DJing and turntablism From the 1990s onward, Filipino and Filipino American DJs were central to the evolution of hip hop DJing and turntablism: inventing scratch techniques, winning
DMC titles, and founding influential DJ institutions. •
Rock Steady DJs, a crew featuring DJ Qbert, Mix Master Mike, and DJ Apollo under the blessing of Crazy Legs, won the 1992 DMC World DJ Championship. •
Triple Threat DJs, founded in the Bay Area in the late 1990s, featured Filipino American members DJ Apollo, Shortkut, and
Vinroc, blending battle DJing with club performance and mixtape culture. •
Beat Junkies, a Los Angeles crew, included Filipino American members Shortkut,
D-Styles,
DJ Babu,
Rhettmatic, and Melo-D, among others. Members won national and international championships and later established a DJ school. •
5th Platoon, a New York crew active in the late 1990s and early 2000s, featured Filipino American members
DJ Kuttin Kandi,
DJ Roli Rho,
DJ Neil Armstrong, and Vinroc, among others. • DJ Qbert, an ISP co-founder, won the DMC USA title in 1991 and, with Rock Steady DJs and then as the Dream Team pairing with Mix Master Mike, DMC World titles in 1992 to 1994. • D-Styles, an ISP and Beat Junkies member, released
Phantazmagorea (2002), often cited as an album composed entirely from scratched sounds. • DJ Babu, Beat Junkies and
Dilated Peoples member, is frequently credited in 1990s sources with helping popularise the term "turntablism", particularly via the mixtape
Comprehension and the track "Turntablism". Scholarship and journalism note that attribution is contested. Overall, Filipino and Filipino American DJs won multiple U.S. and world titles in the DMC during the 1990s and 2000s.
Institutions •
International Turntablist Federation (ITF), founded in the mid-1990s by Alex Aquino with help from Shortkut, introduced technical categories and peer-led judging. Filipino champions such as Vinroc, DJ Babu, and D-Styles brought prominence to the federation and influenced turntablism standards worldwide. •
Beat Junkie Institute of Sound (BJIOS), founded in 2017 by the Beat Junkies crew in Glendale, California, established a school and online platform for teaching DJing, beat juggling, and turntablism.
Other notable turntablists of Filipino heritage Beyond the pioneering mainland crews, Filipino American DJs from Hawaiʻi and across the continental United States also achieved early milestones and community recognition as individual champions, collaborators, and local scene leaders. •
DJ ELITE (Oʻahu; Hawaiʻi's first hip hop DJ champion in 1990; co-founder of the DJ and production super-group
CrossFade Disciples (CFD) and the rap and production super-group
808 Natives; Creative Director for
Elite Empire Creative Studio). •
DJ Skinny Guy (Maui; Hawaiʻi's first DJ to battle in the ITF and DMC competitions in 1996). •
Nokturnal Sound Krew (NSK) (Oʻahu; Filipino American-led crew founded in the late 1990s. Featuring brothers
Jami and
Compose with cousin
Logoe, along with DJs
Deception and
SSSolution, NSK won consecutive ITF World Team Championships in 2001 and 2002, and helped establish Honolulu as a hub for competitive turntablism). •
DJ Jester the Filipino Fist (San Antonio, Texas;
Austin Music Award winner in 2000). •
DJ Deeandroid and
DJ Celskiii (San Francisco Bay Area; battle DJs and co-founders of
Skratchpad in the mid-2000s. They are also members of the all-female crew
La Femme Deadly Venoms (FDV), which competed in the 2010 DMC U.S. Team Battle and performed at international turntablism events).
Rapping and vocal performance Sources identify landmark mainstream figures in the Philippines such as Francis Magalona and
Gloc-9, and a range of regional-language and English-language performers across decades. Producers associated with Philippine projects include label and compilation curators for Def Jam Philippines during the 2020s.
Graffiti and visual art Graffiti and street art linked to hip hop have been present in Manila and other urban centres since the 1980s, with crews and artists active alongside b-boys and DJs. Named practitioners in scene histories include Flip-1, Bonz, Ripe-1, Dope, Chas-1, Meow, and Xzyle, and crews such as Samahan Batang Aerosol (SBA), Pinoy Bomber Crew (PBC), Pinoy Style Insight (PSI), Day Night Bombers (DNB), Katipunan Street Team (KST), and Crime In Style Crew (CIS). In the United States, Oakland's Those Damn Kids (TDK) and the late King Dream (Michael Francisco) are frequently cited in discussions of Filipino American graffiti and hip hop culture. ==Industry and institutions==