HEADS KNOW TAPE 011: Certified Jesus Freak
An interview and mix from the New Jersey-based DJ and producer.
Photo: Marvelito
HEADS KNOW TAPES is our mix and interview series, curated to introduce you to the most exciting innovators, selectors, and artists from New York City and beyond.
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Mercury Henderson, better known as Certified Jesus Freak, is everywhere. Sharing a bounty of mixes online through platforms like dublab and madeintheurl quickly led opportunities for to her name appearing on bills all over Bushwick. With sets spanning all genres—from regional club music to favela funk—the versatile open-format DJ knows exactly what a crowd wants and delivers exactly that.
Born in North Carolina, Certified Jesus Freak now spends most of their time commuting between the suburbs of New Jersey and New York City not only for their multitude of gigs, but also to show up for practically everyone in the scene.
Mercury was also one of the first and most prolific HEADS KNOW supporters and we’re excited for everyone to hear her wide-ranging tape. Give it a spin, get the tracklist and read our Q&A below.
You're definitely one of the first HEADS KNOW supporters, and—not sure if people know this—you've helped so much on the backend, so thank you so much for being a part of this! What have you been up to this week?
Thank you for letting me help! I’ve been hopping around NYC, enjoying the relaxation of being unemployed before the stress kicks in, trying to apply for jobs and plan future events/parties with my friends, going through my music in my X (formerly Twitter) bookmarks, and just generally hanging out. I haven’t had this much free time in a while, so I’m really trying to make the most of it and not sit still.
There's a reason you're my unofficial official intern—like me, you balance so much in your day-to-day. How do you do everything while also making time to support your friends all the time?
I’m gonna be honest, I’ve never been so sleep-deprived in my life. It’s really just a desire to be around what’s happening and support the culture that my friends create, and I’ll easily take that two-hour commute both ways if it means being there and reveling in the enjoyment that we’re alive and creating under these societal constraints and hopeful for a future where we all eat at the same table, no matter how flashy or plain that table may be, y’know?
More people should be like you, including me. Backtracking a bit, what's your earliest memory of music that made you realize how important it was to you?
When I was a toddler, my mom had one or two of those big-ass CD storage cases that black people tend to have, with the four styrofoam-esque sleeves on every page, and like 300 pages, and a big Batman radio/CD player. Both in the car and at home, she would play our staples, miscellaneous reggae compilations, the Madagascar soundtrack, Michael Jackson, all that stuff. Those are my first music memories, it’s not all too flashy or anything but when you go back and map out my life path from there to now, it’s a very unsuspecting foundation for where I’m at now.
Do you come from a musical family? What's your musical background?
My family, being Caribbean, obviously loves their culture’s music. It was inescapable, and I got so sick of hearing dancehall and soca for years because I wish they had more variety in sounds. They also have an affinity for classic hip-hop, which makes sense since they came to New York and New Jersey from South America in the ‘90s, and hated a lot of past/current trap that dominated the radio when I was growing up, and mainstream pop.
Me personally, I was always a consumer of music but never really had any musical talent or skill. I hated my grade school music classes, playing “Hot Cross Buns” on a recorder, doing choir for a talent show, it was all very useless to me. I would watch those TV programs on VH1/MTV in the mornings before I left for school where they would play what’s trending, or when they had the 24/7 music video channels on cable that I kept on religiously during summers. I have such vivid memories of making microwaved Hot Pockets while switching between Ridiculousness and the music videos as a youth. In middle/high school, I would spend all my time listening to music on Bandcamp during class because they blocked Spotify and Soundcloud. Shoutout Killer Bee, I found him on Bandcamp after my first breakup freshman year and I’ve been an immense fan ever since.
Tell me how you got into DJing.
I kind of was a… proto-DJ? in middle school. Whenever I had a crush, I would download songs off YouTube, put them in a specific order and type a text document full of liner notes to put on a flash drive and give to them. During quarantine, I upgraded from that to torrenting songs and arranging them in Audacity for my friends as Christmas presents, which people were really impressed by. And then when I moved to New Jersey, the first event I went to as an independent person was Gumfest in 2022. Freezing my fucking ass off drinking Modelos on a Bushwick rooftop, meeting new people and listening to insane dance music I had never heard before, it’s such a core experience for who I am today.
Keeping up with the Eldia crew online meant discovering another world of stuff that was so captivating and everything I listened to would rattle around in my head, and I’ve had this mental thing ever since I was a kid where there is always music playing in my head. Ask me at any moment in time what song’s playing in my mind and I’ll always have an answer. At that point I figured, why not make my own mixes, try to get the radio in my head onto something a little more tangible? I would autonomously blend songs in my head anyways so it was really just a matter of figuring out how to make the theory a reality, and adjusting when it didn’t work out like I wanted.
My friend Dillon sold me a DDJ-SB2 and I started practicing spinning on Serato, but what really pushed me towards DJing for real was Two-Step Verification at Mi Sabor Cafe in January of 2023. That is… probably the best party I’ve been to in my life, with second being the Eldia Summit the day Queen Elizabeth died. That handoff between JEWELSSEA and Swami Sound made me a dance music Jesuit, I owe my “career” to that party.
When I put you on my Sliink lineup last December, everyone was so intrigued because of your name, so I'm breaking my own "don't ask about DJ names" rule to ask you about its origin.
I am so, so sorry in advance but I got the name Certified Jesus Freak from the Drake album Certified Lover Boy and those Tyler, the Creator “Jesus Freak” t-shirts he had. It’s always embarrassing to share that because I was so young (19) (not even two years ago) when I thought of it… originally, I was gonna start spinning under the name Bad Miracle because I loved Jordan Peele’s Nope and how that film considers the price and weight of spectacle, but CJF ended up being a lot catchier, and kinda tied into how ritualistic and religious DJing as an act appeared to me (and also a burgeoning love of gospel house).
I feel like I saw you start to post mixes, and then all of the sudden, you're on every lineup poster in Bushwick. How did that happen?
I wish I was on every lineup in Bushwick, oh my god. At least I’d be getting steady pay. I just locked in and posted a lot of mixes on SoundCloud, and frequented a lot of open decks. I didn’t get consistently booked until the year started, and I don’t really know how to keep that momentum sustainably consistent outside of prayers and manifestation. But fuck it, we ball, y’know? I’m slowly getting away from just Bushwick shows too, I’m excited.
Your song selection always surprises me. What's your secret to finding new music?
Stalking SoundCloud likes/reposts and Bandcamp profiles is a good first step. Listening to DJ mixes and looking for songs or tracklists, checking out what people you follow and their peers are posting about on social media, checking music publications… it all feeds into whatever ends up on my USB. Occasionally the Algorithm™ will give me some good hits but it’s been really rare so far (SoundCloud seems to have the best one though).
I just came back from Coachella and asked all the artists this, but I thought you would have a funny answer: How many pop edits are too many in a set?
Arielle, I will record you a mix of 100% pop edits if you never ask me a DJ discourse-esque question for the rest of the week.
If the dancefloor clears, what's the song you use to bring everyone back?
[Chief Keef’s] “Faneto”. And if not “Faneto,” “Teenage Dream” [Jukaa Bootleg]. And if not “Teenage Dream,” [Ceechynaa’s] “Last Laugh.” And if not “Last Laugh,” I am simply giving up.
If the music, the people and the sound system make a party good, what makes a party great?
Everclear.
What are your favorite spots to spin in New York City and which ones do you like to visit as a partygoer?
I loved spinning in Mood Ring with my friend Ghozt, and Trans-Pecos had a really nice setup. I haven’t spun at Mi Sabor (yet) but I hold a lot of love in my heart for that place as a partgoer, it’s a must-see for anyone. Mood Ring is always nice, Happyfun Hideaway and Jade Bar are both lovely to be at, but I wish I was exposed to more spaces to dance to outside the main Myrtle-Broadway staples.
What can we expect from this mix?
Pulsating, rhythmic bass. A few classic throwbacks, a few new heaters, a lot of stuff from people I consider friends, it’s really a mix of sounds that reflect me as a person and my history if you really get into it. And me replicating that one blend you did on your Lot Radio set with DJ Sliink that I always geek out over.
Is there anything I haven't asked you that you want to talk about? Anything you want to promote?
Well, I’m plotting a party with a super-strong lineup in June for Pride, hopefully announcing it early May so keep an eye out for that… I’m local to NYC/Jersey so hopefully shit gets shaking this spring/summer. Nothing much else to promote on my end, I’m keeping it simple.
Support Certified Jesus Freak on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Bandcamp and SoundCloud, plus see her tour dates on Resident Advisor.
TRACKLIST
DJ Medhi - Signatune (Thomas Bangalter Edit)
Conny - Song for Eva (Jersey Mix)
Lloyd - Get It Shawty (feat. Yung Joc)
4Batz - Act 2.5 (Date @ 8) [DJ Sliink Remix)
Armand Van Helden - You Don’t Know Me (feat. Duane Harden)
Sweet Female Attitude - Flowers (Sunship Edit)
Tati Quebra Barraco - Matemática
Bad Bunny - Tití Me Preguntó (Vivanco Baile Funk edit)
Ashley Tisdale - He Said She Said (AØrta Jersey Club Remix)
Fulano x East Blue - Care 4 U (feat. MARTE) [Unreleased]
salute - Joy (feat. Leyla Fahm)
Disclosure - She’s Gone Dance On (Unreleased)
Chief Keef - Hallelujah
Destiny’s Child - Lose My Breath (DJ CDQ Remix)
Tiga and Hudson Mohawke - Ascending Into The Clouds
Sean Paul - Temperature (SKEPTIC Speed Garage Dub)
Skin on Skin - Multiply (Melodramatic Re-Dub)
bladee, Ecco2K, Thaiboy Digital - TL;DR
Playboi Carti - Location (Point.Reyes Remix)
gum.mp3 - Deimos
Playboi Carti - 2024
Milkfish, umru, Playboi Carti, & Aaliyah - ２０２４ₘᵤₛᵢc
DJ Nanoos - Are you that Nancy قول تاني إيه
Charli XCX - Club Classics (avas rebuild)
Kerri Chandler and Dennis Quin - You Are In My System (feat. Troy Denari) [Faster Horses Sport Mix]
Junior Reid - One Blood (SANTO Funana Rave Edit)
Future & Metro Boomin - We Don’t Trust You (feat. Travis Scott and Playboi Carti)
