Hip-hop has changed so much over the past decade. What excites you about hip-hop these days? When we started DJing five or six years ago, our sets were even more open format [than they are now]. I feel like [people] started loving hip-hop, and since that wave happened it’s been a blessing to us. [While we were] growing up on the West Coast, hip-hop made us fall in love with music, and we’ve been able to play music that fits our taste versus the taste of the crowd. Even in the small span of five to six years, we’ve noticed it gradually move.

Hip-hop is like everyone’s favorite genre right now—it’s undeniable. Before, a lot of people loved hip-hop, but now it’s the entire crowd that knows every song. The more hip-hop you play, you see everyone is on board with it. We used to read the crowd and be like, “Oh, we need to go an EDM route to make this part of the room happy,” but now the entire room is moving when hip-hop is playing. It’s been dope.

How do you divvy up production and DJing? What are your individual strengths? We both are strong DJs. Jaimee is definitely better at hyping up the crowd. She’s a star. I’m less on mic; I prefer DJing more. We went to music and engineering school and both learned how to produce, so we’re both pretty hands-on. Every song is different. Sometimes Jaimee will play the melody and I’ll do the drums. Every record is different.

What’s your favorite thing to do in Vegas? When we’re in Vegas we like to have fun. We’ll go to dayclubs, go to a nice dinner, a nightclub. It really depends if we’re out for work or not. We try to make it a party for everyone. We Vegas hard.

How is playing Drai’s different from playing anywhere else? Drai’s for us is really different. That was one of our first jobs ever. Victor and Dustin [Drai] have both been good friends of ours. They hired us as bottle service waitresses in LA, so that’s where we saw most of our favorite DJs.

Playing Drai’s in Vegas is different because it’s definitely one of the only venues that’s predominately hip-hop. I love that we can go in there and drop the newest Drake song and the crowd is with it. The crowd is like the crowd that I want to go out and hang out with. They’re around our age, and they’re loving the same music, which is dope for us.

Deux Twins September 6, 11 a.m., $20-$30. Drai’s Beachclub, 702-777-3800.

Share
Photo of Leslie Ventura

Leslie Ventura

Get more Leslie Ventura
Top of Story