Our powerful, brilliant, beautiful and iconic friend Christina Ingram, known worldwide as DJ Empress, needs our support right now. Christina has been living with severe chronic pain for years from multiple conditions and is now preparing for major surgery with overwhelming medical costs. She’s been navigating this entire journey alone, without family support, while still creating, still pushing culture forward, and still showing up with the strength of someone who refuses to quit.

If you’ve ever danced to Drum and Bass or Jungle in New York, London, Europe, or anywhere this music travels, you’ve felt Christina’s impact. She was one of the first international female DnB and Jungle DJs, a pioneer who broke open doors long before the scene embraced women. She helped build this culture from the underground up, carrying NYC’s energy across continents and lifting artists, crowds, and entire movements with her work.

Christina has always been the one who gives. The one who mentors. The one who plays through pain because the music matters. The one who never asks for anything. Now it’s our turn to show up for her.

Your support will help her cover surgery, recovery, and the basic cost of staying afloat while she heals. Every contribution reminds her that this global community sees her, values her, and refuses to let her walk through this part of her life alone.

Give what you can. Share if you can. Let’s lift her with the same love, loyalty, and fire that she has given to DnB, Jungle, and every dance floor she’s touched.

If you have been anywhere near drum and bass, jungle or electronic music over the past 3 decades, you have felt her influence. Christina is one of the first women to break into DnB as an international DJ, producer, engineer and label owner. She was also one of the first female buyers at New York record shops in the 1990s, when music was still collected on physical recordings like vinyl, CDs and tapes. Since DnB and Jungle were mostly imported from the UK, the only way to discover new underground electronic sounds was to go into specialized shops and search through the selections curated by buyers like Christina. She helped build the earliest foundation of drum n bass and jungle music in New York City.

From 1994 through 1999, Christina worked in multiple record stores as a buyer, importing jungle and drum and bass during the genre’s earliest wave. She toured across North America and internationally, introducing the sound to countries that had never experienced drum and bass or had never seen a woman behind the decks. She held multiple NYC residencies throughout this era, including her Wednesday weekly at Liquids, her Friday residency at the Tunnel and additional residencies at the Limelight, Club Speed, Sound Factory, Drinkland, Konkrete Jungle and Prohibited Beats at Shine. She also became the only female drum n bass artist ever inducted into the Zulu Nation, recognizing her influence across electronic music and NYC’s cultural history. Beyond New York, she held respected residencies at landmark nights such as Eklektic in San Francisco, Torque in Orlando and Movement in London UK. She performed at Ultra Music Festival for 7 consecutive years. Christina became the first U.S. female DnB artist ever to DJ in London in the 1990s, and later the first U.S. DnB artist to DJ on BBC’s Radio One. Her single “Run to You” went on to be named BBC Radio One’s Drum and Bass Song of the Week.

Christina has released music on some of the most respected labels in electronic music including RAM Records, Viper Recordings, Bassrush, Skunkrock and Universal Music Group. She has produced music for artists including Blondie, The Rockettes and Reggie Watts. Her work has been licensed by HBO, showcased on Netflix, engineered entirely by herself and supported by major cultural institutions like MoMA PS1. She has created all the branding and artwork for her label Empower Recordings with the same dedication she brings to every part of her art. She also is one of the only drum n bass artists in the world who has had acting roles as herself in film, television and on Netflix.

Her legacy spans continents. Christina has performed in underground clubs in London, festivals across Europe, major stages throughout the entire United States and shows in Asia and the South Pacific. Generations of dancers, artists and outsiders found belonging through her sound. She remains one of the most respected and original artists representing New York City.

While building all of this, Christina has been fighting a profound and largely invisible medical battle. She lives with severe Endometriosis and Adenomyosis, conditions that cause internal bleeding, tissue growth on multiple organs, chronic inflammation, severe nerve pain and full body systemic dysfunction. These diseases affect the abdominal region, bladder, bowels, kidneys, lungs, intestines, ligaments, pelvic floor and nerves, creating debilitating pain, severe digestive complications, hormonal disruption, organ stress and extreme exhaustion.

Christina also lives with degenerative spine disease, four herniated cervical discs, three collapsed thoracic discs, two herniated lumbar discs, a protruding S1 nerve root, chronic migraines with aura, Fibromyalgia, IBS and widespread nerve inflammation. Her spine requires ongoing care alongside her Endometriosis treatment. Recent EMG and NCV studies further confirmed the severity of this damage, revealing bilateral C6 radiculopathy with distal denervation and bilateral median neuropathy at both of her wrists. These findings reflect significant nerve injury affecting her neck, upper back, arms and hands, underscoring the urgent need for ongoing regenerative spinal care.

Christina spent more than a decade being misdiagnosed, minimized and dismissed by doctors while enduring Long Covid complications, chronic pain & migraines and the last few years with consecutive months of emergency room visits. After months of waiting on a waiting list, she has finally been accepted for major excision and hysterectomy surgery with Dr. Seckin, one of the leading Endometriosis specialists in the world. Her surgery is scheduled for mid December at an NYC Hospital, where advanced excision requires a specialized surgical team, significant operating room time, pathology services, anesthesia and coordination across multiple departments. This is a life changing step toward healing and represents her first real chance to end years of unmanaged internal bleeding, organ involvement and chronic pain.

Thank you for standing with her. You are supporting one of New York City’s original female electronic music artists get back to a state of health and strength. Community is the family we are fortunate to create for ourselves. Shes so grateful for you and this beautiful community.