Annie Mac is not your average DJ. Through her Radio 1 show and hit podcast, she has championed new
music and is not afraid to tackle grittier subjects such as misogyny in rap and knife crime. Laura Snapes finds out what drives her and the secret of her self-confidence
Annie Mac is busy doing her homework when I reach her by video one morning in early May. She’s due to give her weekly “rave lesson” on fellow
BBC Radio 1 presenter Nick Grimshaw’s teatime show (today’s subject: the week-long Castlemorton party of 1992). I had wondered if these lessons were a sneaky way of teaching teenagers how to kickstart parties in the wreckage of the UK’s pandemic-stricken live scene, but no, Mac says it’s about “remembering the culture of how
British people danced”, and, resonant now, “when people are finding new ways to feel together when they’re not allowed to gather to listen to music”.
I’ve always felt, I dunno, touch all the wood, pretty good about my existence, basically