boston progress radio

Another Native Guns post?

Yes, but this time it’s DJ Phatrick, probably the least vocal member - as DJs often are - of the once and future kings of API hip hop. You guys probably got so amped rushing out to buy the newest releases from Bambu and Kiwi (”…i scream bars for the children…” and “Summer Exposure”) that you didn’t think to check in on what Phatty’s been up to.

As you probably would have guessed, he’s still on his grind: DJing parties, producing tracks, reading BPRLive, and through it all, still working with youth, which is important because our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries.

If that didn’t make any sense to you, then please pretend the last paragraph never happened. If that did make sense to you, then we share the same taste in YouTube clips. Either way, read on for some real talk with DJ Phatrick.

Giles: Before we get into your career as a dj, can you tell our readers a little bit about what you do when you’re not spinning shows and parties?

Phatrick: When I’m not spinning, I’m teaching kids in the Bay Area, more specifically Oakland. For the last 3 years I was based in West Oakland running a digital music production and recording program for youth and young adults. Recently, I have left that program to pursue other teaching and youth work opportunities

Giles: Do you consider yourself an educator who djs? A dj who teaches? An activist who does what needs to be done?

Phatrick: All the above. The musician and dj part of me is very much integrated in the education and activist side of me…they’re one and the same

I mean, being a dope dj requires a balance of rocking the crowd while maintaining some artistic identity and integrity. For example, it’d be easy for me to play a whole party of top 40 to get shit goin, but that’s hella uncreative. You gotta put some creativity into it. Plus, you dont wanna sell yourself out by playing shit you don’t like or don’t agree with. At the same time, you can’t be a selfish arrogant asshole and play shit with total disregard to the crowd. It’s a balance. The same goes in the classroom, or just education in general. You have to have an understanding of the student or peoples being taught.

Also, on a more literal level, music is a great teaching tool. Art can carry a teaching through better than a lecture because it conveys an emotion along with the knowledge

Giles: Word, so is that what appeals to you as a DJ? The messages? Or what…

Phatrick: No, the music is always first, but alot of my own politicization came from hip hop.

Giles: Yeah me too. Any specific examples?

Phatrick: To be honest, anything and everything that spoke honestly about the Black experience in the U.S. That could be anything from (the obvious) Dead Prez, to NWA.

On an Asian American level, poetry changed my life in college. I remember seeing Anida (from I Was Born With Two Tongues) perform “Excuse Me America” in a documentary called “Yellow Apparel” that my homie Sheng Weng did as a freshman at UC-Berkeley and it brought me to tears. That led to discovering more API art, music, and hip hop…and then I no longer hated myself.

(In case you readers can’t tell, that was a sarcastic last line.)

Giles: So how did that spark that ignited in college lead to your involvement in the API hip hop scene out around your way?

Phatrick: I was just involved, period. I started out djing and providing sound for a lot of events thrown by the various progressive student of color orgs: rallies, nights of cultural resistance, high school outreaches, etc. Then I became one of the principal cultural organizers for these things. We would throw concerts to support folk’s campaigns. The first one was “War on 54″ which protested an anti-affirmative action California proposition that was on the ballot. There was also events supporting the fight against SE Asian deportation, the fight against the prison industrial complex, the fight for the hiring of a Pilipino professor, etc. In my sophomore year, I joined an org called Students for Hip Hop, which in the past, was strictly a hip hop appreciation type of club. In 2 years, we flipped it and made it major cultural arts community resource which would contribute organizing and educational resources for these same events.

Giles: That’s dope. I know doing a chat interview doesn’t actually allow you to really go into detail about all the work you’ve done, but that’s def an impressive array of projects.

So from that, how did you start working with Native Guns?

Phatrick: Native who?

Just kidding. I first saw Native Guns at “What’s Goin’ On” - an annual concert put on by the Pilipino orgs to support the hiring of more Pilipino faculty in UC Berkeley - where I was djing. Those brothers blew my mind. If you’ve ever seen the Guns perform live, then you know what I’m talking about. After that first Berkeley appearance, we booked them for hella shows and events. Bambu and Kiwi knew me more as an organizer than dj back then. One thing I always noticed about their shows is that they never had a dj. The music was always played from a CD-R or MD player but was always formatted and mixed as if there was a live dj. So finally, at one performance, my shy ass goes to Bambu and asks them if they need a dj. He mumbles something about “Oh, we’re talking to several djs right now” and I give up and walk away rejected. Several months later, I got hit up by Kiwi to dj for them. I think that was the summer of 2004, right after I graduated.

Giles: So did touring with the Guns change your perspective on hip hop and politics in your life at all?

Phatrick: It taught me a lot about hip hop politics, you know? Politics of the music industry, politics of the nonprofit industry, everything.

Also, if folks dont know, I’m Chinese American. Being with the Guns gave me invaluable experience organizing with the Pilipino community.

Giles: Like what kinds of things did you learn about working in Pilipino communities?

Phatrick: I learned a lot about the political climate in the Philippines. Alot of APIs here, even Pilipinos, don’t even know about the crazy ass shit goin on over there. Organizers and students are getting assassinated over there!

And you learn all this shit in school about how people of color are fucked over in the US, but you can’t really comprehend or internalize that stuff until you get directly involved and put yourself in the communities.

Giles: So you graduated from college, became the DJ of a major underground hip hop group really blowing up across the country, not just among APIs, but just among hip hop fans. But now that the Guns have parted ways, what are you up to?

Phatrick: Just trying to hustle my djing. In the past, I wasn’t able to concentrate really on music because of all the organizing, but now, I wanna dedicate time to making some mixtapes and even producing music for folks.

Giles: Now you can go after your dream of starting an all Chinese group: featuring Jin and…Andy Lau, since that dude is like in everything.

Phatrick: hahahah….ACTUALLY…Adriel Luis and I wanna start a group: it’ll be called A-TRICK. Adriel Luis is Chinese, in case yall aint know.

Giles: So when can we expect a DJ Phatrick-produced mixtape? or a Phatty-produced track?

Phatrick: The next Bambu EP, called “Exact Change” will feature a beat of mines! Mixtape-wise, i’m working on one with my dj partner Treat U Nice. But I have this crazy idea for another mixtape which would tell about the cycle of poverty and oppression through music! I just gotta spend time mappin it out.

IF ANY OF YOU READING THIS BITE MY IDEA, I’M GONNA BLAME BPR AND GILES! hahahaha!

Giles: Man I’m always getting blamed for shit.

Anyway, I guess that about does it. Anything else you’d like to share with all 3 loyal readers out there?

Phatrick: 3?! Well, you can’t include me since i’m being interviewed, so that’s 2!

Giles: Damn, I guess I’m out too then

Phatrick: Wuddup Chi Hui! Sorry if I spelled that wrong OR got the name wrong.

Giles: HAHAHA

Phatrick: To the legions of readers: if you haven’t already, go out and get Bambu’s latest LP “…i scream bars for the children…” and Kiwi’s “Summer Exposure” mixtape.

And if you see my name on a flyer, you better go!

www.myspace.com/djphatrick

Giles: Aite cool. Thanks for your time fam.

Phatrick: THANK YOU!

Last 5 posts by giles

• Love or Something or Other - July 15th, 2008
• Hollywood? - July 9th, 2008
• That's All You're Good For... - June 25th, 2008
• Apologies to My Man - June 20th, 2008
• Sublingual - June 10th, 2008

Tags: Interview.