Dj Yemi & Atni - Interview With Loline Mag

Both born and raised in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, DJ Yemi, and Atni are the producers of the newly released album, Gud-fela. The title was given to the album to reinstate Yemi’s comeback to the music scene with a bang. The album contains a variety of genres going from EDM, hip hop, and afrobeat to traditional music. Gud-fela will soon be released on every platform so we can turn up the speakers and dance the night away but for now, let’s dive into the artists’ backgrounds.

Yemi and Atni met four years ago through a friend and they got close very quickly. Since their ideas and styles complimented each other, the process of working together was very natural. To learn about the artists individually, Yemi went to ICS and EPCS (now known as EPS) and left to live in Atlanta Georgia where she started Djing. She came back and secured gigs at clubs while she started hosting a radio show on Sheger FM. A year later Afro FM started and they hired her as the host for the hype show and later a host for the breakfast show and Djed at concerts and traveling.

Yemi listens to almost every genre of music starting from classic old-school Ethiopian like the volumes of ethiopiques to hip hop, jazz, and everything except country. She has not yet identified a specific genre and plans to experiment with her music. Her career started to deteriorate six years ago when she was diagnosed with chronic Anemia. The demanding factor of her job slowed her down since she couldn’t go out much and that was a crucial part of her job. A few years went by and she came back to the scene and met Atni through which they worked together and built her studio called Gud-fela studio.

Atni went to school in Kokbthebaha primary and secondary school. He’s been working in music for eight years teaching himself how to produce through YouTube and his friends. He listens to artists like Tilahun Gessesse, Muhammud, Aster Aweke, Gigi, 50 Cent, Eminem, David Gutta, and Dr. Dre. He mentioned that they influence his music, especially Dr. Dre. He identifies as a Hip Hop and EDM artist. The toughest part as a musician for him was that his music was interpreted in a way he didn’t intend.

Atni and Yemi as DJs wanted to release the album to make it easy for DJs to play a variety of upbeat music without having to worry about changing the vibe too much so they mixed up the different cultures. They want their music to be able to play anywhere at any time and go beyond the border to hear Eri-bel at a foreign club. It was hard for them to find their place in the industry since the music industry was fixed on one culture that is contrary to what they had to bring so it was hard to find someone that believed in their art. But as DJ Yemi mentioned “nobody can really ever believe in you as much as you can believe in yourself” and they took that and got through it and prove that they could make it.

When asked what she wants to say to her listeners Dj Yemi she said to not let anyone stop you from doing what you think is right for you. She’d like to thank her family and everyone that has supported her work throughout her career.