What We Got Goin' On: The DJ Ky-Sirree Story

How a stereo lesson from his mother, a Christmas gift in a Pioneer box, and a phone call about lottery winnings led one Texas husband and father of five to the DJX stage.

There's a moment every DJ remembers — not their first gig, but the first time they touched a set of controls and felt something click. For DJ Ky-Sirree, that moment came before he could reach the volume knob without a step stool.

"I've always had a love for music," he says. As a small child, he tried to turn on his mother's stereo himself — and cranked it straight to max volume, scaring himself half to death. Most parents would have just told him to leave it alone. His mother did something different. She taught him to turn the volume all the way down first, power the system on, then bring the volume up slowly.

"That was my first lesson on levels, I guess," he laughs now. Soon after, she bought him his first vinyl record: Michael Jackson's Bad. The desire to DJ took root right there — and then sat dormant for years, buried under the ordinary demands of building a life, a marriage, and eventually a family of seven.

The Detour Through Darkness

It took a global crisis to bring it back.

COVID hit Ky-Sirree hard — not just logistically, but mentally. "COVID did a number on my mental health," he says plainly. In the middle of that season, his wife gave him a Christmas gift that would quietly redirect the next chapter of his life: a Pioneer DDJ-FLX6 controller and a pair of JBL studio monitors.

Tucked inside that box was a 7-day free trial for The DJ Coach, DJ Hapa's training program.

"And the rest is history."

The Obstacle Money Couldn't Solve

What followed wasn't a straight line. Ky-Sirree is a husband and father of five, and finances have always been a real, constant pressure. When a work bonus came through, he thought he'd finally covered the cost of getting from Texas to DJX in Atlantic City for his Pro Certification graduation.

The entire check went to fixing his car instead.

As the conference drew closer with no way to get there, the weight of it started to set in. "I became increasingly depressed as time drew near," he admits. He called DJ Hapa directly and told him the truth — he might not make it. Hapa's response was simple: don't give up, keep pushing.

"All I could do is pray, hope, and have faith."

By the Monday of DJX week, Ky-Sirree was still in Texas. Still hopeful. Still with no real plan for how he'd get there. Sitting on his porch, he explained the whole situation to his mother — the flights, the money, the timeline running out. She listened, and told him she felt helpless.

Then she said, "Son, I'll call you back."

Thirty minutes later, she called again and asked what the flights cost. He gave her the numbers. Her next words stopped him cold:

"Do you want to book it!?"

His father, it turned out, had hit the lottery the week before — twice — and the funds had come in just in time.

"Prayer works," Ky-Sirree says. "Lol."

Graduation, and a Controller He'd Never Touched

Getting to DJX was only half the story. Getting there as a graduate meant months of coursework, coaching, and accountability behind the scenes — assignments submitted, skills built, waiting to hear if it had all been enough.

When Coach Hapa delivered the news that he was eligible to graduate, Ky-Sirree describes the feeling in one word: relief, wrapped in pride. "It felt good to complete something that I started."

Then came a twist nobody planned for. Ky-Sirree wasn't scheduled to perform at The DJ Coach booth until Wednesday — but on Tuesday, a slot opened up unexpectedly, and he was asked to fill it. He said yes on the spot.

There was just one problem: the booth's controller was the Pioneer DDJ-REV7 — a battle-style, motorized-platter setup completely unlike the DDJ-FLX6 he'd trained on. He'd never touched one in his life.

"It was so intimidating, from the motorized platters to the pitch faders," he says. But he thought about his cohort, his team, the people counting on him to show up. "I couldn't let my team down. I wanted my team to know that they can depend on me. So I went for it."

He didn't just survive the set. He fell in love with the instrument. "It made me feel like a real DJ. I felt like I was working." Watching his fellow Pro Cert graduates — and the DJs he personally looks up to — command that same board only deepened the moment. A REV7 is now firmly on his wish list, "once the price goes down."

The Family Built in Real Life

DJX was Ky-Sirree's first time meeting most of his cohort in person — a group that, until that week, had only existed to each other as faces on a Zoom screen. "From the very first day, we clicked," he says. "It was instant family vibes, and it stayed that way for the whole DJX experience." Through DJ Hapa's vision for the program, people from completely different walks of life became, in Ky-Sirree's words, simply family.

Two conversations from the trip stayed with him beyond anything else. After the Pro Cert graduation ceremony, DJX founder Shawn Hazan spoke with Ky-Sirree and a fellow graduate, congratulating them personally and encouraging them to keep pushing — visibly moved after hearing Ky-Sirree's road to getting there. And in a brief exchange with turntablism legend DJ Mell Starr, Ky-Sirree got a glimpse into the work ethic and practice discipline behind decades of mastery. "I appreciated the fact that he even stopped to chat for a second."

Gratitude, in Order

Ask Ky-Sirree who made this possible, and the list comes fast and specific: God, first. His wife and five children, for standing by him through all of it. His mother and father, for their love and — quite literally — their support. DJ Hapa, "for not giving up on me and continuing to push me to be better." And the entire DJ Coach staff and family, for building the program that made all of it possible in the first place.

"What We Got Goin' On!?" — Answered

DJ Ky-Sirree carries a tagline that's less a catchphrase than a personal creed: "What We Got Goin' On!?" After DJX, he says he can finally answer his own question in full.

"We have growth — Goin' On! We have restoration — Goin' On! We have creativity — Goin' On! We have encouragement — Goin' On! And we have empowerment — Goin' On!" It's a call he now answers with a phrase borrowed from his coach: "Coach Hapa said it best — proper practice makes progress. So we also have progression — Goin' On!"

To the DJs reading this who are earlier in their own journey than he is, Ky-Sirree leaves one message:

"There is someone out there waiting for your gift. Be great and inspire the world. Peace and Blessings, family. So tell me... What We Got Goin' On!?"

DJ Ky-Sirree is a certified DJ through The DJ Coach Pro Certification Program, based in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, spanning Gospel, CHH, R&B, Afrobeats, Gospel House, and Throwbacks. He can be found at:

Website: djkysirree.com

Instagram: @djkysirree

Mixcloud: @djkysirree

Twitch: @djkysirree