Jess Dilday

Jess is an educator, DJ and music producer in Brooklyn by way of NC. They are currently the Program Manager at Building Beats, leading our digital creativity programs in DJing, music production, podcasting and music coding for both youth and educators. They have held DJ workshops at festivals, museums and universities worldwide, including through the Next Level US Hip Hop diplomacy program in Peru, UNC-Chapel Hill, Rider University, ARoS Museum, and the University of Groningen. Before joining Building Beats, PlayPlay taught “The Art and Culture of the DJ” course through the University of North Carolina Department of Music. They also served as the former editor-in-chief for the International Association for the Study of Popular Music website (iaspm-us.net). Passionate about creating inclusive spaces in the music industry, Jess is deeply committed to mentoring up and coming artists.

Musically, Jess (aka PlayPlay) combines their penchant for percussion and bass with nostalgic samples & dreamy synths in both their DJ sets & music production. Their sound is inspired by years of clubbing, crate digging and the sounds they grew up dancing to - 90s club anthems, jungle, breakbeat hardcore, industrial, classic house, techno and old school hip-hop. With releases out on labels such as Sorry Records, Clasico, Worst Behavior and Delusional Records, as well as a slew of self-releases and collaborations, PlayPlay has been slowly and steadily amassing a thumping discography over the years.