Jayda G

Dance music often traffics in fantasy, but Jayda G’s music is intimately connected to the here and now: Environmental concerns undergird her house and disco productions, turning dance-floor escapism into an opportunity for reflection. Born and raised in small-town British Columbia, Jayda Guy grew up playing piano and violin and also immersed in nature; in the mid-2010s, when she moved to Berlin to establish herself as a DJ, she was simultaneously working on a master’s degree in environmental management. (“It was a lot,” she tells Apple Music of her parallel pursuits. “I would not recommend it.”) She brought both sides together on her 2019 debut album, Significant Changes, layering conservationist messaging about orca whales atop deep-diving funk and disco. But unlike some electronic producers who moonlight in science, Jayda G isn’t particularly interested in purely conceptual releases; her music is ultimately all about letting loose in the club. That’s why she reprimands dancers for looking at their phones on “Stanley’s Get Down (No Parking on the DF).” “This is the dance floor, baby! This is where you’re supposed to get down.”