Los Angeles, Philippines: Towards a Transpacific Politics and Poetics in Bambu's Musical Autobiography

Abstract

Dr. Labrador will examine the ways that Bambu, a second-generation Filipino American rapper from Los Angeles, California, constructs his life narrative throughout his mixtape, "Los Angeles, Philippines," as a counter-story that challenges majoritarian stories while simultaneously reinforcing and critiquing the operations of race, gender, sexuality, class, nation, and empire in U.S. society.

Bambu is one of the most well-known, prolific, and respected Asian American MCs in the independent Hip Hop scene and was formerly one-third of the pioneering Filipino American rap group, Native Guns. Bambu collaborated with the legendary DJ Muggs to produce "Los Angeles, Philippines." Muggs is famed for his work as the DJ/Producer of Cypress Hill and Soul Assassins. With its self-conscious, self-referential style similar to Chuck D's "Autobiography of Mistachuck," "Los Angeles, Philippines" works as a musical autobiography that connects individual and collective memory, narrative, and engagement with the everyday world.