Experiencing an ANTWIGADEE! DJ set feels like going on a highly recommended rollercoaster ride. While you might not know all of the twists and turns of his mixes, you trust that when you make it to the end of the ride, you’ll be blown away and have flashbacks of all the places the music took you.
Antoine “ANTWIGADEE!” Barriere is more than a DJ. He identifies as an architect of sound and social experiences. The 29-year-old has been a praise and worship leader at his family’s church, Household of Faith, since 2020 and has been DJing around Louisiana since 2014. His breakthrough occurred after video clips from his Boiler Room and Freewater set in December 2022 went viral on social media.
“I love melodies and sounds that feel big,” ANTWIGADEE! said. “I’m able to really move people with music, and I also understand the different energies of songs.”
Before late 2022, ANTWIGADEE!’s sets have historically been sacred, if-you-know-you-know moments. After a TikTok video of the New Orleans DJ’s packed Boiler Room and Freewater set received more than 3.4 million views, the world got a peek at lightning in a bottle. This is what the city of New Orleans is all about.
ANTWIGADEE! mixes music with his whole body. As he creatively blends one song into the next, his head acts as the human metronome, nodding on beat. A dancer at heart, he can’t stay still. His body movements mirror the tempo of his mixes, giving his audience permission to free their bodies, too. An ANTWIGADEE! set isn’t complete without his signature jigging dance break, where he turns on Baton Rouge jig music and steps away from his mixing board to start a jigging circle on the dance floor. This freedom of expression and energy on the dancefloor, especially among a largely Black audience, feels bigger than present-day nightlife but feels like a nod to where Black dance culture was rooted.
“Jiggin’ to me represents the line between liberation and anger,” ANTWIGADEE! said, looking up towards the ceiling to find his words. “I play music to help people express different emotions. It is important to be angry sometimes. After you express that, you feel lighter.”
Since going viral on social media, his career has flourished with performances around the world, recurring dance and music events like David’s Dance, The ENERGY!EXPERIENCE, The ENERGY!BALL and Tell Me Mondays at Tell Me Bar. This year, he made his official debut as a producer and songwriter in the song “Go Crazy,” alongside New Orleans rapper Pell and former Danity Kane member Dawn Richard.
The upbeat, high-energy dance song layered with horns, claps, whistles and other contagious groovy elements was born out of a creative session between ANTWIGADEE! and Pell. Once they developed the lyrics and foundation of the song, the two shared it with Richard and then Tarriona “Tank” Ball, who added a playful underground ballroom MC sound to the remix.
“Go Crazy” is just the beginning of ANTWIGADEE!’s production and songwriting career. Over the years, he’s been producing his own mixes, breaking down songs and rebuilding them. In this next chapter of his career, he’s diving deeper into the backend of music production and finding new ways to transport his listeners into unforgettable experiences. He is bringing back the Energy Ball on Dec. 19, pivoting from a Mardi Gras ball alternative to an all-black winter formal.
This is ANTWIGADEE!’s gourmet chef era — figuratively that is. Instead of just being the one serving the music, he’s ready to cook up the hits himself.
“In the culinary world, you have chefs and caterers,” ANTWIGADEE! said. “Both are important. I love them both. I have become tired of catering in my field. You can make a lot of money catering (as a DJ). But when you become a gourmet chef, people hire you for the amount of research, time, and effort that you’ve put into building that craft. They just want you to do what you do. I got to that point where I wanted to give people what I felt like was more than DJing.”
