Rarely do we realize the way the silent moon speaks to the soul. Inside the club, on the other hand, bodies dance, heads bob, and hands hit the air as music blares. It’s a rhythm so moving you get lost in it. There’s a profound tension here: even if taken for granted, a DJ can be the heart of a night, connecting the senses, restoring balance.

I quickly realize the presence of DJ Jadaboo’s radiating energy. “I’m very much aware of the cycles of the moon,” says the artist, as she smiles under the lunar glow. “I put my best energy forth when DJing and sometimes it heals me.” In Jada’s viral TikToks, she spins seamless mashups and emanates unbounded stage presence.

Jada is no stranger to the world of music. Whether it be her profound knowledge of all kinds of genres, her ability to spin hypnotizing tracks, or her understanding of what makes a crowd move, she has “always wanted to be in music.” Her upbringing has much to do with this passion. “My dad was a producer and he was also a rapper, so growing up I was just always in the studio around music.” 

“[My dad] would make my mom these mixtapes, and I just kind of noticed that one of my love languages is music and sharing and making a playlist for people,” she mentions while laughing at a childhood memory of showing Lil Wayne drops to her classmates via iPod Nano. “I was so big on discovering a bunch of sounds, and I knew I wanted to be in the industry just the same.” Her family may have planted the seed of musical curiosity, but Jada did not realize it was a calling until she was part of the Downtown Los Angeles scene.

As the moon crests above the teetering high rises of DTLA, Jada explains how the scene inspired her origins: “I had seen SOSUPERSAM DJing a Soulection event. I was kind of dabbling with wanting to DJ and after I had seen her set, I was like, ‘No, this is it for me. I want to do that.’” She continues: “The way we can make people feel by piecing together songs like how my dad did to show my mom his love language—I’m like, ‘I want to give that same feeling to people, I want people to understand me.’”

From going viral on TikTok to DJing for the likes of Kendrick Lamar or playing star-studded events like Art Basel, Jada has a tenacity driven by her commitment to craft. It shines even as she reflects on how far she’s come: “I definitely think that a lot of my career or me taking off was because of TikTok and those mashes that I did.” She recounts the response to her first real gig at Hollywood’s Highlight Room: “I just remember feeling so accomplished because everyone would text me afterward and be like, ‘That was so crazy! That was the best that I’ve heard,’ and that they’re so excited for me. I knew everything was about to change, especially with having that opportunity to DJ in front of those people.”

“Those people” happen to be icons as well as her musical influences. I ask her when she first experienced an “I made it” moment. It wasn’t performing in front of Kendrick Lamar or playing for NBA stars like Chandler Parsons and Blake Griffin. For Jada, she “made it” when she fully tapped into herself. Cutting so deep the crowd could feel it.“When I was DJing in Vegas, a couple came up to me and they were like, ‘Oh my God, you’re killing it. You’re doing so good. You’re beautiful on the outside, but I want you to know I could feel internally how beautiful you are from DJing right now.’ That was my moment. People are understanding why I want to be here.”

For Jada, nightlife is more than just the act of going out. It is the cathartic beckoning of one’s soul—transformative, healing, and ripe for inspiration. Every song she plays is picked with present energy in mind. “What I want to do here in this world is help raise up the collective energy and help raise up the frequency of just humanity,” Jada explains. “We all go through really tough times and music can be really healing.”

Jada feels the most feminine when DJing. And like the crowd gets lost in her music, she gets lost in the crowd. Her confidence is brought out by every song she spins and her future is ever evolving. Each night welcomes new opportunities, Jada will remain as present as the moon. 

Photographed by Leeban Farah

Styled by Kaamilah Thomas

Written by Mariam Bagdady

Hair: Ndea Williams

Makeup: Tori McConckey at The Wall Group

Producer: Bree Castillo

Photo Assistant: Wes Dunlap

Location: Hotel Per La