Music is my life and I have been a DJ since 1996.  I first became fascinated with DJing in 8th grade when my friend, Hanif, Djed one of our school dances at Rooftop in San Francisco.  I don’t remember if he was good or anything, but it was amazing to see DJing on that level rather than on Yo! MTV Raps.  My boy Hanif was from the projects and I was from a poor neighborhood as well, but it didn’t matter.  He showed me my first DJ Battle too, when Roc Raida, of the former X-Men, won his first DMC battle.  I was obsessed at that point.  But it was still unlikely that I would ever get my hands on equipment or someone to show me how to DJ.  

Less than a year later, I was at a family party at my cousin’s house on Niantic Street in Daly City.  I was 13, so most of the party, besides the great Filipino food, didn’t interest me.  During the party, my cousin Ted and my cousin’s husband’s nephew Chris asked if I wanted to go to my Tita(aunt) Carmen’s house, where Ted lived, which was just down the block.  Of course I went to go hang out with my cool family members.  Once we get there, my cousin Ted opened up his door to a roomfullof records and DJ equipment.  The records were on shelves and in crates all over the floor with a few carved out paths to walk.  I didn’t even know Ted a.k.a. DJ Tom Solo was a DJ and now I found out that I had a cousin who lived 10 minutes away that has been DJing for 15 years.  I watched them mix and scratch and I got my first chance to try to DJ.  I was fascinated and I wanted to be able to do what they could do.

Now that I had access to equipment, thousands of records, and a private instructor, I just had to get my ass over to Ted’s house as much as possible.  I would beg my mom to bring me there every night or I would hop on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and get picked up by my mom.  My mom never questioned what I was trying to do because she always put me in after school to keep me off the streets and this was like free after school.  She also got to visit her sister a lot which she loved.  

It took me about 3 months to actual get mixing down and a year to get my mixes crisp and clean.  Within that time, my cousin Ted decided to buy new equipment and sell his old stuff.  Since I was always at his spot practicing, he decided to offer me the equipment first so I would stop annoying him.  I got two 1200s and a 2 channel Numarkmixer for $800.  My mom paid for the whole thing on a payment plan and I love her to death for it cause it totally change my life.  I was selling weed in 8th grade, but the second I got those turntables I stopped and always went straight home after school to mix.  My mom and my cousin Ted don’t even understand how my life could have been totally different without that whole series of events.

I wasn’t good enough when I first started doing gigs but my cousin assured me that doing gigs helps you improve faster.  He even put me in a DJ coalition withhim.  I was in Sound Generation with my cousin’s husband’s nephew Ben and we probably only did one gig for a Halloween house party for some Aptos Middle School kids.  We had another crew named Audio XTCwhich consisted of four guys that were pretty dope.  My cousin would let me spin a few records at his gigs and I usually would fuck them up.  He would have talks with me saying that I wasn’t good yet but I got hella heart.  I am the kind of person that hates when someone says I can’t do something.  I put in hella work after that point and got good enough to become my cousin’s right hand man for all his gigs.

While me and my cousin Ted were doing about 1-2 gigs a week, he got married and moved away to Vallejo.  I was devastated and I didn’t know what to do.  At the same time, I found out another childhood friend, Karl a.k.a DJ Panik , also started DJing.  He lived a block away and we tried our best to link up as much as possible.  He linked me up with these other DJs, brothers Josh and Jesse Lee, and we started Rhythm Remedy Productions.  These guys were good and we got gigs, the problem was that I didn’t get paid much.  They were taking a cut from me to pay for equipment that was theirs.  This was understandable but I just wanted more money like when I DJed with my cousin Ted.  I eventually started selling myself and found that I wasn’t a very good self promoter.  I did get gigs at my old high school, Raoul Wallenbergin San Francisco.  I also did a few gigs with this other DJ I met in the Upward Bound program at USF , but got out of that too after we didn’t get paid at one gig when some speakers were stolen from the venue.

Although I started DJing12 years ago, I was a bedroom DJ for about four years while I was in college.  There were two reasons that I had a hard time doing gigs while I was in college.  The first reason was the fact that I put all my time into school and the second reason was that I couldn’t afford to keep up withmusic since I was a broke college kid (even with the help of 50 cent (price, not the artist) records at Amoeba Records in Hollywood).  Getting Serato Scratchlive pretty much saved my DJing career since buying music became a non-issue and aI could focus more on perfecting the craft.

In the last year or so, I linked up with a lot of great DJs through friends, websites, but mainly SIPA (Search to Involve Pilipino Americans) Sessions.

SIPA Sessions Flyer

At SIPA, I met Linotype, Jekai.Soulspeak, and Waxstyles.  From them and events like Tuesday Night Cafe, I met DJ Ant, The Optimist, Dumlao, Mike Deuce, Siik, Ocir, Hawk and the list goes on.  I give it up to SIPA for a great place to network as a DJ because I have met more DJs and done more gigs in the last year than I have done in the six years before that I was in LA.

Nowadays, I am a resident at The Come Upat The Terrace Bar in Pasadena which occurs every last Saturday of the month.  I am trying to get more reoccurring gigs at clubs, bars, and lounges in Los Angeles, San Francisco, LasVegas, and beyond.  I also do gigs with DJ Mijo and Mijo Ent.  The Come Up Crew is also trying to get a reoccurring podcast up and another reoccurring party in Hollywood and/or Los Angeles.