Ruby Rose came out with guns blazing on Instagram recently, telling haters they need to “get one thing straight. Know your facts.” We may not have known about her skills as a DJ when we first caught the androgynous beauty on Orange Is The New Black, but that doesn’t make her skills any less real. It turns out the recently signed PRMD artist used to tour with Nicki Minaj and Jessie J as an opening act. She also claims to have done the festival circuits with Erick Morillo, Skrillex, and Calvin Harris.
It’s understandable that one would be frustrated by the fact that no one has any faith in you as one kind of artist when they consider you to strictly be another kind of artist. It’s hard to break out of that shell and gain the credit you may (or may not) deserve. No matter your level of confidence in her as a DJ, she’ll be playing Foundation Nightclub on Saturday, August 29 where you can make a more educated decision.
She’s not the first celebrity-turned-DJ and certainly won’t be the last. There are some shining examples of actors that broke their mold, as well as some less luminous celebrity examples *cough* Paris Hilton *cough*. What we mean is that this could go either way.
Two excellent examples of successful actors-turned-DJs would be Kristian Nairn, who you know better as Hodor on Game of Thrones, and Elijah Wood. DJing long before he became an actor, Kristian Nairn opted to embrace his identity as Hodor instead of ignoring it. We caught the Seattle stop of his Rave of Thrones tour last December, and it was a spectacle to be remembered. He played a remix of the GoT opening theme, there were performers breathing and dancing with fire, a soundtrack of eclectic danceable house music, and a crowd full of costumed GoT enthusiasts eating it all up.
When Elijah Wood isn’t busy filming a movie, TV show, or lending his voice to animation he performs with Zach Cowie as Wooden Wisdom. The two have been DJing together for the last three years, though they’ve been doing DJ work on their own for many years prior. They play on strictly vinyl and played us one funky disco-house set when they came to Q Nightclub in January. Mr. Wood doesn’t flaunt his name quite as much as Kristian Nairn, but that’s just a personal choice that any famous person entering another field has to face. Do you embrace your fame, or do you try to ignore it?
Kristian Nairn and Elijah Wood are just two examples of successful celebrity DJs. There are plenty more, and there’s plenty more bad ones too, but these two have proven themselves to be true artists and deserve some respect in the music industry.
It seems that whether she likes it or not, Ruby Rose is Ruby Rose and whether she’s acting or DJing, people are going to judge her and as Taylor Swift would say, “haters gonna hate, hate, hate”.
Check out her Instagram post below. Have people been unfair to assume she’s just cashing in on her own fame to a different set of wallets?
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