Vanessa started buying vinyl in the early 1990s when she was sneaking into house parties in Chicago, and realizing that the music she really loved only came out on vinyl. She had 1 turntable and never planned to become a DJ. She bought records because she loved music. Fast forward to 1997, when Vanessa moved to NYC with lots of records she was in love with from Chicago and from living abroad in London. She was going out almost every night, thrilled that she could hear the kind of music she wanted any night of the week. Naturally, Vanessa befriended lots of DJs, and 1 of them asked her to bring a bag of records and play for an hour. She still only had 1 turntable and didn't know how to use a mixer. But, beginners luck-- someone who was opening a new place was there and said he wanted her to be their weekend DJ. He wasn't lying. DJ Diaspora had a residency there for 7 years. Eventually, she got a 2nd turntable and a mixer. ;) DJ Diaspora's genre trajectory went like this: deep house-trip hop-jungle/drum n bass-Latin-broken beat-neosoul-Afrobeat-World-old jazz-old soul-Anything that moves her.. and she likes mixing all of it together.