Display in the Library

Located under the Dome, 1st Floor

Oct 1 - 31, 2024

Librarian Narrative

Last year’s display highlighted the past and its influence on the Filipinx American community in San Diego. Rather than looking backward, this year, I wanted to highlight how we can move forward and make active changes to our current society.

Inspired by a student’s joy last year for the APIDA Center’s hosted event of Ruby Ibarra and my dear friend, who is a Native rapper and a librarian and friends with Rocky Rivera, I choose to look at Filipinx Americans and their use of hip-hop to help tell their story, find a creative outlet, find kinship, and push for social justice.

Hip-Hop as a culture is expressed in many formats, such as music, dance, art, and fashion. While the display focuses on musical expression, I feel that the materials highlighted are similar to hip-hop’s variety of expressions.

You’ll find scholarly works like books, chapters, journal articles, dissertations, and theses. All of these centers on the study of Filipinx Americans and hip-hop. You’ll also find original works, such as primary sources of documentaries and actual music from Filipinx American artists.

Like many students starting a new research journey, I discovered a few gems of resources like Christopher Vito’s “The Values of Independent Hip-Hop in the Post-Golden Era: Hip-Hop's Rebels.” Vito is a native San Diegan, a Filipino American, a SDSU alum, studies hip-hop, and openly shares how hip-hop saved his life. I look forward to continuing my knowledge journey to further learn about the complexities of the Filipinx Americans and their use of hip-hop culture.

I’ve assembled this display as a starting point to inspire our large community of Filipinx American SDSU students.

Thanks for browsing through,

Jenny Wong-Welch

Librarian

Jenny Wong-Welch

She/Her/Hers

Email Me

Subjects: Asian & Asian American Studies, Dance, Engineering, Ethnic Studies, Foreign Language Material, Library Services, Linguistics & Languages, Mathematics & Statistics, Music

Highlighted Resources

Books

Filipino American Transnational Activism by Robyn M. Rodriguez (Volume Editor)
ISBN: 9004370935
Publication Date: 2019-12-19
Filipino American Transnational Activism: Diasporic Politics among the Second Generation offers an account of how Filipinos born or raised in the United States often defy the multiple assimilationist agendas that attempt to shape their understandings of themselves. Despite conditions that might lead them to reject any kind of relationship to the Philippines in favor of a deep rootedness in the United States, many forge linkages to the "homeland" and are actively engaged in activism and social movements transnationally. Though it may well be true that most Filipino Americans have an ambivalent relationship to the Philippines, many of the chapters of this book show that other possibilities for belonging and imaginaries of "home" are being crafted and pursued.
Filipinos Represent by Antonio T. Tiongson Jr.
ISBN: 9780816687831
Publication Date: 2013-07-01
The "Hip-hop Nation" has been scouted, staked out, and settled by journalists and scholars alike. Antonio T. Tiongson Jr. steps into this well-mapped territory with questions aimed at interrogating how nation is conceptualized within the context of hip-hop. What happens, Tiongson asks, to notions of authenticity based on hip-hop's apparent blackness when Filipino youth make hip-hop their own? Tiongson draws on interviews with Bay Area-based Filipino American DJs to explore the authenticating strategies they rely on to carve out a niche within DJ culture. He shows how Filipino American youth involvement in DJing reconfigures the normal boundaries of Filipinoness predicated on nostalgia and cultural links with an idealized homeland. Filipinos Represent makes the case that while the engagement of Filipino youth with DJ culture speaks to the broadening racial scope of hip-hop--and of what it means to be Filipino--such involvement is also problematic in that it upholds deracialized accounts of hip-hop and renders difference benign. Looking at the ways in which Filipino DJs legitimize their place in an expressive form historically associated with African Americans, Tiongson examines what these complex forms of identification reveal about the contours and trajectory of contemporary U.S. racial formations and discourses in the post-civil rights era.
Manifest Technique by Mark R. Villegas
ISBN: 9780252043789
Publication Date: 2021-07-13
An obscured vanguard in hip hop Filipino Americans have been innovators and collaborators in hip hop since the culture's early days. But despite the success of artists like Apl.de.Ap of the Black Eyed Peas and superstar producer Chad Hugo, the genre's significance in Filipino American communities is often overlooked. Mark R. Villegas considers sprawling coast-to-coast hip hop networks to reveal how Filipino Americans have used music, dance, and visual art to create their worlds. Filipino Americans have been exploring their racial position in the world in embracing hip hop's connections to memories of colonial and racial violence. Villegas scrutinizes practitioners' language of defiance, placing the cultural grammar of hip hop within a larger legacy of decolonization. An important investigation of hip hop as a movement of racial consciousness, Manifest Technique shows how the genre has inspired Filipino Americans to envision and enact new ideas of their bodies, their history, and their dignity.
Letters to a Young Brown Girl by Barbara Jane Reyes
ISBN: 9781950774173
Publication Date: 2020-09-22
Barbara Jane Reyes answers the questions of Filipino American girls and young women of color with bold affirmations of hard-won empathy, fierce intelligence, and a fine-tuned B.S. detector. The Brown Girl of these poems is fed up with being shushed, with being constantly told how foreign and unattractive and unwanted she is. She's flipping tables and throwing chairs. She's raising her voice. She's keeping a sharp focus on the violences committed against her every day, and she's writing through the depths of her "otherness" to find beauty and even grace amidst her rage. Simultaneously looking into the mirror and out into the world, Reyes exposes the sensitive nerve-endings of life under patriarchy as a visible immigrant woman of color as she reaches towards her unflinching center.
#HipHopEd: the Compilation on Hip-Hop Education by Christopher Emdin (Editor); Edmund S. Adjapong (Editor)
ISBN: 9789004371866
Publication Date: 2018-03-29
The first volume of #HipHopEd: The Compilation on Hip-hop Education brings together veteran and emerging scholars, practitioners and students from a variety of fields to share their research and experiences as it relates to the use of hip-hop in educational spaces. This text extends the current literature on hip-hop and education and focuses on the philosophy of hip-hop and education, the impact that hip-hop culture has on the identity of educators, and the use of hip-hop to inform mental health practices. Through their personal and practical experiences, authors of this text will spark new and creative uses of hip-hop culture in educational spaces.
Hip Hop Culture by Emmett G. Price III
ISBN: 9781851098675
Publication Date: 2006-05-19
This work is a revealing chronicle of Hip Hop culture from its beginnings three decades ago to the present, with an analysis of its influence on people and popular culture in the United States and around the world. From Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message," to Jay-Z, Diddy, and 50 Cent, Hip Hop Culture is the first comprehensive reference work to focus on one of the most influential cultural phenomena of our time. Scholarly and streetwise, backed by statistics, documents, and research, it recounts three decades of Hip Hop's evolution, highlighting its defining events, recordings, personalities, movements, and ideas, as well as society's response. How did an inner-city subculture, all but dismissed in the early 1980s, become the ruler of the world's airwaves and iPods? Who are the players who moved Hip Hop from the record bins to the pinnacles of entertainment, business, and fashion? Who are the founders, innovators, legends, and major players? Authoritative and authentic, Hip Hop Culture provides a wealth of information and insights for students, educators, and anyone interested in the ways pop culture reflects and shapes our lives.
Hip Hop America by Nelson George
ISBN: 0140280227
Publication Date: 1999-10-01
This is an account of the history of hip hop music, from its roots in the late 1970s to its emergence as the cultural force it is today, influencing everything from films to advertising, fashion to sports. Nelson examines why it has held a steady grip on American popular culture for over 20 years.
Freedom Moves by H. Samy Alim (Editor); Jeff Chang (Editor); Casey Wong (Editor)
ISBN: 9780520382787
Publication Date: 2023-01-10
This expansive collection sets the stage for the next generation of Hip Hop scholarship as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the movement's origins. Celebrating 50 years of Hip Hop cultural history, Freedom Moves travels across generations and beyond borders to understand Hip Hop's transformative power as one of the most important arts movements of our time. This book gathers critically acclaimed scholars, artists, activists, and youth organizers in a wide-ranging exploration of Hip Hop as a musical movement, a powerful catalyst for activism, and a culture that offers us new ways of thinking and doing freedom. Rooting Hip Hop in Black freedom culture, this state-of-the-art collection presents a globally diverse group of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, Arab, European, North African, and South Asian artists, activists, and thinkers. The "knowledges" cultivated by Hip Hop and spoken word communities represent emerging ways of being in the world. Freedom Moves examines how educators, artists, and activists use these knowledges to inform and expand how we understand our communities, our histories, and our futures.
When Rap Music Had a Conscience by Tayannah Lee McQuillar; X-Clan (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9781560259190
Publication Date: 2007-03-29
Rap music has many detractors. Today, it is often associated with a culture of crass materialistm, sex, violence and irresponsibility. It wasn't always so. In her thorough and entertaining tour of the "golden age" of rap from 1987 to 1996, McQuillar takes us back to a time when the music voiced the social and political concerns of inner-city youth, reflected their hopes and dreams for the future, and strove to inspire positive social change. When Rap Music Had a Conscience gives us the A's- to - Z's of major groups and artists, from Arrested Development to YZ, of this creative and socially conscious age. Broadening its outlook on the culture, the book discusses the interactions of rap music with literature, film and fashion. Finally, it delves into the socio-political dimensions of Hip-Hop in the golden age, exploring the influence of events from the L.A. riots to the unearthing of the oldest human remains in Kenya, to paint a rich and fascinating picture of rap music and its diverse contexts and consequences.
Can't Stop Won't Stop by Jeff Chang; D. J. Kool Herc (Introduction by)
ISBN: 9780312425791
Publication Date: 2005-12-27
Can't Stop Won't Stop is a powerful cultural and social history of the end of the American century, and a provocative look into the new world that the hip-hop generation created. Forged in the fires of the Bronx and Kingston, Jamaica, hip-hop became the Esperanto of youth rebellion and a generation-defining movement. In a post-civil rights era defined by deindustrialization and globalization, hip-hop crystallized a multiracial, polycultural generation's worldview, and transformed American politics and culture. But that epic story has never been told with this kind of breadth, insight, and style. Based on original interviews with DJs, b-boys, rappers, graffiti writers, activists, and gang members, with unforgettable portraits of many of hip-hop's forebears, founders, and mavericks, including DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck D, and Ice Cube, Can't Stop Won't Stop chronicles the events, the ideas, the music, and the art that marked the hip-hop generation's rise from the ashes of the 60's into the new millennium.
The Values of Independent Hip-Hop in the Post-Golden Era by Christopher Vito
ISBN: 9783030024802
Publication Date: 2019-02-22
Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, this book uncovers the historical trajectory of U.S. independent hip-hop in the post-golden era, seeking to understand its complex relationship to mainstream hip-hop culture and U.S. culture more generally. Christopher Vito analyzes the lyrics of indie hip-hop albums from 2000-2013 to uncover the dominant ideologies of independent artists regarding race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and social change. These analyses inform interviews with members of the indie hip-hop community to explore the meanings that they associate with the culture today, how technological and media changes impact the boundaries between independent and major, and whether and how this shapes their engagement with oppositional consciousness. Ultimately, this book aims to understand the complex and contradictory cultural politics of independent hip-hop in the contemporary age.

Articles

Lewis, L. (2012). The Philippine “Hip Hop Stick Dance.” Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 83(1), 17–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/07303084.2012.10598705
Devitt, R. (2008). Lost in Translation: Filipino Diaspora(s), Postcolonial Hip Hop, and the Problems of Keeping It Real for the “Contentless” Black Eyed Peas. Asian Music, 39(1), 108–134. https://csu-sdsu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CALS_SDL/15ped5q/cdi_proquest_journals_214158917
Shiu, A. S.-F. (2007). Styl(us): Asian North America, Turntablism, Relation. CR: The New Centennial Review, 7(1), 81–106. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41942894
Villegas, M. R. (2018). Redefined What is Meant to Be Divine: Prayer and Protest in Blue Scholars. Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, 41(3), 509–526. https://doi-org.libproxy.sdsu.edu/10.1353/bio.2018.0056
Matson, A. (2011, July 1). Grind and shine: Blue scholars. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2011/07/01/137537350/grind-and-shine-blue-scholars
Labrador, R. N. (2015). “The Rock, Rock On”: Musical Autobiography as National Counter-Story. Popular Music & Society, 38(2), 243–260. https://doi-org.libproxy.sdsu.edu/10.1080/03007766.2014.994321

Book Chapters

Harrison, AK. (2015). “Change That Wouldn’t Fill a Homeless Man’s Cup Up”: Filipino American Political Hip Hop and Community Organizing in the Age of Obama. In The Hip Hop and Obama Reader (pp. 134-154) . Oxford University Press, Incorporated. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sdsu/reader.action?docID=4082690&ppg=154
Ortega, A., Dela Cruz, B., Dayrit, C., Angeles, E., Saguin, K., Garcia, L., Martinez, M., De Guzman, M. & Lopez, Y. (2024). Counter-Cartographies of Resistance – Exposing Everyday Authoritarianism in the Philippines. In Beyond Molotovs - A Visual Handbook of Anti-Authoritarian Strategies: A Visual Handbook of Anti-Authoritarian Counter-Strategies (pp. 80-85). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839470558-011

Dissertations & Theses

Wang, O. S. (2004). Spinning identities: A social history of Filipino American DJs in the San Francisco Bay Area (1975–1995). ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. https://csu-sdsu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CALS_SDL/10r4g1c/cdi_proquest_journals_305212057
Itchon, E. P. (2014). Traditions, soul, and beats: Expressions of filipino american identity in contemporary hip-hop music (Order No. 1527957). Available from Publicly Available Content Database. (1552917261). Retrieved from http://libproxy.sdsu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/traditions-soul-beats-expressions-filipino/docview/1552917261/se-2
Bischoff, S. A. (2012). Expressions of resistance: Intersections of filipino american identity, hip hop culture, and social justice (Order No. 3517373). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global: The Humanities and Social Sciences Collection. (1032540568). Retrieved from http://libproxy.sdsu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/expressions-resistance-intersections-filipino/docview/1032540568/se-2
Carrasco, T. M. (2023). Kids of empire: Pacific peoples and diaspora building cultures of defiance through storytelling, poetry, and rap lyrics (Order No. 30418021). Available from Publicly Available Content Database. (2838145059). Retrieved from http://libproxy.sdsu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/kids-empire-pacific-peoples-diaspora-building/docview/2838145059/se-2

News Articles

JMU students create influential presence through rapping. (2018, Oct 11). University Wire Retrieved from http://libproxy.sdsu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/wire-feeds/jmu-students-create-influential-presence-through/docview/2117825011/se-2
This tiny desk contestant rapped a love letter to her immigrant mother. (2019, June 22). NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2019/06/22/734403197/this-tiny-desk-contestant-rapped-a-love-letter-to-her-immigrant-mother

Collective Group

Kollective Hustle - Kollective Hustle is an initiative of ABS-CBN International that unites the emerging generation of Filipinos in transforming their ideas into action, passion into profession, creativity into careers, and to inspire a global culture of collaboration.

Documentaries & Original Music

Mv. (2009, August 17). Watch hip hop mestizaje now! Hip Hop Lives. https://filamfunk.blogspot.com/2009/08/watch-hip-hop-mestizaje-now.html

Beats, rhymes, and resistance: Pilipinos and hip hop in los angeles(The definitive version). (n.d.). [Video recording]. Retrieved September 26, 2024, from https://vimeo.com/3722157

Scratch (DVD)
Scratch is a 2001 documentary film, directed and edited by Doug Pray.[1] The film explores the world of the hip-hop DJ from the birth of hip-hop when pioneering DJs began extending breaks on records, to the invention of scratching and beat juggling, to the more recent explosion of turntablism. Throughout the documentary, many artists explain how they were introduced to hip-hop while providing stories of their personal experiences

Kid Koala - Scratchcratchratchatch
Ah, where it all began. Scratchcratchratchatch, a 30-minute cassette recorded in 1995, introduced the world to Kid Koala's signature silly turntable experiments. It was recorded on a 4-track analog cassette recorder in the summertime.

Filipino/a/x American History Month: October 2024

2024 Theme - Struggle, Resistance, Solidarity, and Resilience