Nikki Shamdasani, better known as DJ Lady Tribe. Is an American DJ, producer, graffiti artist, model and reality television star of Hispanic, Indian and Japanese descent. She is best known for her ventures in the music industry with Adore Delano and Pitbull among others. She is also well known for her notorious appearance on VH1’s Rock of Love Bus with Bret Michaels. Her likeness was used for the iconic cover girl of Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Nikki "DJ Lady Tribe" Shamdasani was born in Hong Kong, China and raised in Los Angeles, California. Not much is known about her childhood. Her mother is Japanese and her father is of Hispanic-Indian descent.

DJ Lady Tribe began her career with distributing mixtapes and playing in small clubs in the Los Angeles area. She would gradually build a reputation for her unique and dynamic style fusing both hip hop and top 40 hits together.

Her breakthrough came when The Los Angeles Times praised her live performances. This recognition led her to perform at famous venues such as the Playboy mansion, Les Deux and Tao in Las Vegas.

Throughout her music career she performed across 60 different cities in the United States and performed with artists and for such as; Black Eyed Peas, Chingy, Christina Milian, Ciara, DJ Khaled, Dr. Dre, E-40, Fergie, Lil Jon, Lumidee, Nina Sky, Petey Pablo, Pitbull, Redman, Rihanna, T.I., The Game, Timbaland, Warren G and Ying Yang Twins among many others. Lady Tribe became a member of the "MURDER MAMIS", a collective of influential female DJs in the music industry alongside La La, Rah Digga, Remy Ma, Shawna and more.

In 2003 she would feature on an episode of DJ show "The Roof" as the resident DJ. In 2010 she was also a regularly featured DJ on "Cholo Comedy Slam: Stand up and Lean back".

Between the years of 2004-2006 Lady Tribe was the headline DJ for the "DUB Celebrity Carshow tour", "Hot Import Nights tour" and the "Pepsi Street Motion tour".

In 2005 her song “Murder Mommy” was featured on the “Hi Power 2005” mixtape.

In 2007 Pitbull would thank DJ Lady Tribe in his liner notes for his album "The Boatlift"^[1] in 2011 they would collaborate on a Bojangles remix, the remix would be titled “Bojangles DJ Lady Tribe Remix”. The remix would be released by Lady Tribe on her official SoundCloud page that same year.

In 2008 she would collaborate and release a song with “Knowa Lazarus” titled “Higga Hey”.

In 2009 her notoriety would land her a cameo role in Fast & Furious 4 as a hot DJ.

In 2009 Lady Tribe wrote and produced her first official single “24/7” featuring Ms. Sancha, however, she would instead give the song to Adore Delano who released the song in that same year. She would later release her version in 2011 to her official SoundCloud page. Lady Tribe’s version of the song would be covered by hyerpop artist Ayesha Erotica in 2016 for her webseries “Loose Teens”.

In 2011 she would release a third single labelled “KEEP IT LIVE MA (Tribes theme song)”. She would release another single the same year labelled “Extreme Ways” which featured American rapper Twista’.

In 2011 Lady Tribe would present LA Onda TV. She would interview artists such as Akon, Nick Cannon and Twista' about their music.

In 2011 Lady Tribe was the headline DJ for the Budlight / Maxim event.

Lady Tribe seemed to have an album in the works with a potential cover released on her last.fm page in 2011. As of 2024 she has not released any albums.

In 2013 a never seen before show reel made for MTV was uploaded to YouTube by Mytchell Mora. The sizzle reel was a pitch for Lady Tribe to have her own reality show focusing on her DJ, music, modelling and graffiti career. The reel featured her DJing, performing at events, her at photoshoots, her graffiti art and a glimpse of her personal life. It’s currently unknown when the reel was produced and pitched to MTV.

She has been credited as an influence for hyperpop artist Ayesha Erotica and for British media personality George Bebbington.

Lady Tribe was a notable graffiti artist in the Los Angeles area, excelling in tagging and bombing work. Her tags became well known in the downtown LA area, eventually leading her into legal troubles. She was arrested for vandalization and given a misdemeanor and was placed on probation, however, just two weeks later she was raided at her home and arrested, being placed on a $100,000 bail.

In 2007 Lady Tribe was featured in the documentary "Bomb It" as one of the featured graffiti artists. She was also the cover for the film; which featured Lady Tribe tagging a wall. Her graffiti work was also featured on a segment for Fox 11 News.

Lady Tribe's popularity in the graffiti world included her receiving her own merchandise featuring; a custom DJ Lady Tribe bumper sticker, a DJ Lady Tribe bobble head figurine toy and a DJ Lady Tribe graffiti freight train toy which featured her work.

Lady Tribe would also have a notable splash in the modelling industry.

In 2003 Lady Tribe featured as a dancer in 50 Cents "In Da Club" music video.

In 2004 and 2005 Lady Tribe would model for Benchwarmers international trading cards.

Also in 2004 Lady Tribe would work alongside Rockstar games as a model for their iconic Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas game. Her likeness would be used for the famous cover art girl. Her previous work would be remastered for the 2021 remaster release of San Andreas.

Lady Tribe would be the centerfold for the November 2005 issue of Lowrider magazine. She would also be the first featured centerfold model of Access magazine that same year.

Alongside being featured in the film; Lady Tribe would be the cover poster for 2007 documentary "Bomb It".

In 2009 Lady Tribe feature on the third season of VH1's hit series Rock of Love Bus with Bret Michaels. Despite being eliminated in the first episode her time on the show would be infamous.

During her first encounter with Bret Michaels, Lady Tribe would perform a rap she had written for Michaels on the back of a sheet of paper labelled "genital herpes".

Later in the episode during an altercation with fellow contestant Natasha McCollum, McCollum would accuse Lady Tribe of needing medication and being on illegal drugs. Lady Tribe would then defend herself while being clearly intoxicated claiming; she does no illegal drugs and every drug that she had taken or she was currently on was legal before interrupting herself by burping, and apologizing that she'd been drinking earlier in the day. In the same episode she would be accused by fellow contestant Marcia "Brazil" Alves of being high on acid. In a later interview contestant Ashley "A Bomb" Klarich would claim this was false and that Lady Tribe in fact had prescription pills in her bra during filming and was mixing them with alcohol.

Also in the first episode Lady Tribe was featured in the controversial "pussy shot" scene. The official footage of the scene has never been released by VH1 as of 2024 due to its explicit nature. During the episode it was alluded by Bret Michaels what had happened, multiple other contestants referred to the incident as the "pussy shot" or "vagina shot" throughout the episode; with contestant Marcia "Brazil" Alves claiming that women from Brazil do not serve shots from the perereca. It was suggested that contestant Gia Lynn inserted a test tube shot into her vagina, with Lady Tribe then taking the shot out of Lynn's vagina using her mouth. Lynn has since confirmed that the vagina shot did happen, but stated that Lady Tribe inserted the shot into her vagina without her consent, however, multiple cast members came to the defense of Lady Tribe stating Lynn initiated the infamous scene and that it was consensual. Lynn would then redact her statement claiming she was trying to explain how drunk her and Lady Tribe were, not accuse her of sexual assault. Both Lynn & Lady Tribe would be eliminated during this episode.

Despite her popularity with fans Lady Tribe was not invited onto VH1 spin-off shows; I Love Money or Charm School. It has been speculated by fans the shot scene was the reasoning behind this decision. However, Lynn would appear on Charm School with Ricki Lake and was an unused alternate for the unaired, notorious I Love Money season 3.

In 1999 at just 21 years old, Lady Tribe was detained at a Las Vegas motel alongside her boyfriend, of the time, Roberto Franklin Ramirez, for Ramirez' involvement in a drive by shooting in the LA area killing 16 year old Matthew Bravo. Ramirez was also wanted in connection for the two murders of Jose Guerra in 1998 and the murder of Tessa Del Rio in 1999. Lady Tribe was detained and brought in for questioning, before being released. Ramirez would be sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murders.^[2][3][4]

Lady Tribe was arrested multiple times throughout the early 2000's for vandalisms and failing her probation for graffitiing illegal buildings. She would be detained and given a misdemeanor before her home was raided, with her being arrested and placed on a $100,000 bail bond. She served a six month prison sentence.

In 2009 Lady Tribe was arrested in the Huntington Beach area for a DUI.^[5]

In August of 2016 Lady Tribe filed a lawsuit against CP III Vue LLC for wrongful eviction case, this case was dismissed by a judge. Also in August of 2016 Lady Tribe filed a lawsuit against Ryan McDowell for breach of contract, this would be dismissed by order of the court. In September 2016 Lady Tribe filed another lawsuit against CP III Vue LLC for intentional infliction of emotional distress, this case was also dismissed by the judge. Again in September 2016 Lady Tribe would file two additional lawsuits against Ryan McDowell, the first lawsuit would be a wrongful eviction case; which would be dismissed, the second lawsuit would be for intentional bodily harm, property damage and wrongful death the case would go to a jury verdict, and would later be dismissed however, in 2019 the case was reassigned to a new courthouse, as of 2024 there has been no public updates on the case.

In October 2016 Lady Tribe filed a lawsuit against Mike Trelles for malpractice (not medical or legal). The case was settled by judgment of court.

In May 2018 Lady Tribe filed a lawsuit against Greystar California inc. for discrimination, this case would also be dismissed by order of the court.

Not much is known about Lady Tribe's personal life. She worked as an exotic dancer in Las Vegas at the age of 21.

Lady Tribe is bisexual.

In 2020 Lady Tribe would announce on her official instagram account that she was taking some time off from posting to her page due to unspecified personal business.

In 2021 a photo would be uploaded to instagram by a salon based in the Palm Springs area, of Lady Tribe, this is currently the last time she was photographed publicly. The post would be taken down shortly and a close friend of Lady Tribe would confirm that she had suffered from a stroke and was in stroke rehabilitation.

As of 2024 there has been no updates or posts from Lady Tribe or her friends.

Lady Tribe has gone on to have multiple appearances in film and television since 2001.