DJing as a Filipino Thing

Erica Lee

ASA 4

April 11, 2017

Hip-Hop, when it first emerged, was associated with the black youths in Harlem. Now it has evolved and expanded and includes people from many different walks of life, including Filipinos. After immigrating to the United States, Filipino youth adapted hip-hop and tied to establish legitimacy by finding their own niche. Filipino youth tried to legitimize their involvement in hip-hop by becoming familiar with hip-hop at a young age and by talking about their experiences growing up. I can relate to this to some extent as an Asian American female who loves hip-hop and rap. I don’t necessarily have anything that ties me to the roots of hip-hop in Harlem, but I guess in a sense I try to authenticate my love for hip-hop through the fact that I’ve grown up listening to hip-hop. One might argue that this is cultural appropriation, but I’m not taking hip-hop and saying that it’s my own. In the case of many Filipinos, hip-hop is something that they've grown up with and they’ve been immersed in different aspects of hip-hop culture. Filipino DJs don’t try to appropriate the hip-hop culture. They’re respectful and committed to keeping what they see is the true essence of the hip-hop culture. We acknowledge that hip-hop originated from black youths and is essentially poetry that breaks down ethnic, class, and gender differences. 

To Filipino youth in the US, hip-hop and DJing is a way to express themselves and find themselves. Personally I think it stems from the conflicting identities some Filipino's face. When people say Asian, many people generally think of East Asians and when people say American, the general idea you get is a white person. I think that it's because of this that Filipino's use hip-hop and DJing as a means to define themselves. However, at the same time, it isn't anything negative. Being Filipino doesn't hinder them from accomplishing great things and doing what they love. DJing is not bound to Filipinos, it's just something that Filipinos do.