"We only got one life to live, y'all, let's live it right." It was 4 AM in London, and Natasha Diggs, queen of the 45s, had been spinning for over an hour. She was the last in an all-female lineup for Soul In The Horn's Women's History Month edition, and viewing numbers had peaked on the event's Twitch account. The New Yorker journeyed from early '80s funk to soulful house cuts, and now she was switching gears. New York-influenced Afrobeat and select Brazilian bangers marked a new phase in a night that would go on well into mid-morning.

Throughout, Diggs gave shoutouts to the Global Vibrations community and offered inspiriting words. "Treasure every sunset, let's get it y'all," was followed up sometime later with "Every time we dance, we're doing our part, that's the work right there." Diggs held up her side of things with her signature twirls and side sashays while dancers from all corners of the world beamed in. Her wide-brimmed hat and brown-rimmed glasses cast you back to the dawn of disco, and her beaded necklace and flamenco-inspired skirt suggested tropical climes, matching that of her new temporary home in Bahia, Brazil.

When we sat down for a Zoom call in early January, Diggs was dressed in similar wear: a broad hat, muted autumnal colours and all the accessories. Natural light filled the room from a window behind her, shifting shadows ever so slightly over the next hour.

Diggs relocated to Bahia after a New Year's Eve booking in Brazil was cancelled. The pandemic, which forced her bookers to rethink their plans, had inspired her. She bought a one-way ticket to the Brazilian coast and set up shop. It's not clear when she'll be returning. "I packed up a little mini studio so I could stream and make music," she said. "It's paradise out here and reasonable to live, so I'm just riding it out."

Having held residencies at some of the most talked-about parties of the past decade, Diggs is now a prominent figure in New York's clubbing scene, and has played alongside artists such as Erykah Badu, Q-Tip and Kenny Dope—and opened for Lauryn Hill.

"One of my main focuses as a DJ is to make people dance, to make people let go and just forget about whatever is worrying them," she said. "Can I lift this vibration? Can I shift it? You came into the party feeling this way, when you leave, I want you to feel like this, I want us to raise that vibration."

Diggs took to digging early on in life, catching the bug on childhood trips to thrift stores with her dad while shopping for school clothes. "It was pre-internet, so you had to dig deep to find your joints, but it was a priceless experience," she said.

"I was bringing home records every day, on my way to school or to work, hitting all the thrift shops, auctions, flea markets." She soon discovered the hip-hop tracks with samples cut from rock and jazz records in her collection, spurring a deeper dive for the originals. By the time she began DJing in her late teens, Diggs had a solid collection of 45s, which gave her an early edge. The unknown, un-digitised and rarely spun B-sides in her arsenal would come to mark her out.

A chance encounter with future DJ partner Gizmo in the record section of a Goodwill thrift store led to her first public gig. Her "janky, belt-driven" decks were enough to prepare the duo for their first public outing in the neighbouring town of Tempe, Arizona, and by the time she graduated, Diggs was ready to set out on a new venture.

"As soon as I finished school, I was like, 'I'm out'," she laughs. "I didn't want to be in a city so spread out where I had to drive everywhere, so I was like, it's got to be either the Bay Area or New York."

A trained Montessori teacher, she landed a graduate job in New York, where she taught preschoolers and continued to dig. "It was like a dream come true to dig in New York. The record game escalated ten-fold," she said. "I found some gems in Arizona for sure because not a lot of people were looking as much, but in New York, it's the mecca of all the disco, funk, soul and jazz, you know? Everything is here." Her 45s collection grew, a portion of which can be heard via streams from her New York apartment.

"I was at the flea markets every weekend, six in the morning with all the junky record people, going before the sun comes up." She continued: "I ended up working at the flea markets on the weekends, selling and digging for records, going into people's homes and getting collections in attics meeting the people and learning the stories behind the records, all throughout the tri-state area. That was a really fun time for me - mind you at this time I'm still a preschool teacher during the day."

A teaching gig brought Diggs to Prague in the mid-00s, and she secured a club residency within the first week of landing. She played from Thursday through Saturday, with sets sometimes running from 9 PM to 6 AM, testing her mettle. "It was these epic, long-ass nights and very eclectic," she explained. "The kids were so open to music, and it allowed me this freedom to play. I felt like I was breaking James Brown records."

Those hours spent in the booth taught Diggs things she couldn't learn in isolation: how to read and pull in a crowd, how to "raise the vibration." "There's nothing like the practice of playing for crowds and knowing how and what works, what makes people move," she said. Prague was followed by a short stint in Berlin, at which point Diggs was ready for home. "I was missing the vibrancy and, you know, the warmth and the colour." Another teaching gig soon brought her back to New York.

In her 2015 Boiler Room set, Diggs weaves raw funk, post-disco and early hip-hop cuts, dropping the occasional beat-juggle and beat-chase into the mix. It's a quick-fire session, with tracks barely lasting beyond the 60-second mark. The music was exemplary of her impressive range: it's not often you hear Don Blackman, KRS-One, The Clash and Lil' Louis in a 45s-only set.

Another example of Diggs in her element comes from a 2020 Glitterbox set, in which her vault of vinyl was on full display. She spun rare gems from under-celebrated artists such as Common Sense, The Hoctor Band, Symbol 8 and Pleasure, as well as established acts like DeBarge, Luther Vandross and Bill Withers. Surrounded by her treasure trove, Diggs offered an animated performance.

"I'm more about vibration, and since pandemic time my whole thing has been 'how can I share music that's gonna uplift people and ride this wave?'" she said. The set highlights included "Got Some (News For You)," a fusion track from Puerto Rican percussionist Manolo Badrena, and Aretha Franklin's take on the Doobie Brothers classic "What A Fool Believes."

By 2013 Diggs had regular gigs around the city while teaching full-time. Operator Emz, a DJ and curator based out of New York, was looking for an addition to the lineup for Mobile Mondays!, a weekly, 45s-only event in the East Village. Diggs's name came up. "By that point, I made the switch to Serato, but I always brought 45s with me wherever I went," she said. "It's always good, just in case anything goes down." Emz showed up to a gig and sat in the booth while Diggs played. She remembers pulling out a 45 of "Hot Hot Summer Day" by The Sugarhill Gang, which pretty much sealed the deal.

Word soon spread and Mobile Mondays! began attracting the likes of DJ Spinna, Kenny Dope, DJ Scratch and Todd Terry for impromptu sets. "You had the house DJs, the hip-hop DJs, the funk, the disco, everybody was down to play," she said. "We would have battles at the end of every night, and at that time I was practising every night, like I wanna come with it, I'm gonna whoop some ass, and because I was the girl in the crew, I had to be like yeah, 'fuck all y'all.'" She continued: "It was a great time because they were really inspiring me. We all wanted to make each other better in some way." Mobile Mondays! is now in its tenth year.

Diggs launched Soul In The Horn with D Prosper in 2014, the year she decided to pursue music full-time. Years of teaching alongside DJing had taken their toll, and Diggs was in search of a night more aligned with her creative vision. She chose the horn as her focus and built on the idea. "Music with horns cuts across genres across, you know, across continents," she said. "It's an ancient instrument that has connected us all, and it pierces you in a special way, whether it's on a disco record, a Fela record, or hip-hop sample."

The horn also posed a challenge for guests, restricting them to a family of instruments as opposed to genres. "I think more than anything it was about keeping the musicality, making people think about that, and not just playing what was easy to play." Soul In The Horn drew DJs, musicians and dancers to its weekly event, soon outgrowing its venue, a Cuban jazz bar in Chelsea. The 250-capacity space began attracting crowds of up to 400, forcing the night to find a new home. "It was probably a fire hazard at the time," Diggs mused. "The bathroom situation was awful."

The party's virtual rendition, named Global Vibrations, streams every Friday, with Diggs headlining six-hour sets from her new home in Bahia. Her Instagram profile reads: "DJ * vibration shifter * treasure hunter * free spirit," and I can't think of a more accurate description of her life's work. It had been over a month since she left New York when we spoke, and though she was missing her collection of 45s, she clearly wasn't ready to return. As our conversation came to an end, Diggs mentioned her father's passing as another reason for relocating.

"My father transitioned in December and, even though I know it's a crazy time to be traveling, I feel like he's been divinely orchestrating much of this trip for me. Life is short and I think we have to follow our dreams and do what we really love. That's our contribution to this world."