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When they play a party—specifically, their own party—DJs tend to focus on what they want to hear.
Not so for DJs in the WNBA.
“It’s 100% focused on the experience of the fans,” says Zyah Belle, the Portland Fire’s first resident DJ. “It’s not about me in that building [Moda]—it’s a team sport and it’s a team effort to make each Fire game happen. So the energy is incredible.”
Belle faces a slight learning curve transitioning from the dance floor to the hardwood. DJing a WNBA game is a lot different than a standard club gig, she says. She works out of two locations—on the arena floor during pregame warmups, and midlevel in Section 225 from tipoff onward. And she doesn’t just play during breaks in the action; she lays down beats throughout nearly the entire game, mindful of offensive and defensive rhythms, all while taking cues in her headphones from a production director.
DJs are a key component of the elaborate stage management of a pro game as well as a team’s home-court advantage. Belle says she’s up for it. She bets rolling with the punches will turn out to be another transferable skill.
“Maybe I just enjoy learning, but I don’t know if I’d categorize this as ‘hard,’” she says of the transition to The W. “It’s been fun to learn to be more nimble and on your toes. Because as much as you might have things planned, the game can go its own way.”
Originally from the Bay Area, Belle has been a serious musician for more than a decade now. She worked for a time out of Los Angeles, earning placements with—among others—Snoop Dogg and the artist formerly called Kanye West’s Sunday Service Choir, performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and at Paris Fashion Week. In 2022, she released her independent debut album, Yam Grier, and her latest EP, Are You Still Listening?, has racked up more than 2 million streams.
After the pandemic put a stop to touring, Belle was drawn to Rip City. “I was looking for something that felt familiar enough to the small city I grew up in and different enough to make my personal mark.”
She’d always wanted to DJ her own birthday party as a “bucket-list thing.” After that went well, she started to get requests to DJ her friends’ events. She’s been doing it consistently for the past three years, picking up bits of knowledge from established local DJs like Drae Slapz and hosting her own regular events.
Last summer, the Fire asked Belle to DJ the team’s “Fireside Chat” promotional rollout. After an interview, the team then asked her to formally audition head to head with another DJ at a Rip City Remix G-League game. She was graded on how she took cues and responded in the moment—not unlike players in the developmental league. Amid the pressure, she remembered to read the crowd.
It was a nice preview, Belle says, but the audition didn’t match the feeling she got on May 9, when she rocked a record-breaking inaugural WNBA crowd of 19,335 at Moda Center.
“The energy’s been incredible,” she says. “Whether we’re winning or losing. I think it’s a testament to our city. We just have some amazing fans here.”
Someone who agrees with her on that point is David Jackson, aka DJ O.G. One, for the past 19 years the house DJ for the Portland Trail Blazers. True to his moniker, Jackson was one of the NBA’s first DJs, blazing a trail with the art form.
Jackson’s a fan of Zyah Belle, and he cheered her selection by the Fire. He says she has two attributes that should serve her well in her new role. The first is her fine taste in music, with a well-cultivated collection of R&B, soul, house, trap, techno and—crucial for any DJ at Moda Center—local artists. The other attribute is something that can’t be easily taught or purchased at a record store.
“Zyah gets people,” Jackson says. “She has a great personality. Her presence is so strong. Everything else will come. She understands people and that’s the greatest asset a DJ can have.”
