Empire of Funk

Dr. Roderick N. Labrador is an assistant professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. His research and community work focuses on race, ethnicity, class, culture, language, migration, education, hip hop, and cultural production in Hawai‘i, the US, and the Philippines.Mark R. Villegas is a poet, filmmaker, blogger, and Ph.D. candidate in Culture and Theory at the University of California, Irvine. He is a navy brat who grew up in Yokosuka, Japan; Pascagoula, Mississippi; Long Beach, California; and Jacksonville, Florida.DJ Kuttin’ Kandi was born and raised in Queens, NY, and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished female DJs in the world. She is also a writer, spoken word poet, theater performer, educator, Hip Hop Feminist, and community organizer. She is a member of DJ team champions the 5th Platoon, co-founder and DJ for the all female Hip-Hop group Anomolies, co-founder of the famed NY monthly open mic nights “Guerrilla Words” and co-founder of the coalition R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop (Representing Education, Activism & Community through Hip Hop). She currently resides in Chula Vista, CA, where she works at UC San Diego’s Women’s Center. Dr. Roderick N. Labrador is an assistant professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. His research and community work focuses on race, ethnicity, class, culture, language, migration, education, hip hop, and cultural production in Hawai‘i, the US, and the Philippines.

Hip hop has long been a culture that has brought together different types of people. But what many do not know is the incredible and powerful contributions of the Asian community to hip hop, the most dominant youth culture on the planet since the late 1970s. Empire of Funk: Hip Hop and Representation in Filipina/o America is a very necessary and spectacular contribution to correcting that great omission." —Kevin Powell, President/CoFounder, BK Nation"Moving, historical, and powerful, the stories, the rhymes, the beats, the moves, the politics, the language, and the love all shine through and gives voice to a critical part of Hip Hop's history—a must read!" —JLove Calderón, activist, social entrepreneur, and transmedia producer