"DJing as a Filipino Thing"

Generally, when hip hop is mentioned, the typical assumption for people is to associate hip hop with the African American community. Although it is not particularly wrong per se, it does show some signs of ignorance as today the hip hop culture transcends through racial divisions. Antonio Tiongson Jr.'s take on the struggle of finding the Filipino identity in the United States is something that has definitely changed my view of how race and culture both play into the endeavor to find a spot in society that allows for them to express and represent themselves. 

With the media being the forefront of how people perceive each other, having them portray certain aspects of a race or a culture in either a positive or negative light can definitely make or break those people affected. As One Tyme said, "They just show like, the money, and like, the fights and everything bad that goes down. But they don't see all these different ethnicities coming together at a party just having fun" (Tiongson Jr., pg. 54). The different kinds of media attention that the DJing scene gets, a lot of the time, depends on what ethnicity and culture the people represent in order to promote a certain type of political agenda, be it to negate or to promote how people see the type of people who are in the hip hop scene. 

On another note, the rich and diverse history that makes up the Philippines that we have today, has a huge cultural impact on Filipino identity. The Spanish and American colonial imprint that was left in the Philippines created a sort of identity crisis for the Filipinos as although they have had Spanish and American influence, they are still geographically considered as Asians even though their culture differs a lot from the typical Asian countries such as China or Japan. This is where the hip hop scene in the United States come in as it is a creative way for the DJs to express their Filipino heritage and their cultural background as they create a niche in the American society that allows them to fit in without having to worry much about not fitting in like they do in their Asian American identity. 

In my experience with the hip hop scene, I haven't had the pleasure to listen to any Filipino hip hop music, but reading that it connects to the cultural identities of a seemingly misplaced group of people in the United States makes me curious to hear what they have in store for the uninformed public that is not aware of their presence in the hip hop scene. The media's involvement is definitely present as they only show artists that people would without a doubt listen to without thinking much about the cultural identity that lies behind the music.