Otsukare, aka Otsukaredubs, aka Bella, aka the riddim Princess and all-round badgal, has been steadily chopping her way to the top, serving up that addictive, classic OG riddim with a genuine dedication to the sound.
At a time when maximalist sounds continue to dominate the dubstep landscape, the Denver-based DJ and producer has been championing GIRL RIDDIM. Since discovering the sound at Bass Canyon in 2019, she’s developed a reputation for her fiery doubles and high-energy performances, translating her love for the genre’s foundations into a growing presence on some of bass music’s biggest stages.
But there’s more to Bella’s ascent than the longest acrylic nails to ever grace the faders. From assembling an all-women team to building strong relationships with fellow riddim artists, she’s challenging the notion that women must compete for limited space within the scene. Collaborations such as ‘INSTAKILL’ with hexx and ‘SLEEPER CELL’ with SLYCKZ are fitting examples of that community spirit, championing fellow artists regardless of gender while doing it all with immense swag and what the scene needs most: positivity, good energy and more girls! Otsukare is that girl.
So, I think it’s safe to say we all fell in love with your club studio time set.
Yes, that was a lot of fun. Weird being in front of a camera and doing that in front of a staged crowd. I was a little nervous to watch it back, but it was awesome. It’s gotten a lot of traction. It’s been super cool to see.
Yeah, it seems like a rite of passage for sure…
I’ve been waiting to do that for years. I finally got the opportunity and I thought, yes. It was so fun, and I’m happy that I finally got to do it.
I’d love to know how you first got into OG riddim…
In 2019, I went to Bass Canyon for the first time. That’s where I decided I wanted to become a DJ. I loved the sound and wanted to do it myself because there weren’t enough women doing it. I was going to these shows and looking up to artists such as Vampa, GG McGree and Jessica Audiffred.
I thought, “Well, there’s no one doing this sound in particular.” I started DJing heavier stuff, but then I went down the OG rabbit hole and started finding more niche artists.
From there, I discovered more and more—Subfiltronic, Benzmixer, Chibs and then diving even deeper into people such as Phex and AD. Now it’s all I love to play. I go a little heavier because I think that appeals to the mainstream too—they enjoy the blend of the two. But when I’m driving in my car, if I’m listening to riddim, it’s just OG.
It’s never anything heavier. It’s only old OG riddim from around 2015 to maybe 2021, max.
Swag princess beginnings!
Yes, I love it.
So you have an all girl team?
My manager is a woman, Andrea, and I take my photographer, Ashleigh, everywhere. Whenever I’m doing a big festival such as Lost Lands or Bass Canyon, I’ll have Kaylee as my secondary photographer.
Ashleigh and Kaylee work really well together, so that makes three women already. One of my booking agents, Karina, is also a woman, so my entire team is women.
I love that. I hold it so close because having an all-girl team is the coolest thing ever, especially in such a male-dominated field.
You’re taking that representation even further. You’ve worked with hexx before, and now you have ‘INSTAKILL’. How did you two first link up?
That story is actually so funny because hexx and I hated each other. We could not be in the same room. It was bad. After Lost Lands 2024, she and I had a conversation: “Why do we hate each other so much?”
“What’s happening here?” We both came to the conclusion that there were two main riddim girls at the time, hexx and me, who were on this pedestal. It felt like we were getting held against each other. We kind of compared it to, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard ‘Girl, So Confusing’ by Charli XCX and Lorde, but basically, they had this kind of thing where they were on the same pedestal, where people kept comparing them and they were getting put against each other.
And then finally they said, “Why are we doing this?” We linked up, became really good friends, and I knew it would happen because there was no reason why we didn’t like each other. We were just on the same playing field, going for the same thing.
Everyone was making it seem like there was only room for one girl. That was not the case at all. Now we get to tour the whole country together. We’ve played in Canada together.
We’ve done a lot of big things together, with a lot more coming up. It’s so cool to be able to do that and represent all the women in riddim at the highest point right now.
Being able to tour together with a bunch of men surrounding us and show that we can do exactly what they’re doing—not make fun of them—is really cool. We hated each other at first and didn’t want to work together.
And now we’re taking it to the next level, and it’s super cool to see.
Ah, the frenemy aspect to it. I’m sure the guys go through that too, so it’s all part of the journey. And you’re really following through with the whole, “We need some more girls in here.”
I’m trying.
You’re doing a good job. So how do you feel about ‘INSTAKILL’ now that it’s out?
We made that—I’m trying to think exactly when—probably a few months ago. We premiered it at the Hollywood Palladium in April, and we’ve just been playing it out. We finally got to a point where we agreed, “Okay, this is ready to go.” It’s time to release something since we’re doing so much together. We have a project that we’re going to announce soon for DubStation Massacre that ‘INSTAKILL’ kind of goes hand in hand with.
So we wanted to make sure it was out before that got announced too. The response has been crazy. It’s almost hit 10K in two weeks on SoundCloud, which is really good for both of us because we both have discographies, but they’re not extensive. We’re mostly known for our mixing, and the response has been incredible. So many people are playing it out. It’s so cool to see, and I think it was time for her to come out. It was just time. She’s been done for too long, and we have other collabs locked away too.
Do you feel like “can’t touch this” was one of your breakout tunes that got you the most attention?
For sure. I was really surprised because when I came out with that, it was the second-ever song I released. The first one was ‘Shadow Sannin’, which was on SoundCloud. I listened back to that, and I hate my life whenever I hear it. But it’s okay because we all start somewhere.
The big thing for me was that I came out with that, and then I started dating Mad Dubz. That was a learning curve in itself because I hadn’t released a bunch of music yet. I was still producing and learning in the DAW, and I didn’t want to come out and start dropping all these songs immediately after I started dating him because… men are fucking ruthless. I swore, sorry, but men are ruthless.
They are so mean. I still get the ghost production allegations all the time, even though Tom never helped me once with anything. So I wanted to take a couple of years to really sit down and start making songs I was proud of. ‘Shadow Sannin’ came out in 2023 and ‘Can’t Touch This’ in 2025. People love ‘Shadow Sannin’, and I’m happy they love it, but when I look back on it, I think, “Oh, I wish I would have done this or that.”
With ‘Can’t Touch This’, I really liked how OG it sounded. I was starting to get a decent amount of traction just from DJing, and wanted to release it because it’s different.
I thought people in different subgenres would connect with it, and they did. It’s done really well on TikTok and Instagram. Whenever I’m scrolling and I hear it, I think, “Oh, I wasn’t expecting that.”
The response from the community made me more confident about sticking with production. Now I have a really big discography that we’re planning a release schedule on for the rest of the year, which is awesome.
Do you feel like you’ve had to work harder to prove yourself as a woman in the industry?
Honestly, yeah, for sure. I fight with that every time I’m producing, but also, my boyfriend’s production is insane. He’s been producing for over 10 years, he’s 22, so he’s been producing since he was 11 or 12 years old. My production is not nearly at that level yet, and it’s not going to be until I’m producing for that long. Our styles are completely different. He doesn’t make riddim anymore; he makes dubstep.
I prefer to stick with the OG sound and I don’t plan on straying away from that anytime soon, unless I’m doing collabs and kind of branching out with other artists.
But for my solo songs, I really want to keep sticking with the OG because my whole plan for my brand is keeping that sound alive, because it kind of started to die off. I thought, “I’m not letting that happen.”
Putting that into my own production is really rewarding because I can help bring the genre back up again. But it’s just two completely different styles of music, so I don’t really get in my head about it anymore. People can say what they want to say. I don’t care because I know what I’m doing in the DAW.
If they want to take a look at it, sure, I’ll break it down for y’all if you really want to see it. I don’t really care anymore. It was definitely a problem when I first started.
So you’re about to play Lost Lands…are we getting an upload or livestream?
Yes, we are doing an entire live stream of the set. I’m trying to decide how I want to plan it because I have my full stream of Bass Canyon as well.
I’m trying to see how the Lost Lands set goes, then we can decide which one I want to put out first. I have full streams of both.
They’ll be on YouTube to watch and on SoundCloud to listen to. I have to choose between Bass Canyon and Lost Lands, but both will be on YouTube at some point, so everyone can watch. That’ll be really fun.
We love the all-girl mosh pits that you’ve been having go down during your sets…
Yes, I love that. They start them. I see them with the big “Girls Only Mosh Pit” flag, and I always call it out on the mic because I don’t want them to get rammed by a bunch of men. Sometimes they don’t respect it.
So did you whip up anything, especially for Lost Lands?
Yeah, I’ve had a couple of new songs I’ve been working on. I’ve been travelling a bunch, and when I got Lost Lands, my mom was the greatest mother in the universe. She’s very proud because she watched me at Bass Canyon, and then I got Lost Lands.
She finally retired my 2019 MacBook that I could not produce on anymore. So I finally have a new MacBook that I can actually make music on when I travel. Beforehand, I was only making music at home because my computer would crash after 30 minutes of trying to make something, then die and not turn on again for another two hours.
Now I can produce on the road more. I’ve made a couple of new songs for Lost Lands that I’m excited to premiere. There’ll be new routines and a few of the same ones because I have a lot of fan favourites that people come to hear.
Yeah, that’s going to be sick, can’t wait to see the footage.
Oh my gosh. I’m scared. The decks move. There’s a hole in the middle. I’m genuinely so scared because I jump around a lot. I talked to Vampa about it. I said, “Vampa, I’m scared. I know you’ve played on the Crater before.”
She was like, “Girl, you just got to do arm movements because I was jumping around. I almost fell down the hole.” So, no skirt, no big T-shirt. We’re doing pants, a shirt, and maybe some—maybe not the big boots this time. I don’t know. If you see the footage and we’re in the big boots, then it just happened. You have to climb up a ladder.
It’s a new experience: you’re literally playing a 360 stage, and the decks move. I’m going to have to chase after the decks, but you know what? A lot of people dream of doing this, so that’s what I’m trying to remind myself of. I didn’t really think about everything that goes into a stage like that.
Yeah, that’s serious, and you’re handling it well. You’re clearly in a transitional period. How has balancing your day job with your music career been?
After I got the Lost Lands announcement, I realised I was booked every weekend up until the middle of October. I have three weekends off in October, but two of those weekends I’m at a wedding, so I have one weekend at home. The bookings keep coming in, and I’m so grateful, but I’m also thinking, “Oh my goodness.”
I’m kind of going crazy trying to manage the day job too. After I got Lost Lands, I slowly started cutting my days down, and now I’m down to two days a week. My manager at my day job asked me if I even wanted to keep working there and why I kept working there.
I still need a little bit of money—we’re almost there—but they’re really understanding. I’ve worked for the company since 2019, before I was even doing this. I’ve worked at the Denver location since 2021, so five years.
They’ve known me as a DJ, but I don’t think they ever thought I’d get to this point. Now that they see how far it’s gone, they’re all proud.
They’ve said, “Hey, when you’re ready to go, let us know. We have it in our mind that you’re gonna go soon, so don’t worry too much about it.” It’s really hard to juggle. It’s getting to a point where it’s almost impossible to keep up, especially with releases and touring. It takes a toll on my body, too. I’ve noticed that if I’m gone for a multi-city weekend, I sleep on the plane. When I get home, I sleep for hours.
I wake up at eight in the morning, or at 3 a.m., and go on my computer to start working on music again. I’m getting to the point where I’m ready to say goodbye to that chapter of my life, but there’s also a fear of doing music full-time and having it become a job because I don’t want it to feel like work.
I enjoy having music as an escape from work, but the end goal is to stop working my day job. I’m kind of stuck between the two. I think I’m almost ready to jump into it full-time and push myself. It’s going to be a lot more work and require a lot more focus, but I think we’re getting really close to that.
My goal is to do it by the end of the year. I think that’s doable. We’re in September, and I think it’s possible by December, depending on how Q1 of 2027 goes.
So, you have something coming out on Savage Society, that’s exciting too… Can you tell us about that?
I’m so excited. I’ve always wanted to sign a tune to Savages. They were one of the things that got me into riddim. I would go to the Savage Society takeovers when it was Blankface, Decimate, Savage Maze and all those guys.
It’s funny now because I’m friends with all of the Savages, and we’re always in Discord together, talking. I love all of them. Decimate and Blankface are practically my two older brothers.
They’ve taught me a lot, and I love them so much. They gave SLYCKZ and me an opportunity to release ‘Sleeper Cell’, which I love. I’m happy it found a home with the Savages. SLYCKZ and I were going to self-release it, but I felt it was too good for that.
I think it needed a home. I’m also proud of it because the song pushed me to another level with production. I don’t make tearout, so it was my first time trying it.
SLYCKZ really wanted to do something with me, and we were trying to figure out, “Do you want to make riddim, or do I want to make tearout?” He could make riddim, but he’s been producing for a really long time, and I haven’t been producing as long as he has. I wanted to challenge myself to make something that I had never made before.
I sent him the basses. He’s much more knowledgeable about tearout drums, and we made ‘Sleeper Cell’ together. It’s one of my favourite songs ever.
Another awesome thing about working with SLYCKZ is that he sent it to some friends, and a couple of artists said, “I don’t hear anything of Bella, I don’t hear any Otsukare in this song.”
SLYCKZ said, “Well, honestly, she did a lot of the heavy lifting, and it’s just different from what she usually makes. So that’s why you don’t hear it. But I can tell you right now, this was a really even collab.”
Working with someone so supportive, who has faith in you and lifts you up, feels amazing. I really wanted the song to find a home because my relationship with SLYCKZ, making it together and what it means to both of us made a self-release feel wrong for it.
When Blankface told me he wanted to pick it up, I was so happy. That was where I wanted it to go. He was asking for tracks for the new compilation they’re doing, and I told him, “If I’m releasing on that, I want it to be OG because Savage Selects is always OG kind of stuff.”
That’s always what it has been. When he offered a single for ‘Sleeper Cell’, I was over the moon. SLYCKZ was over the moon too. We were so happy.
I think it’s the perfect time after festival season. The song’s been teased a lot, and people have been wanting it. I’m really excited for it to come out because it’s a banger.
It’s one of my favourite songs I’ve ever had the chance to work on because it pushed me so much. I think it levelled up my production, too. I learned a lot from SLYCKZ, including different things about drums.
That song made me a better producer. I’m really happy the world gets to hear it soon because it’s chef’s kiss.
It definitely feels like the right home for the track, so big up to that. I don’t believe they’ve ever signed a woman before…
We’ve talked about it. I think there was maybe one or two. They were really happy to finally have me on, and I’m happy to be on there too.
The same goes for another label I’m releasing on in a couple of months. They haven’t had many women on the label either. It’s also a legacy label, so I’m excited to release with them.
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