He’s not just known as the tallest DJ ever, he’s also known as Pineapple Head. David Etuk, standing 6 ft 7, has stood the test of time in the music industry, making waves through his ingenious mixes with Afrobeats, House music, and Amapiano. He is credited as the DJ that frontiered the Amapiano gospel in Nigeria, which conferred him the name, “Amapiano god.” Not only has he transcended beyond the borders of Africa deejaying, but has earned his name as an icon meticulously shaping the DJ space. Meet DJ Six7even, the tallest DJ ever, as he takes us through his journey and artistry as a DJ.
What does DJing mean and represent to you specifically?
DJ Six7even: DJing to me means expressing yourself as an art. You have to be yourself. Because I see a lot of DJs in the pursuit of trying to be the best, they’ve lost who they are. The best DJs can be replaced, somebody better than you would come, but you cannot be replaced. So to me, DJing is an expression of one’s true self with art. So when I stand in front of my turntable to DJ, that’s like my oracle to the crowd. At that very moment, that’s when I am truly happy because I am expressing myself to the world.
How long have you been DJing?
DJ Six7even: I would say 6-7 years professionally. The first 2 years were when I was out of school. I started DJing at a job when I came out of school. I was in NYSC camp and they needed a DJ to play during the morning march past and I was like, “Oh I played with the virtual DJ app in my hostel though.” Back then I was just doing what I would normally do in my room, and everybody would go crazy. That was when I said I wanted to express myself more with this thing. So professionally, I got on the joint, in late 2017. I sealed my first DJ residency on the island with Skybox. Before then, I was playing at Planet One and I had been playing on the radio at City FM.
What was that encounter you had that made you certain that you were on the right track as a DJ?
DJ Six7even: Playing to 10,000 people in Paris. That’s a memory that would live with me to my death bed. Paris on tour with Buju. Shout-out to Scoop, my man. Scoop made that happen. Of course, I have been shutting down parties in Lagos, Abuja, Ghana. I have played in Africa but I have never played for that large crowd in a foreign land, in Europe. It wasn’t just a case of what I was listening to or that the world was feeling Afrobeats or Amapiano. But this is how I can put together what I listen to and serve it to you. So making 10,000 people go crazy in Paris was the moment I knew this is what I have signed for life, no plan B.
Talk to us about your event “Even In The Day.” Where are you right now, and where are you headed?
DJ Six7even: So I always tell people that “Even In the Day” is special, it is our baby. It is owned by me, my manager, and my partner, Dafe. So it started off as an idea. Dafe just pulls up on me and I’m like, ‘Oh let’s drop music’ and he is like, ‘Let’s build something around Six7even. You have gathered enough voice. Let’s think about a daytime pool party and it sounded cool to me. When we started planning, and having meetings, when it started getting serious, I started seeing the vision more and everything. My team is as driven as I am. So we kicked off February 12th, 2023. That was our first edition after postponing it three times. From February till now we have had 7 editions– 2 outside of Lagos and 5 in Lagos. We had our first international edition in August, in Ghana. The vision of ‘Even In the Day’ is to export the daytime culture/rave from Lagos to the world. Where people can come out even during the day and have fun, get wet, and listen to great music.
There is a pleasure of frolicking on the day that Nigerians have denied themselves the culture for a long time. And it’s actually a very beautiful culture that we experienced in London. By the way, when I decided I would start DJing and not turn back, it was a festival that day. A festival in Paris where people go crazy in the sun. So, we started building from there. The first edition was promising, the 2nd edition went viral and went bunkers. In the 3rd edition, it rained and people still came out. 4th and 5th, we went to Abuja, and it went crazy. So where we are right now, September, that’s the 8th edition, and biblical 8 stands for a new beginning. 7 is perfection, 5 is grace. So where we are right now is a new beginning. We are about to roll out new announcements, collaborations, and curations for Even In The Day that would blow your mind.
It’s a surprise, so my lips are sealed for now. Where we are headed, we will wrap up season one in January 2024, in Accra again by God’s grace, and December is going to go bunkers, we are going to have an Even In The Day every week, collaborations with the biggest festivals in the world, it’s still in the works.
Your branding as the tallest DJ ever is something that has caught the eye. How tall are you?
DJ Six7even: 6ft7. That’s my DJ name. So I am a big fan of Phyno. Back in school, I would listen to ‘Alobam’, ‘Obago’, and ‘Ghost Mode,’ repeat for days. So when I started playing around my friends started calling me DJ Obago. It was funny but it just made me feel like a DJ from Abakaliki, so I knew I had to get a name that would suit my brand and my personality. And when I walk into places and people are like “You are so tall, what’s your height?” People literally argue their height with me and try to measure their height with mine. So I just thought about SixSeven. It is easy to pronounce and easy to remember. So it just stuck.
How does that make you feel, “sitting on top of the world?”
DJ Six7even: What people don’t know about tall people is that with this much height comes much responsibility. I cannot behave anyhow because I will be spotted easily in a crowd. I cannot walk into a place and deny that I was not there. I no fit owe person money, I no fit thief, I no fit rip you. So, it makes me a whole lot more confident, like this is who I am. I am not going to have surgery to reduce my height. And girls like it, it’s funny sometimes, but it’s all good.
How would you describe your influence on Amapiano as a DJ personally?
DJ Six7even: My work with Amapiano started when I was in Dubai in early 2019, and I heard Amapiano for the first time. I was like, “What is this?” I told myself that when I got back from Dubai, I needed to explore this because it was just irresistible. The drums, the melody, I was ‘like this has to be exported to Lagos. So I brought it into Lagos’ and I was playing it on high rotation in the clubs. At first, Nigerians were like, they couldn’t understand the lyrics, it was just beats, melody, and a few South African lambas, so they were adamant at first. People would literally walk to me in the club and be like ‘Play us Nigerian music’ and I would be ‘Just chill, just relax’. So with Amapiano, it started building in 2019. The first Amapiano song to gain nightlife acceptance in Lagos was Untold Stories by Vibe Ruddy. From there, the music was introduced, but we needed more work to develop it into the phase. I would always say this, a lot of people may not like this, but it is the truth. As far as music is concerned in the world, as of right now (or for the last 6-7 years), Lagos is actually like the airport for a genre of music to take off to the world. They might not like this, but it is what it is.
So Amapiano had to come to Lagos before it could take off to the rest of the world. So we were playing Amapiano and there was no Nigerian collaboration yet. So Jameson came, and it became a hit here. Clatoni dropped a few bangers, but it was still in the pregnancy stage. When I knew Amapiano went into labor was when Sponono dropped. I knelt down and thanked God because I knew this was going to be beneficial to us. Two of the biggest South African artists and two of the biggest Nigerian artists, it couldn’t go wrong. Nightlife exploded. Mind you, COVID had come and there was a lockdown, so I had to do a lot of live videos. I was literally going live every two days and just playing Amapiano. MTV Base Africa reached out, shout out to them, for an Amapiano session for 1hr and it went crazy. Sound City too reached out, and it also went crazy.
I was DJing at a club in Zoya and Davido was in the club, shout out to Davido, and it was crazy because he was with his team on that booth which was close to the DJ stand, and Davido in his humble self literally came to the booth and was like “Bad boy, wetin you go drink?” At that moment, I was dumbfounded like this is Davido! Then he said, “Let me airdrop you something.” So I am really one of the proudest DJs in Nigeria, Kista remix first on my laptop before it was released, and Ko Wole. The rest is history. Then I dropped Moslado with Teni, I dropped the Amapiano with Fix and it went viral, and had over 10 million streams. So that’s the influence of my work on Amapiano and how it was being exported. It was during that period I got the nickname ‘Amapiano god’.
Talk to us about what is to come from your Pineapple Head brand. Does it have a special significance to you?
DJ Six7even: Pineapple Head is like an AI, like if SixSeven was an AI. If Six7even had a clone in a multiverse. So the Pineapple Head idea comes from my dreadlocks, I always pack my dreadlocks like a pineapple and it is green, so with the brand, I just randomly thought “Pineapple Head” and it stuck. So from Pineapple Head, you should expect music, EPs, parties, merch, and a full lifestyle. Pineapple Head is a living thing on my head. It is a community, it is a culture with the coolest cats.
Are there any music collaborations to expect from you and other artistes anytime soon?
DJ Six7even: Yeah, I have been in the studio for a minute. I have been taking my time to work on my music because I haven’t been dropping stuff before. I have dropped stuff alone but now I am with my team, my management. Shout-out to my family– Kvlt, to Dafe. So we need to be more strategic with the goal we have. I have worked on a couple of songs. I have a record with Victony, P2J, Musa Keys, DJ Visca from South Africa. I have one with YKB. A couple of records are still in the works.
If you were to do a collaborative music project, which artistes are you most likely to feature on the tape?
DJ Six7even: I think it would be a very interesting studio session. I want to work with Amarae. I want to work with a lot of indigenous rappers in Nigeria. I want to have them in the studio with proper Amapiano producers so that they can lay their lamba properly.
There are lots of good DJs in the game right now. Which of them do you think is playing the game differently and making a profound cultural impact?
DJ Six7even: We already know the regular household names that have gone before us, so I am going to stick to the new school because where we are right now in 2023, as a Nigerian DJ, I would tell you for free, it has already evolved. It is the work of evolution. We are beginning to witness, into the middle of 2023, 2024. So the young DJs are doing it differently and are bringing their cultural impact. There’s Dope Caesar, you can’t DJ like her because that’s her style. Tobi Peters, that’s his style. DJ Rain. DJ Rain is funny because he is a genius when it comes to Afrotech and the same way Amapiano came, Afrotech is coming and it is going to explode in this scene. Those are the new-generation DJs that I know. These new cards are not just playing to blow up, They are doing it differently, the way we want to do it, how we want to express it, is gaining a massive following.
Describe, as briefly as you can, a day in the life of DJ SixSeven
DJ Six7even: I like staying indoors. So a day in my life would be, wake up, pray, meditate, roll up, figure out what I have to do that day, and call my manager. If it is a normal day, a free day, I watch a lot of documentaries– music, historical, cultural, and political documentaries. Then I get in the studio, listen to a lot of new music, make mixes, and eat a lot of food.
If you weren’t a DJ, where do you think you’d have ended up? Still, something entertainment-related?
DJ Six7even: Honestly, I don’t know. I studied Petroleum Engineering. My head dey there and all, but I knew that sitting down in an office in front of a computer is not my thing. So if I weren’t a DJ, I don’t know. I have not even thought about it yet.
Word of advice to any upcoming DJs?
DJ Six7even: Never copy. Be original. That means you have to discover your true self first. Never rush, if you rush up, you will rush down. Never look at another person’s journey. Embrace your journey, love it, learn from it.
