Queen Majesty Brings Jamaican Taste to The Common Stereo DJ Collection

This text is introduced by Vans

All through July and August, the Brooklyn location of The Common by Vans will host The Common Stereo, a pop-up radio station and photograph present in partnership with Consequence of Sound Radio on TuneIn. Curated by the underground radio legends of Ballers Eve, the station’s lineup highlights New York’s important musical subcultures, from throwback soul to hardcore to reggae. As The Common Stereo broadcasts, we’ll profile just a few of the DJs bringing this music to the lots. Subsequent up: reggae DJ and indie sizzling sauce maker Queen Majesty.

After I requested reigning New York sizzling sauce royalty Erica Diehl what goes into making an excellent sauce, she answered unequivocally.

“High quality substances [and] good stability,” she mentioned. “Even when it’s simply three substances [like] peppers, salt, and vinegar.”

This back-to-basics method has paid off within the kitchen; since opening Queen Majesty Scorching Sauce in 2013, she’s been written up in every single place from The Village Voice to Bon Appetit and Saveur, which declared her Scotch Bonnet and Ginger sauce one of many “13 sizzling sauces from around the globe that deserve a spot in your pantry.”

Diehl’s intuitive understanding of cooking’s alchemical rhythms isn’t one thing that occurred accidentally; it’s one thing that she’s additionally honed throughout practically 20 years as considered one of New York Metropolis’s foremost reggae DJs. As Queen Majesty, Diehl hosted the long-running Jamaica Rock program on two of town’s underground radio outposts and introduced the sounds of the Caribbean to stay crowds at events and concert events each at house and overseas.

Though her days now principally include increasing her burgeoning sizzling sauce empire, Diehl nonetheless makes time for her first, deepest love; when she obtained a message from Ballers Eve cofounder Jordan Merz about a possibility to return to radio with The Common Stereo, she didn’t want a lot convincing.

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“I referred to as again straight away,” she mentioned.

As soon as she had the complete particulars, Diehl’s resolve to resurrect her radio present was even stronger, thanks largely to the involvement of Vans, whose personal id matches up carefully with the Queen Majesty dedication to high quality.

“I like Vans,” she mentioned. “They’ve saved their respectability as a serious model. They nonetheless assist the perimeter.”

The Coronation of Queen Majesty

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When requested what she’d do if she needed to cut back this assortment down to simply 5 important albums, Diehl was as much as the duty, including: “In case you’re studying about Jamaican music, this could be an ideal place to start out”:

In crafting her playlists for The Common Stereo, Diehl goals to seek out the identical stability that she prizes in her sizzling sauces. On this case, meaning weighing the fun of discovery that she felt in these early days in opposition to the respect for hits whose high quality isn’t dimmed by reputation.

“I attempt to maintain it attention-grabbing for those that already know the music and folks which might be new to listening,” she mentioned. “In fact, perhaps some classics get performed, however a part of my job as a DJ is to seek out new attention-grabbing issues that some individuals won’t have heard.”