DJ Qbert Scratches Manila's Back
Filipino-American DJ Qbert played a benefit gig at LAX behind Mall of Asia last Jan. 15 to help out victims of Typhoon Ondoy in collaboration with Sagip Kapamilya Foundation. Fifty percent of the proceeds went to charity. Qbert isn’t the first celebrity or “name” DJ to spin at LAX. Samantha Ronson launched the club last year while Joel Madden did a night late last year.
Dubbed the “Jimi Hendrix of turntables,” the title resulted from his skill at scratching and eliciting amazing sounds from his decks.Qbert used to be part of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz (the first group of DJs to operate and perform as a “band”) with fellow Filipino-Americans Yogafrog and Mix Master Mike. And while the latter went on to become the Beastie Boys’ resident DJ, Yogafrog and Qbert (real name Richard Quitevis) founded Thud Rumble, a company dedicated to promoting the scratch culture. They’ve put out a variety of products ranging from CDs, DVDs, vinyl records, turntables that Qbert designed, skate decks, clothing, and other DJ paraphernalia like needles, slipmats, and stickers. They’ve also recently launched Qbert Skratch University, an online group/school where aspiring DJs can learn from professionals and amateurs alike, including Qbert himself.
Opening for Qbert were our very own DJ Supremefist and Caliph8, with the former showing off his turntable and scratching skills and the latter providing beats and percussion with his trusty MPC, even freestyling on the mic a little toward the end of their set.
Qbert himself played three blazing sets that got progressively longer and more complicated. During half-hour breaks between sets, LAX house DJ X-Factor covered for him.
During the second set, Qbert showed us how he earned the nickname, “Jimi Hendrix of turntables.” First, he played a bit of the ’79 classic Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang, with its memorable chorus. Then, he flipped records and played an instrumental version on one turntable, and proceeded to scratch on another. Amazingly, the scratch sounds he made sounded like actual words; scratches provided missing “vocals” to the song, to the delight, awe, and applause of the enthusiastically cheering crowd.The crowd didn’t just get to enjoy three awesome sets from the talented DJ; a lucky few took home records, slipmats, and stickers thrown out by Qbert and crew into the audience.
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Check out Mich Dulce’s exhibit which opens at The Gallery, Greenbelt 5 on Feb. 2 at 6p.m.. Then the next day, Where The Wild Things Are is out in cinemas!
On the evening of Feb. 6, cart yourself over to Cubao Expo for the relaunch of Sputnik Comics, and the second anniversary of Meiday.
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Ramon De Veyra blogs at www.thesecuriousdays.com.
