In this month’s issue, GQ followed Idris Elba to Ibiza, where he had booked a D.J. gig. As many Vulture readers know, it wasn’t his first time.
In the story, Elba details his NYC origin story, arriving from London and living in a Union Square YMCA, working the door at comedy club Caroline’s (among other things: †… he’d sell drugs at Carolines, and meanwhile all these successful guys would come through: D. L. Hughley, Dave Chappelleâ€). He also would do D.J. gigs and record music under the name Big Driis (“quiet storm jams, rap bangers, deconstructed covers of Michael Jackson songsâ€). He now does it under his own name: “As the night goes on, he’s getting looser, DJ-wise, and the hits begin to come: Madonna’s ‘Holiday,’ Prince’s ‘Kiss.’†He even buries the hatchet to play Oasis’s “Wonderwall,†a song he calls “a classic†even though he recently got into a scuffle with Liam Gallagher: “Don’t touch his hair, apparently. Fuck off. Next time walk with a fucking hairdresser, then … Well, ‘I’m a popular rock singer, so I’m going to be mean and fucking horrible to people just because they messed up my look.’ Fuck off.â€