My Story

I was born and raised in Chicago, on the west side of the city. In the neighborhood I'm from, the streets were always calling, especially coming of age in the 80’s during the height of the gang & crack era. The one thing that kept me safe and sane was music. To be exact, House music. The music lifted me up and made me feel alive and I wanted to share that feeling with the world. That’s when I decided I wanted to be a Deejay.

In between that teenage dream and adulthood, life happened but I never strayed far away from my 1st love, music.

Since that time I’ve launched a record label and clothing line. I co-founded a record fair and event series. And I've traveled the world doing what I love, playing music. When the Covid pandemic hit everything came to a halt. No more DJ gigs, my tours were are all canceled, and my residences in LA & NY stopped due to Venue closers and I thought to myself, what’s next?

I love music, & I love fragrances. I always have since I was a kid wearing my dad's Pierre Cardin. It made me feel special, and sparked my love affair with fragrances. Since then, I've collected 100's of different fragrances, and like with my music I wanted to share that love with the world. So, I decided to take my loves and combine them and created a musically inspired fragrance line, and Disco by Zernell Gillie was born.