DJ Cocoa Chanelle is an award-winning American DJ, recording artist and humanitarian best known for her radio career as an on-air personality and mix show DJ on New York City's Hip Hop radio stationHOT 97 and Kiss FM, as well as her television career, as the first DJ ever to be employed by BET Networks on their DJ for the weekly teen talk show "Teen Summit."
Early life
Chanelle was born in Brooklyn, New York. At age seven, she was raised by her grandmother in West Virginia following the death of both parents to alcoholism. She started as a MC at the age of twelve, and was later put on the turntables by age thirteen by her brother Andre who was shot and killed in New Jersey three months before Cocoa was hired as a DJ on HOT 97.
Career
At a young age, Cocoa entered local talent shows rapping and Djing. By age 16, while visiting family, Cocoa was asked by Houston, Texas legend DJ Walter D to make a guest DJ appearance on the popular radio station Magic 102. It is believed that this is the first time in Hip Hop history that a female DJ was heard scratching and mixing on the radio. Immediately following high school graduation, Cocoa began her DJ career on a professional level in her hometown New York City as the DJ for hip-hop duo Kings of Swing who signed with First Priority Music and Virgin Records in the early 1990s,. Her big break came when she landed a weekly spot on BET's teen talk show Teen Summit as the first-ever BET resident DJ, a spot she held for over six years. She has also worked on MTV's Spring Break. and made several guest appearances on BET's Rap City and 106 & Park. Perhaps best known by many for her 16-year radio career in New York City on HOT 97 which began after making several guests mixing appearances on Hot 97's "Morning Show", hosted by Ed Lover, she was recommended to the stations program director and as a result, the morning show producer created the idea for "Ladies Night," which consisted of Angie Martinez, DJ Jazzy Joyce & Chanelle. Actor Chris Rock was quoted at the premiere of Madagascar 3 movie in New York City saying "Cocoa Chanelle is radio Royalty." Grammy Award-Winning Recording Artist Missy Elliott tweeted “Salute to the Legendary DJ Cocoa Chanelle” after watching a recent viral video of Cocoa doing tricks on the turntables. Footage of Cocoa doing turntable tricks began to spread rapidly online and gained over 300,000 views on Facebook in less than 24 hours, the video went on to capture the attention of many celebrities including Chuck D of Public Enemy, Sway Calloway of MTV and many others whom all posted the video on the social media. She was also listed in Vibe Magazine as one of the TOP 17 DJ's in the United States, honored by BET for Black History Month and received a Black Girls Rock! award that was presented by Grammy award-winning producer/DJ Mark Ronson. Aside from djing in nightclubs around the world, Cocoa has performed at Madison Square Garden in front of 20,000 people as the DJ for the New York Knicks half time show. She was also honored at the industry's biggest event for Radio Mixshow DJ's Mixshow Power Summit conference, where she received the award for "Best Female Mixshow DJ of the Year." In 1998, KRS-ONE wrote a song about Cocoa titled THIS DJ acknowledging her talent as a DJ. In 2009, Hip Hop legend Rakim requested for Cocoa to write, recorded and produced a hook for his single titled Euphoria featuring Cocoa alongside Jadakiss, Styles P, and Busta Rhymes. In 2018 Cocoa made history by headlining at Times Square Arena in South Africa, becoming the first American female DJ to do so. Additionally, she DJ'd for Wutang Clan legend Ghostface Killah, and in 2019 became the official touring DJ for the legendary female rap group Salt N Pepa.
