SF’s Biggest Filipino Creative Market Celebrates 50 Years of Hip Hop with Three Block Parties This Fall
Internationally renowned DJ Neil Armstrong, rapper Rocky Rivera with DJ Roza, and DJ Icy Ice of the Beat Junkies headline first block party
At the press preview Toro y Moi donated his ‘Mahal’ tour jeepney bus to SOMA Pilipinas, becoming a permanent love letter and contemporary landmark to the Filipino community. The jeepney will be at Undiscovered on display.
San Francisco, California - August 2, 2023 - UNDISCOVERED SF — a Filipino creative market produced by Kultivate Labs and Make it Mariko — returns for its seventh season, honoring the 50 year anniversary of Hip Hop with three block parties on August 19, September 16, and October 21 in SOMA Pilipinas with the main entrance located at 5th and Minna Street. This year’s Filipino American Block Party theme celebrates Hip Hop’s past, present, and future influence and impact on Filipinos, and how Filipino Americans have also influenced Hip Hop respectively. UNDSCVRD’s first block party on Saturday, August 19 debuts with internationally renowned DJ Neil Armstrong, rapper Rocky Rivera with DJ Roza, and DJ Icy Ice of the Beat Junkies. At the press preview on August 1, Toro y Moi donated his ‘Mahal’ tour jeepney bus to SOMA Pilipinas, becoming a permanent love letter and contemporary landmark to the Filipino community.
“I had the privilege of growing up in NYC during the golden era of hip hop. I was so engulfed in the culture that I didn’t want to just be a fan, I wanted to contribute to it, but I didn’t know what it was I wanted to do until I saw 2 fellow filipinos do their thing on the 1’s and 2’s - Bay Area natives DJ QBert and DJ Shortkut,” says Filipino American DJ Neil Armstrong. “This was 1995, and the number of Filipinos really deep into hip hop - especially in NYC - wasn’t very large. Seeing these two cats who looked like me represent, showed me the possibilities, and that spark they provided brought me around the world doing my thing on the turntables. I’ve had the opportunity to DJ for the first black president of the United States, performed at madison square garden with arguable the greatest rapper of all time Jay-Z, and have been able to make a living doing something I’ve loved for the past 25 years — and it was all because I saw a couple of Filipino kids on stage.”
UNDISCOVERED SF’s Biggest Year Yet
Since 2017, Kultivate Labs and Make it Mariko’s mission with UNDISCOVERED SF has been to develop a vibrant, connected, commercial corridor on Mission Street within the SOMA Pilipinas Cultural Heritage District. With the existence of new physical spaces within the district — Kapwa Gardens and the Balay Kreative Studio — in addition to its already existing staples, this corridor is now coming to life.
With three monthly block parties anchored in a national and global celebration of Hip Hop, Season 7 promises to continue the success of last year’s event. With this year’s Block Party taking over 4 different venues and three closed-off streets. Over 6,000 attendees are expected, with an estimated $130K+ in sales to local small business vendors.
Attendees this year can expect:
Two stages with performances & DJs
Photo opportunity with “Mahal” Jeepney, donated to SOMA Pilipinas by Toro Y Moi. The only Jeepney in Northern California!
This year, the maker of the SPAM® brand will be joining the festival with a special onsite activation featuring tastings of their new SPAM® Maple Flavored product, in addition to a “SPAM®Silog Photo Lounge,” and a talkback wall where you can share your recipe ideas, dream collabs, and personal stories with the SPAM® brand team.
Kid friendly activities including Lego building area and a built-in playground
360 Video Booth by Wicked Photobooth & Say Ya! Photobooth
“When we launched UNDISCOVERED SF we knew we wanted to create a different kind of Filipino American creative festival. One that spoke to our generation; that reflected our experience of growing up Filipino, American, and rooted in Bay Area hip hop culture and creative community. For me, I grew up as a hip hop choreo dancer in San Francisco, dancing in parking lots, at the clubs, in dance studios, and in Daly City garages. Seeing the community come together for UNDISCOVERED SF brings that same energy out, it’s electric,” shares UNDISCOVERED SF co-founder Gina Rosales.
Hip Hop as a Vehicle of Filipino American Expression and Cross-cultural Collaboration
Feature for 2023 Undiscovered Block Party
According to ‘That’s My Word,’ KQED’s exploration of Bay Area Hip Hop history, the year 2023 marks what many accept as the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop’s birth. Hip Hop’s roots in the Bay Area can be traced back to the Civil Rights, Chicano, and United Farmworkers movements of the 1960s and ’70s, the Black Panthers, the Third World Liberation Front, funk music, and even garage parties in the 80’s and 90’s in South San Francisco and Daly City that would inspire the Bay’s Filipino American mobile DJ scene.
Hip Hop organically emerged, not only as an art form but as a vehicle for social justice and cultural empowerment for Black, brown, and other marginalized peoples.
Considering that the San Francisco Bay Area is home to the second-largest population of the Philippine diaspora in the United States, with over 300,000 Filipino residents, it is not hard to see how Filipino Americans adopted and adapted Hip Hop as a form of self-expression. Filipinos have been active participants in DJing, breakdancing, graffiti and MCing.
Fil-Am DJ crew Spintronix would later form in the ‘80s, “mix[ing] electrofunk and breakbeats on elaborate, D.I.Y. turntable setups [and] pioneering innovative techniques that foster[ed] a movement of mobile DJ crews and inspire[d] the next generation, including QBert, Shortkut and their crew Invisibl Skratch Piklz, the flag-bearers of turntablism.”
Fast-forward to today and the Bay Area boasts a number of influential Filipino American artists today including, Ruby Ibarra, Rocky Rivera, Nump, Bambu, H.E.R, Saweetie, P-Lo, Guapdad4000, and Toro Y Moi.
UNDISCOVERED SF BLOCK PARTY - Celebrating 50 Years of Hip Hop
44 Mary St. San Francisco (Kapwa Gardens, CAST Building, The Parks at 5M, Balay Kreative). Main entrance at 5th and Minna Street.
Saturday, Aug 19, 2023
Saturday, Sept 16, 2023
Saturday, Oct 21, 2023
All Ages | 12:00pm-6:00pm Pacific Standard Time | FREE
For more info, please visit undiscoveredsf.com
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Kultivate Labs is a non-profit economic development and arts organization that creates thriving commercial ecosystems by accelerating businesses that preserve culture and community. The organization provides space and opportunities for the arts to flourish so that commercial activities are activated and reflect the community at large. Kultivate Labs is developing a thriving commercial corridor for SOMA Pilipinas and Japantown — reconnecting their communities with culture and community, preserving their histories, and revitalizing their economies so that they can live with dignity and self-determination.
Make it Mariko (pronounced MAH-ree-ko) is a San Francisco experiential events agency led by women of color that creates magical, meaningful moments for the community. We are experience curators, community activators, corporate planners, nonprofit advocates, and event enthusiasts. We are committed to curating creative, inclusive, and diverse spaces in the events industry, to challenge the status quo, and pave the way for a new generation of event experience curators.
SOMA Pilipinas is more Than a Cultural District: SOMA Pilipinas is Community-in-Action and a Cultural Movement. The cultural heritage district spanning 1.5 square miles honors 120+ history of Filipinos in San Francisco, and celebrates the community’s living legacy of making home, celebrating culture, building community and fighting for economic and racial justice in the rapidly gentrifying South of Market neighborhood. SOMA Pilipinas is proud to be part of a community-in-action — and a grassroots movement carrying on the legacy of Filipinos fighting for recognition and racial equity.