Kikelomo, AKA Kike Oludemi, sits in a windowed corner of her Berlin apartment, framed by a cornucopia of house plants. "Don't I know you?" are her first words as we begin the interview. It's July 2020 and she's just entered our Zoom call. I promptly list the times our paths have crossed and Oludemi responds with a round of questions: "Are you still in Berlin?" "Why did you move back to London?" "How are you finding it?"

Oludemi is London to her core and, like her sets, she has a fast-moving conversational style. She responds to questions with a series of tangential thoughts before coming full-circle. She employs a certain cadence to humorous effect, especially when mimicking her parents. She'll talk shop on a broad range of topics, from the Allen & Heath vs Pioneer debate to the complexities of structural racism, and why, sometimes, it's best to fly home to get your hair done.

Oludemi wears a headwrap and dark-rimmed glasses, sits at ground level and holds a clear gaze. In less than three years she has solidified her place in Berlin's roster of in-demand DJs, trained other DJs and played to a crowd of over 100,000. Alongside her international gigs, she works in research at Native Instruments, is a Boiler Room host, radio presenter and old guard of the No Shade DJ collective. She also plays the piano and drums and holds a first-class degree in mechanical engineering. "Nigerian Excellence" is a term that will come up often in our conversation.

Rewind to August 2019 and Kikelomo is about to take to the stage at a Pxssy Palace party in Highbury, North London. It was already a banging night: Pxssy Palace DJs had dutifully warmed up the crowd, an array of genderless folk were forming impromptu voguing circles and Rickey Thompson was about to make an appearance. But Kikelomo took things to the next level. In a set that couldn't have lasted more than an hour, she let rip on a range of remixed hits spanning '90s R&B and UK garage to Baile Funk and deconstructed club. She teased in well-known tracks only to divide the floor with something the crowd didn't know they wanted. In 60 minutes she had remade her audience before handing over sometime in the hours between 2 and 3 AM. This is what Kikelomo does so well: she knows when to play to—and when to push—the crowd.

Oludemi grew up in Hillingdon, a leafy west London borough. The church, her father's music collection and the UK garage, grime and funky sounds of the early noughties all made a mark on her. What might not be so clear to current listeners is the influence of indie music.

"I went through many phases, the emo phase, the alternative indie phase where I was, and to be honest still am, obsessed with the Arctic Monkeys," she says. Oludemi recounts the moment when she first discovered the Sheffield band on her way back from a school trip. "I remember sitting in the back of a car, sharing songs with my friend. They sent me Favourite Worst Nightmare and it blew my mind. The syncopated rhythms were so infectious, the singer's accent, the northern lilt and the lyrics were so provocative." Kikelomo's work is still driven by this emphasis on both lyrical content and hypnotic, pulsating measures.

After graduating from Cardiff University and winning an engineering award, Oludemi felt that she'd earned herself a break. "Getting the first gave my parents the Nigerian parental bragging rights, but soon they were like, 'Oh, are you gonna get a job?' I was like, shhh."

But the Brexit vote put an abrupt stop to her staycation, forcing her to decide on her future quickly. "I thought, my passport probably won't be so flexible soon, so I started applying for jobs in Berlin, got a job a week later and booked a flight out."

She was working in Berlin a full year before she began thinking seriously about DJing. Cashmere, an experimental community radio station, was her first stop, where she created and still hosts Pass The Aux, a monthly showcase of UK sounds. She soon realised that most presenters were mixing and this was something she'd have to learn. "I started mixing with grime, which was a bit of a baptism of fire because of the vocals, tempo, song structure—it requires quite fast and snappy mixing and that is still visible in my mixing style today."

Since joining No Shade's second round of DJ training in 2017, Kikelomo has become an in-demand DJ. Her musical range broadened, allowing her to move between commercial and alternative events. Before the virus hit, on any given weekend you could have spotted Kikelomo on a hip-hop lineup at OHM or playing a trendy night at Moabit's Trauma Bar or Mensch Meier, a pure house and techno space. Marrying seemingly disparate genres is something she does well. She'll lay a vocal from an indie track over a garage classic, jump from US house to UK funky or build up a disco mix before landing on East Coast hip-hop. "I take bookings across all genres, from grime to techno to soul," she says. "I think being unapologetic in my identity and refusing to be typecast is kind of unique in a way, particularly as we're conditioned from a young age to conform to boundaries and categorisations dictated by society."

Throughout her sets, Kikelomo is looking for moments where she can push listeners. "I'm really enjoying jungle music at the moment," she says. "It doesn't resonate with some people but I like finding opportunities to convert doubters. I'll play tracks that I know work well or are easily palatable, but then slowly the BPM creeps up a little bit, and suddenly we're on 175! It's a constant balance of catering to the crowd while also catering to myself." There are also those moments where the DJ sees her work more as an offering. "I might look at somebody and say, 'I think I understand you, I see the way you're moving, interacting, I feel like this next one's for you, this is going to touch you in some way.'"

Since 2017 Oludemi has played across Europe, Asia, North America and Australia, and most recently performed at a low-key event held at a barbershop in Los Angeles. Negress, a party centring black femme DJs brought the London DJ into contact with a crowd that reflected her in a way she'd had yet to experience. "I don't think I've ever played to a majority black crowd before, a crowd of people that look like and identify with me. It felt familial and it's something I've been thinking about a lot in the current political climate."

Instagram followers will note that Oludemi has become increasingly vocal about racism in the electronic music community and as someone straddling the worlds of corporate and club culture, she's using this current period of heightened awareness to leverage what support she can for her community.

"When I'm asked to do interviews or collaborate with brands, one of the first questions I ask is, 'Well what are you actually doing for my cause? What are you doing to provide a platform for POC communities—specifically black communities—past the media cycle?'" Structural racism is a topic she returns to throughout the conversation but if anything, she appears more hopeful than ever in light of the recent uprisings. "Who wants to be on the wrong side of history right now?"

Of all the gigs Kikelomo has played, one that stands out in memory happened just down the road from her current home. Last year she played at Brandenburg Gate, at the closing ceremony of MauerFall30, an event marking the 30-year anniversary of the fall of the Wall.

Rounding out the night alongside her were fellow No Shade members S Ruston and VJ Bad Juju. An audience of over 100,000 looked on as the trio offered up a stellar rave set and stunning visuals and the performance was broadcast live. "To be able to play to a crowd that big, representing a collective empowering femme, trans, non-binary people and projecting unity across a national monument was such an adrenaline rush. I cried the entire next day."

It may be the biggest gig of her career, but with only three years of DJing under her belt, it's also just the beginning.