DJ Cocoa Chanelle Bio, Age, Family, Husband, Net Worth and Ladies Night

DJ Cocoa Chanelle Biography

DJ Cocoa Chanelle is an award-winning American hip hop DJ, rapper, recording artist and humanitarian best known for being a radio personality/DJ on New York City’s radio station HOT 97 and Kiss FM, as well as being the first DJ ever employed by BET “Black Entertainment Television” on its teen talk show “Teen Summit.”

Immediately following high school graduation, Cocoa began her DJ career on a professional level at the age 18. She was 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! an 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 like 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 headlined at Times Square Arena in South Africa. She continues to tour with Ghostface Killah, The New Kids On The Block Mixtape tour featuring Naughty By Nature By Nature, Salt N Pepa, Debbie Gibson, and Tiffany.

DJ Cocoa Chanelle Age

DJ Cocoa Chanelle is an award-winning American hip hop DJ, rapper, recording artist and humanitarian best known for being a radio personality/DJ on New York City’s radio station HOT 97 and Kiss FM, as well as being the first DJ ever employed by BET on its teen talk show “Teen Summit.” She was born on August 10. 1971 in Brooklyn, New York, NY. Thus DJ Cocoa Chanelle is 48 years old as of 2019.

DJ Cocoa Chanelle Family

Chanelle was born in Brooklyn New York. She lost her parents to alcoholism at a young age and was raised by her grandmother in West Virginia. She also lost Andre, her brother, to a shooting a few months prior to joining HOT 97.

DJ Cocoa Chanelle Husband

She becomes known for her music production and remixes, one of which was featured in Precious. She helped Saigon produce the single “Pain My Life.” Her married life detail is under review and will be updated soon.

DJ Cocoa Chanelle Net Worth

Coco Chanel

“Coco” Chanel was a French fashion designer, businesswoman, and Nazi collaborator. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with liberating women from the constraints of the “corseted silhouette” and popularizing a sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style.

A prolific fashion creator, Chanel extended her influence beyond couture clothing, realizing her design aesthetic in jewelry, handbags, and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, has become an iconic product.

She is the only fashion designer listed on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Chanel herself designed her famed interlocked-CC monogram, which has been in use since the 1920s.

Chanel’s social connections encouraged a conservative personal outlook. Rumors arose about Chanel’s activities during the German occupation of France during World War II, and she was criticized for being too close to the German occupiers: One of Chanel’s liaisons was with a German diplomat, Baron (Freiherr) Hans Günther von Dincklage.

After the war, Chanel was interrogated about her relationship with von Dincklage, but she was not charged as a collaborator due to intervention by Churchill. After several post-war years in Switzerland, she returned to Paris and revived her fashion house.

In 2011, Hal Vaughan published a book about Chanel based on newly declassified documents, revealing that she had collaborated with German intelligence activities. One plan in late-1943 was for her to carry an SS peace overture to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to end the war.

DJ Cocoa Chanelle: Ladies Night

Being a woman in Hip-Hop is not the easiest task. Surfing through the waves of misogyny, bias, and assumed physical inferiority, ladies in the industry are faced with multiple obstacles just to align themselves as equals to the fellas.

DJ Cocoa Chanelle is no stranger to this struggle. A seasoned DJ- one of the greatest in the country in fact- Cocoa has solidified her position as one of the strongest in the game (male or female). With successes on both BET and HOT 97, Cocoa garnered enough notoriety to achieve nationwide popularity among viewers, listeners, and true school DJs.

Evolution has brought Cocoa Chanelle to the next level of her career in Hip-Hop. With one element mastered, Cocoa is perfecting her craft as both an MC and producer.

Catching the ear of distinguished MCs like D-Block and not-so-newcomer Saigon, Cocoa is geared to show the world that her skills carry over from the decks to the MPC to the mic. With many successes under her belt, DJ Cocoa Chanelle shares her journey, her future, and subsequently, her inability to part with vinyl.

DJ Cocoa Chanelle Talks Surviving the Game and Her True Passion

What is your advice or secret to longevity in this game?

I have a love for it and a passion. When I first got into it I never got into it for a career or to make money, I just had a love for music. When you do something that you’re passionate about, that you have love for, you’re gonna stick with it, you know? More so than someone who’s just doing it to get a check.

Being one of the few women among an elite group of DJs; DJ Beverly Bond, DJ Jazzy Joyce, Spinderella, did you find you had to surround yourself with those women? Was it difficult being in a male-dominated arena?

Well, when I first came into the industry there were two other female DJs, so there weren’t a lot of women doing it. A lot of times people wouldn’t take you seriously out the gate.

You really had to prove yourself. Whereas today, I feel like people are more receptive to it and more open but back then people used to think, well, maybe I’m the dancer or maybe they just have me standing behind the turntables as a prop. Once they saw that I really scratch and do turntable tricks, they started taking me seriously.

I saw one of your videos; that’s real talent and skill! Chris Rock called you “Radio Royalty,” How do take that title, being a legend? What does that mean to you?

Sometimes it doesn’t feel real. People say that and I have to stop and think “wow, okay.” I never take it for granted. It means a lot to me because like I said I never got into it for fame or anything like that. So when people say I’m a legend or they give me love, it means a lot to me.

That’s beautiful. You have that humble spirit. How did you carve out space for your success, you said there were only two other women, and become one of the top DJs?

What really helped me to stand out was the fact that I was doing turntable tricks and that was something that they weren’t really used to seeing girls do. So it was like “Oh wow, ok”, and it caught the attention of a lot of people. And I started working on BET, I was BET’s first DJ, and on that show is where I was really exposed, in terms of doing the turntable tricks and that actually helped people take me seriously.

Is there anything on the horizon that we can look forward to? Are you traveling?

Yeah, I actually came back from Africa not too long ago. I had the opportunity to go there and it was really life-changing for me because you realize we take so much for granted here in the United States.

*A gentleman interrupts us, speaking to Cocoa, “You’re such a legend. Much respect. I grew up listening to Hot97. I remember you being on there. You had some dope jams going.” *

See things like that mean a lot to me.

You deserve it. So you said you went to Africa?

Yeah, I went to Africa. There are two sides to it. One, there’s a side to Africa that I’ve never heard about; I always thought it was really bad all over Africa. And then I see all these black people over there who are excelling and doing really well, the technology was more advanced than America, there’s a lot of great things over there. There’s also a lot of poverty.

So I had a chance to see both. I had a chance to go into the villages, you might have a family of six in a one-room tent shack with no electricity, and it just reminded me of how blessed I am. My true passion has always been philanthropy.

So just going out there and being able to be with the people in the village and whatever I could do to help the system, that’s something that I plan to continue doing. That’s my true passion.

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