Soundscapes: DJ Phatrick

By Jamilah King, October 7, 2008

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An educator and DJ talks about music, activism and why Los Angeles is fresher than you think.

There are two subjects that Patrick Huang can talk about endlessly: soul music, and educational pedagogy. The 26-year-old, known universally as DJ Phatrick, has a foot planted firmly in both worlds.

He burst onto the national scene as the DJ and producer for Native Guns, a popular political hip-hop group. Still fresh out of college, Huang co-founded the Bay Unity Music Project (BUMP), a youth record label and development program that works with aspiring musicians in West Oakland. Three years later, he left, frustrated with institutional bureaucracies. He returned from a trip to Southeast Asia in 2007 and soon after started a bi-weekly soul music party called Devil's Pie.

Huang began DJing in his hometown of Sugarland, Texas, a Houston suburb. He grew up in an upper middle-class, Chinese-American family. He says he later realized how much suburbs work to "deaden differences." After his parents sent him to an exclusive Houston-area private school (where the movie Rushmore was filmed) he developed an admittedly uncritical "fuck whitey" complex. Later, as an ethnic studies major at the University of California, Berkeley, he finally found activism he could get down with. After earning a strong reputation in the Bay Area's hip-hop scene, Huang recently took his talents to Los Angeles.

Last spring, he released a mixtape called Asian American Hip-Hop for Dummies, which showcases a spectrum of politically infused Asian Pacific Islander (API) artists. While he fears being typecast as "that Asian American hip-hop DJ," the former Mohawk-sporting, James Brown-loving dude, with a tendency to geek out, is anything but typical.

Huang sat down to talk with us about music, activism and why Los Angeles is fresher than you might think.

Wiretap: How did you get into DJing?

Phatrick: My older brother and his friends started making mixtapes and it blew my mind that you could actually blend and manipulate songs. Suddenly, I started noticing mixes on the radio. Around the same time, one of my best friends started a DJ crew -- without my brother or me. We were like, "Come on, that's whack! How are you gonna DJ without us?" They did a lot of parties and events, but they couldn't mix or blend songs. Being the young hater kid I was, I thought they were whack. So my homies and I decided we would start our own crew and be the competition.

What was it like to grow up in Sugarland, Texas?

Phatrick: In Sugarland, all the Asians kicked it. South Asian, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Chinese: It was small, but big enough that we could all kick it and be cool. I wasn't the only Chinese dude with a bunch of rednecks, which is what folks think when I say I'm from Texas.

When I came to Cal, all the South Asians kicked it, all the East Asians kicked it and the Filipinos had their thing going on. So it was kind of weird [going to] Cal where you had a huge Asian population, but there was [also] a huge difference in how it manifested itself community wise.

What was it like for you to go from being a fan of Native Guns to being in the group?

Phatrick: It was dope. Native Guns has really been involved in the Filipino community and what's going on in the Philippines, [speaking out against] the corrupt politics there. And because Kiwi is [based] in Frisco and Bambu is in LA, I really got to know the communities there, and became family with folks.

Hip-hop wise, it was crazy. I joined just as "Barrel Men" (2006, Native Guns) was about to drop and contributed a little to the album. Then, it was just a crazy rollercoaster. The three of us started hustling the album. I also came on at a time when I think I was needed; They needed a third person to bounce things off of and be the tiebreaker.

It was dope learning the independent music hustle and being behind a team and having a product. You can't know how to hustle independently until you have your product out, with a CD that works and a hustle that works.

What was your motivation behind the mixtape "Asian American Hip Hop for Dummies"?

Phatrick: Well, really, I put it out there because I was going to be doing a lot of free shows with Kiwi for the People Power Tour, and I needed to make some money.

But those mixes came out because I do a radio show at KPFA called APEX. It's a weekly public affairs and culture show for Asian American and Pacific Islanders. Kiwi brought me on board, so we had segments covering organizations and specific issues that came up concerning Asian Americans, but we also profiled API artists. We came up with a seven-minute mix, putting as many artists as we could in it.

How have folks responded to the mix?

Phatrick: I think it's important for Asian Americans. I don't know if it's different now because there's been a huge growth in Asian American presence in media and pop culture. But I still think it's important to hear music made by our peoples that's dope. We don't have to be like, "I like it because it's Asian." The [music quality] is as important as the places of origin. The mixtape is important [because it reinforces] being proud of who you are, not having the self-hate, not wishing you were something else. It's important to have art that validates that.

You also hosted a soul party called Devil's Pie. Do you think you're shattering perceptions of what an Asian American DJ can do?

Phatrick: I love music. My favorite records to spin are soul records that make you feel good, but aren't necessarily dance songs. So I wanted to do a party where I could spin a [slow] Donny Hathaway song and have folks sing their hearts out.

I also thought it was something that was lacking in the Bay Area. I feel [the Bay] is kind of stagnant right now in its party scene and nightlife. It's not like LA, where on any given night you can choose a Top 40 club, a hip-hop club, a soul night or a dub night. I might piss a lot of people off by saying this, but parties in the Bay are eclectic, but they're all eclectic in the same way, and everybody's doing the same difference. Everybody's playing Michael Jackson and Prince.

What do you think younger listeners can learn from James Brown records or old-school soul music in general?

Phatrick: Take Nas's song "Get Down," [for example], which samples James Brown's "The Boss." [You could use it to] refer back to James and [explain] how sampling works and why he's become one of the most sampled artists in hip-hop.

You don't necessarily teach [young people] about the [individual artists]; You teach them about the [social and political] environment that James Brown was in during the '60s and '70s, where you could have a hit in the community like "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud." You can show how that that song was huge -- like the "Mili" of that time. That could lead into a discussion about why we don't hear [those types of songs] on the airwaves now and how that relates to corporate control.

Who are some of your favorite DJs or groups right now?

Phatrick: Musically, I'm feeling a little bit of [Lil Wayne] Weezy and the new Kanye track. On the Asian American tip, there's Hopie Spitshard from San Francisco and Bambu's new album.

As for DJs, I admire Oliver Wang. He was one of our professors and friends at UC Berkeley. He's an amazing writer, academic and one of the smartest motherfuckers you'll ever meet. He's a pretty prolific hip-hop writer -- so prolific that he has folks dissing him on record. Not only is he a dope teacher, professor, writer and journalist, he's also an amazing DJ.

What are your next projects?

Phatrick: Adriel Luis and I have a project called Pretty Buoyant Society (PBS), and we finished recording a little six-song EP -- some don't-give-a-fuck pop electronic shit. It's fun. I'm working on a Bambu mixtape, and a project with Kiwi that has to come out.

Read more about DJ Phatrick.

Phatrick videos:

DJ Phatrick with Adriel Luis on their new project.

DJ Phatrick with Native Guns.

Jamilah King is the associate editor of WireTap.