Filipinos in Relation to Hip Hop and DJing

It is apparent that the relationship that Filipinos have with DJing and hip hop is reflective of their struggle to find their own identity as a people.  While there is no single, indisputable way for Filipino DJs to authenticate their participation in the hip hop genre, the reasons that the article’s respondents gave in trying to explain the significance of their passion and contributions as hip hop DJs seemed to conflict with each other at times.  For example, how can we reconcile the fact that DJ Deeandroid thinks that hip hop belongs to Filipino culture because it’s a “part of growing up” (pg. 51) with DJ Q-Bert’s idea that “real music should be appreciated by anyone” (pg. 59)?  I felt that the main question driving these various, and at times, conflicting responses, is: how does a group claim something for their culture when the line between appropriation and creation (or making an art form into one’s own unique thing, in this case) is so fine?

In trying to make a distinction between hip hop’s inherently black roots and how it is an integral part of Filipino culture in its own, inimitable way, some on the author’s respondents fell back on the definition of culture that we previously learned about, in that culture is a way of life.  Having grown up listening and experimenting with hip hop, it is easy to think that hip hop doesn’t solely belong to one particular group of people.  Rather, it is implied that hip hop is a medium through which several different groups of people can define who they are.  I think that that particular perspective defeats the point of trying to characterize a culture because in saying that hip hop is essentially a blank slate that anyone of any kind of racial background can use, how can Filipinos claim that it is a distinct part of their culture?  In this case, it seems as though what makes DJing and hip hop part of the Filipino domain is the product as opposed to the source.

            To conclude, like the definition of culture itself, it is difficult to describe what “belongs” to a culture.  I thought it was particularly interesting that as much as hip hop and DJing is used to define who Filipinos are culturally, it could also be used as an escape from the pressure of having to label an entire group of people who aren’t completely sure who they are in relation to other racial groups to begin with.