The Filipino-American Dj Babu is a member of The World Famous Beat Junkies, the eminent DJ collective, which celebrated its thirty years in 2022. Passionate about scratching, DIY culture and vinyl, alone or in a team, he contributes to the emulation of hip-hop in California... Also a DJ-beatmaker for Dilated Peoples and The Likwit Junkies, Djing has forged his identity. Now head instructor of The Beat Junkies Institute of Sound, a school whose is focus to create better DJs, he remains true to his art by participating in the preservation of vinyl culture. Interview is lock !

Were you a calm or rambunctious child and did you grow up in a musical environment?

I guess I grew up in a pretty normal environment, my mother and father were both music lovers but they were very hard-working blue collar types. My father was in the Navy and my mother was a nurse but they did try to put musical instruments in front of us. I had taken piano lessons and guitar lessons but nothing really stuck but they did leave me with the love of music.

Your first encounter with hip hop party, was where and how old were you?

I guess I didn’t really encounter a real hip hop party until I was much older but my earliest memories of hip hop is around 1984. I moved to Oxnard California and hip hop is exploding. I remember seeing movies like « Wild Style » on public television, in the movie theaters was « Breaking » and « Beat Street », even more close to home kids in the neighborhood were breakdancing and popping. And I even had an older kid in my neighborhood who also actually Dj’d and had equipment. So those are some of my earliest memories of hip hop and when I fell in love with it.

Pete “Dj” Jones say that he used to spin with 2 similar 7 inch late in 60’s - repeat the break before Kool Herc... What do you know about him?

I’ve only heard of Pete DJ Jones I don’t know too much about him.

What is the first rap record according to you?

That’s tough to say for me being that I don’t come from New York and I’m a little younger than most OG‘s. I would say for me hearing rappers delight was probably the first time I heard anything reminiscent of what we call rap music today. Blondie « Rapture » song was another record that I first heard rapping on.

What is the first record with « Ahhhh this stuff is real, is fresh » according to you?

I know that sample comes from BeSide and Fab five Freddy’s « Change the beat » 12 inch but I’m not quite sure, you know I have early memories of hearing it scratched by a U.T.F.O. And Mixmaster Ice, early Marley Marl productions,  pretty much everybody…. Hard to say who did it first.

Do you know what year the hip-hop Djs changed the position of the turntables by putting their arms down. In battle position as we say today?

I’m not sure when that style started but I want to say I definitely remember seeing DJs from Philadelphia doing that first. I remember seeing at times some DJs just turning one turntable most likely the left one to get the left tonearm out of the way but keeping the right turntable normal. I’ve seen that in Dmc competitions from some overseas DJs but I distinctly remember Philadelphia DJs doing that. I’m not sure for me I guess I started seeing that when I started seeing Cash money and marvelous records. You know I noticed Cash money doing that’s I said to myself, “Why don’t we try that” after seeing Cash money covers. 

Have you ever been to the Bronx, birthplace of Hip-hop? A memory to share about your trip in Nyc...

I have been to the Bronx but very quickly just passing through, but I have been in New York many times and I’ve had so many amazing experiences there. But recording at DND studios was definitely one of my favorite memories of being in New York. I believe it must have been around the year 2000 we were working on Dilated Peoples « Expansion Team » album, our second album, and we stayed in New York for a couple weeks. We rented out D&D studios with the plans to work with a bunch of our favorite producers from New York, the Beatminers, of course DJ Premier, Juju from the Beatnuts, and we also obviously worked with the Alchemist, and even ourselves we even ended up recording and we basically booked out two rooms at D&D. It was like being in hip hop heaven just seeing the likes of people who are falling to the studio at that time it was just an amazing experience especially for the time in my career.

During the 90s you worked at Fat beat in LA. What was your job, what memories do you have of that time?

Yeah I did work at Fat Beats as an assistant manager for many years it was probably from around 1996 through 99-ish. I worked there and it was an amazing experience shout out to my good friend DJ Jab the founder and owner of Fat Beats. He was the one who bless me with that position many years ago. Upon going to my first New York DJ battle, the DMC 1995 or 96 US finals. I was there battling with my brother Shortkut and we visited a new record store called Fat Beats and that’s where I first met my partner Joe and you know a few months later we kept in touch. Then he told me about the store he was opening up in Los Angeles and he gave me the position and it was an amazing opportunity for me it put me right in the heart of LA’s underground hip hop scene. Yeah it was definitely a big part of me meeting Evidence and Rakaa and becoming part of Dilated Peoples, being that we supported independent music at Fat Beats, Evidence and Rakaa literally would bring their new 12 inches and put them on consignment at the store and sell them and they were very popular. I got to know them and before you know it they’re inviting me to the studio to do cuts or they needed someone to back them up for some shows they were doing and it snowballed into me becoming the third member of Dilated Peoples which I’m so grateful for.

Then you started to be the Dj for Dilated Peoples who celebrated in 2020, 20 years anniversary of the « Plateform » Lp. Then Serato and Internet kill the vinyl business but you still in the game and your sound broke down a lot of barriers. A memory to share about ?

Thank you I’m very proud of Evidence Rak and myself really proud to be a part of Dilated Peoples such an amazing experience for me because I always dreamed of DJing for two real emcees and it was a dream come true working with dilated. At first I just came in to be the DJ for the group doing Cutso and running the live show but I definitely had a love for production and once I got into the group Evidence and I worked on a lot of meats together he put me up in a lot of different style, techniques, samples, and being a dial dilated really help me up my production game and allow me to be in world-class studios working with some of the best engineers and working with some of the most legendary producers. I definitely soaked up as much knowledge and game as I could during those formative years. On our first album the « Platform » I was lucky enough to produce my own DJ song, so I got one production on the album but it was really amazing. As time went on I started to get more productions beyond just my DJ song so it was amazing to have contributed to all of dilated albums wether or not I got cred or not, for us production isn’t just about who made the beat it was about really building and crafting songs together and as far as I’m concerned whoever got credit for producing a dilated song,  myself Evidence and Rakaa were always in there and we always consider ourselves a self produced group who would collaborate with other producers.

Time code vinyl had kill vinyl industry but that change the possibility of running a show, how did you react when it happened? 

I don’t think digital killed the analog at all. In fact I think vinyl is kind of back and stronger than ever again. I see a lot of younger generation people collecting vinyl and the Sims 45s are more popular than ever am. So I’m not complaining at all I love vinyl and I love digital are you Cerrado on any know Serato has definitely change the game, it’s change the way I DJ in the way I produce music now and you know I love it but you know vinyl and records will always be part of what I do as well but I think anything that’s out there that helps us touch in shape and mold sound is a good thing. It’s up to us as DJs and producers to know our history and know who shoulders we stepped on and off, to always pay homage, and learn who came before you.

Why and when did you launched The Beat Junkies Institut of Sound ?

The Beat Junkies Institute sound is a business that is owned by the Beat Junkies and we decided to open it up in 2017 with the hopes of teaching the future generation about our style of DJing him for us we had started our own record pool beatjunkies.com in 2012 which was our first business. Beatjunkies.com is a literal digital record pool subscription service for DJs are able to subscribe and login and have access to music curated by The Beat Junkies, it was very successful and it lead to us realizing that sharing our knowledge and our craft was a way that we could contribute to the future of our art form. Once we realize that it opened our mind the possibility of opening up our own school which we success we did a 2017 this year will be celebrating five years and we are super proud of not only the Beat Junkies to sell but I record pool be chuckies.com and our online school beatjunkies.tv.

With your school you represente vinyl preservation but you are not totally against controllers because you have launched a class led by Dj Dynamix… Can yo tell us more about your phylosophy : Building better Djs? 

All the floor plus we were schools very simple building better DJs but we are not bound by musical genre we are not bound by technology. Everything we teach as a future proof you know in our main program which is called Foundation we start all of our students off on vinyl. We’ve created our own training wax and students spend the first five levels learning strictly on vinyl at that point we then introduced to them Serato we are the first and only school in the world that is officially certified by Serato we work closely with them they’re great friends of ours and we teach our students a balance of coming from analog and vinyl but then also understanding the power of future technology as well and they learn to combine those two worlds and become an even more capable Dj that comes from both worlds like I said earlier to me even though we have technology that makes our job a lot easier these programs still will not make playlist for you they will not scratch for you, and as DJs it’s our job to stay abreast of new technology and changes in the landscape.

Since a decade there are more and more girls who are spinning, it’s fresh. Did you also launch The Ladies of Sound or girls don’t need man?

(laught) I know for sure and I love that there are so many female DJs out there these days. As far as Lazer sound goes I have to give all props to the one and only Maricel Sison a.k.a. the principal at the Beatjunkies and see your sound she’s a big part of our team there and helps us with so many things behind the scenes but she was definitely a big part of the reason why we have so many amazing female students at our school. We made it a point for this place to be a safe and awesome place to learn for anybody and everybody but we did notice there were a lot of interested female students and a lot of times our classes have more females than males. So it was a no brainer when Maricel came up with the idea of creating a community within our community a.k.a. ladies of sound that just is a support system and something there to make our female part of our community feel heard and safe and to let them know that there is more than enough room for them to be here and this male dominated field.

There is too much individualism or solo Dj in the tablist scene and not enough tablist band like ISP, BNN in France but they split… For me tablist band was and is the future. What do you think of that? 

Well I think DJing from the root of it has always been an art form based on an individual rocking a party but I definitely do love team style DJing and DJ band style DJing I’d love to see more of it. Hopefully the Beat Junkies and I will be creating more turntable music in the future.

Scratch music albums are still rare, what becomes of The Beat Junkies Dj crew? 

The Beatjunkies cruisin alive it’s alive and well I’m proud to say like I said we’re all a little older some of us are parents and have families but nonetheless we all are still grateful to still be DJing every day and like I said before we’re proud owners of three businessesbeatjunkies.com, beatjunkies.tv, and the Beat Junkies Institute of Sound. So look more look out for us to do more in terms of spreadin spreading the word about this amazing culture and definitely look out for all of us Dj all over the place we’re on twitch as a pandemic shows out I hope you guys are able to see us more live in direct like we are used to before the pandemic but definitely you’ll see more and more from the Beatjunkies and more from our label Beatjunkies sound.

Corona did damage, what are other venues still strong in L.A to listen to hip-hop & rare grooves? 

I think the virus obviously affected everybody all over the world but it’s day-to-day here sometimes I think it’s getting better sometimes I think it’s getting worse but as far as venues go more and more live events are starting to happen thank God so I think little by little as long as people play it smart I’d like to think that LA will be opening up more and will will be able to enjoy more live music again.

The Gemini Mx-2200 is still you favorite mixers, and why? 

It’s one of my favorite mixers, it’s a classic it’s very nostalgic to me because a lot of the details I looked up to when I was very young were using this mixer, so it always made me want to use the same mixer DJ is like Jazzy Jeff, Cash money, DJ Scratch, and the list goes on.

Are you interested in rap from the last decades like trap, drill… if so, who are the beatmakers and Mcs that puts you crazy… 

I have to admit I don’t really keep up and don’t know things by name as I should but I love all the newer beats and rhythms that I hear these days. I’ve been really focused on teaching and not getting as much so I must admit I’m not up on all the new stuff as I should be but everything that I’ve been hearing lately in terms of beats is incredible. I love what all the new generations doing super creative everything sounds super banging.

What did Hip-hop represent for you at the beginning and what does it represent today? 

For me Hip Hop was a culture in a while life it was something that I continue to eat sleep and breathe on you today I think it’s become a huge part of pop culture if not pop culture it’s everywhere and I’m happy for that United States enable so many people to have have have an avenue to express them selves and you know seeing it on this big of a world stage is amazing. I remember when people hated hip hop and I thought it was it was going to just be a fad diet but here we are in 2022 and it’s stronger than ever.

If you had to teleport yourself, which period would you choose and why? 

I guess the area I love is very early 90s you know hearing stories about the record conventions in New York come in here in about how cats we go on missions for samples like Q-tip and Large Professor and the Beatminers and Peter Rock and Premier hearing the stories from those guys about those times that is deadly hair. I wish I was able to be around.

What’s will happen in 2022 for The fantastic Dj Babu? 

Hopefully more DJ and hopefully there’s a Beat Junkie Institute Sound and every city around the world. Hopefully I’m still DJ and making beats and and I hope to be DJing in a city near you.

Interview By Dj Coshmar