SouthFlorida.com | City Link Magazine

The reigning queen of the breakbeat scene, Orlando's DJ Baby Anne rules an ever-expanding subgenre of dance music. Her high-energy sets bounce heavily with Miami bass, a sound she has been spinning across the country for more than a decade. And as Miami engages in the largest electronic-music party in the country with the Winter Music Conference and Ultra Music Festival, it might seem that house music couldn't get any bigger. But Baby Anne has been around long enough to know that bigger doesn't always mean better.

Baby Anne saw her little underground dance community explode in the early '90s, shortly after she began performing. In a somewhat-carbonated reaction, the scene expanded, erupted and fizzed out only to make a steady rise again.

"When I was first DJ'ing, everything was really underground," she recalls. "And then, underground music got really popular, and the scene kind of exploded. But when hip-hop came along, it kind of killed everything, and now, things are a lot slower than they used to be."

Baby Anne clarifies that she's not against hip-hop, it's just that some DJs have risen to near-celebrity status and artists spinning together at all-night parties are now rare. Yet she herself has benefited from this attention, which is all the more remarkable because she didn't set out to be a professional DJ.

"I kind of fell into it by accident," Baby Anne explains. "I'd go out and dance a lot, and I learned how to DJ by listening to my other friends' mistakes. And when I got into it, the scene was growing, so I got different opportunities to go and play. But it was really just for fun."

The scene was getting so big that rave culture was a favorite topic on radio and television talk shows, and raves became the focus of movies such as 1999's Go and even a "very special episode" of Beverly Hills, 90210. But with mainstream popularity came some backlash.

"I used to play a lot more [raves], but they're few and far between now," she observes. "So many people were against them, like city officials, and they're just bad news in a lot of places."

Now, instead of spinning at raves, Baby Anne headlines exclusive clubs throughout the country. However, she remains nostalgic for the early days of her career despite her success.

"Most clubs will have one headlining DJ, whereas when raves were more predominant, it was a handful of DJs," she notes. "So you'd have a variety of DJs to go and listen to. I miss the old days, when I got to play with more people. I don't see other DJs I know as often as I used to."

Being a breakbeat star does have its perks, though. "I do like playing at nightclubs, because you get to go to bed earlier," Baby Anne admits. "When you travel the next day, it makes it a lot easier."

At age 32, Baby Anne has released five mix CDs. Her latest, Mixtress, features collaborations with top acts such as Jackal and Hyde. The CD finds her usual adrenaline-fueled tracks pulsing and warping with each tripped-up beat, the effect of which can approximate the sound of playing cards being shuffled. And as technology has developed, so has Baby Anne's technique.

"My sound has evolved with the break scene," she says. "The music itself and the producers have become more intelligent. The songs themselves are a lot more intelligent than they used to be."

She has also matured in more-obvious ways, as evidenced by Mixtress. The title track features the sound of a woman cooing in ecstasy and the cover art features a very grown-up Baby Anne in bondage gear, but the DJ says it was all done with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

"I think I freaked some people out. I kind of did it as a joke," she says. "I came up with the title, and I've never really done anything like that before, so I said, 'Screw it.' I think I shocked a lot of people, because that's not normally how you'd see me. I'm more conservative."

While she's not the only turntablist in the world with a set of ovaries, Baby Anne pledges she's just one of the DJs and nothing more. "In the beginning, people looked out for me a little more," she says. "But I've been around so long that people just think of me as any other DJ. I don't think I get any preferential treatment."

DJ Baby Anne will perform Saturday at the Ultra Music Festival at Bayfront Park in Miami. For details, see guide. She will then get behind the turntables at 1 a.m. at Players, 30 N.E. 11th St., in Miami. Tickets cost $15, with the first hour free for anyone with an Ultra badge. Call 305/375-0202 or visit www.playersmiami.com.