Maressa Malabanan

Professor Perez
English 205 Honors
11 May 2011
Hip-Hop and Filipino Identity
Why are you wearing dat, huh? Youre not poor! Practice, practice, youre wasting
your time. Youre not going to become rich off of dat. Do you dance? Wait, youre Filipino,
of course you dance! These remarks are what a majority of Filipino youth have to take in or
mentally block when they encounter their grandparents, parents, or anyone from a different
culture. Listening to hip-hop music even taking hip-hop dance lessons as a child, hip-hop has
grown to be a part of me. Others say that our investment in hip-hop is a waste of time and takes
away from our culture. But because of the huge prominence of hip-hop culture in todays youth,
specifically younger Filipinos, the youth identify more with the mainstream art of hip-hop than
being able to characterize with their Filipino culture. The use of the term ethnic identity in
theUnited States generally refers to an individual's cultural proximity-self-recognized or
externally ascribed-to a minority and (usually) immigrant culture (Trimillos). From my
understanding, this culture of music is very universal and has affected many different
cultures. Many question why hip-hop is very popular specifically towards
the Filipino culture and their generation.
Filipinos, who departed from their homes, came to America during the 1920s and early
1930s in search of a better life. Come to realize, to enjoy the freedoms and opportunities
provided by America, the benefits of an idealized lifestyle have to be earned. Filipinos faced
many obstacles adapting to a new country and finds himself in a racially hostile society where
not only his occupational and professional opportunities are restricted but where he is denied the
usual social contacts with young women (asdf). The Filipino culture where respect for elders
and family were put at such high regards, the difficulties of courtship were also one of the
reasons Filipinos sought out America. When men would court women, dates were closely
supervised to avoid any demonstrations of affection or anything that would be considered an
impropriety (asdfa). Filipinos then resorted to taxi danced halls to reclaim their masculinity by
seeking out an American girl who is thought to be mysterious, fascinating, and alluring and for

the most part definitely immoral (asdfa). Not only did these Filipinos dressed in McIntosh
suits eager to spend their hard-earned wages on taxi dancers (Burns) for the sake of courtship,
but more importantly these taxi-dance halls provided a source of social sanity from the daily
obstacles faced as an immigrant in America. These Gods Gift to the Taxi-Dancers used their
fancy kinesthetic abilities to escape the bitter feeling of inferiority and instead of facing
the issues to the best of their ability, they have sought the taxi-dance hall where they could gain
temporarily a sense of equality or even superiority (afasdf).
Music activity was and still is used as a main part of Filipino life in the United States to
maintain ethnic identity for a minoritywithin a majority culture (Trimillos). One of the
main strategies of maintaining culture as a minority was to maintain traditional music
ensembles (Trimillos). Traditional folk dance is an integral form of art to the Filipino culture
and is a medium of their heritage that serves as something that can never be taken away but also
shared with by the majority. As what was done in the Philippines, was done in AmericaSuch
performance represents the recreationnevertheless was a reaffirmation of being Filipino
(Trimillos). The importance of the way the body is used in folk dance in the Philippines evolved
to the use of Filipino men reclaiming their labor driven bodies in the taxi-dance halls.
Today, a lot of Filipino youth in America have an unfathomable passion for utilizing their body
through hip-hop dance. The foundation of the love for dance for Filipinos was explored first through
breakdancing and popping and locking as a hobby that was done with friends at garage parties or out on the
streets. This hobby evolved into formations of hip-hop crews, mainly consisting of Filipinos, but also included
other Asian-Americans as well as whites and blacks. The purpose of these hip-hop crews was to bring together
the youth of our generation for the sake of their passion as a professional performer. By all means, all dance
activity, whether it is through folk dances, in taxi-dance halls, breakdancing, or in a crew, consisted of
performance and performativity. According to Osumare, the social practice of performance brings forth,
through the body, what has been submerged in the psyche. Through dance, performance has made significant
contributions to our understandings of culture, movement and the body; the expression and construction
of identities; the politics of culture; reception and spectatorship; aesthitics; and ritual practice(Reed).dont
know if I need all that

The Filipino youth who partake in hip-hop dance are usually tied into the art form
because there are no limitations on how the body can be used during a

performance. Most Filipinos in the United States find it a challenge to figure out what they want
to do with their life and how they identify themselves by being a minority. With the pressures
of Filipino parents constantly pushing the success promised found in the prestigious job title of
being a doctor and the pressures of being a Filipina and maintaining her moral values in a very
liberal setting. Hip-hop dance becomes the outlet for self-expression whether it be for the
aggression and rage that young...brown (wo)men feel or their sexuality (Dyson). Hip-hop dance
similar to taxi-dancing allows one to take control of their body and utilizing their time for
themselves. For example, a hip-hop crew mainly made up of Filipinos called 220 or Second to
Nones mission statement explains how the art of hip-hop dance allows me to move my
bodyto move our audiencewith one purpose. Their passion for hip-hop was explained
through the use of synecdoche where dance represented the opposite sex in a
relationship. Dancing allows one to better myself, make changes, grow, struggle, and learn for
her(because) she gets me through the days.
The dance team Second to None expresses how dance allows them to move their body and their
audience with a purpose. The new-found hip-hop crew Jabbawockeez is represented by a Filipino but is a
seven man group consisting of one African-American and the rest being either Filipino or from the Asian
ethnicity. The Jabbawockeez claims to effectively changing the way people view dance around the globe.
Dressed in expressionless white masks and gloves, they guide the audiences attention away from
individual identities and toward a unified group to create a canvas for the audience to visualize the music by
painting artistic imagery through their intricate moves. With theseFilipino dancers paving the way for many
others, it is easy to see how many young adults identify with dance and hip-hop as part of their ethnicidentity.
Teams like the Jabbawockeez are known world-wide because of their talents, and are only secondly known for
the fact that all of them are minorities. Because of their fame, it is easier for the younger generations to be able
to empathize with dancing and hip hop as a part of their identity because of successes mainstream dance teams
have.