Manifest Technique: Hip Hop, Empire, and Visionary Filipino American Culture. Mark R. Villegas. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2021. 232 pages, 20 b&w photographs, one table. ISBN: 9780252043789. $110.00.

Mark R. Villegas's Manifest Technique: Hip Hop, Empire, and Visionary Filipino American Culture stands as a revolutionary exploration of the intricate relationship between Filipino Americans and Hip Hop. Villegas portrays Hip Hop, rooted in Black American and African American culture, as a dynamic medium for expressing racial consciousness, envisioning new identities, and dignifying cultural heritage. The specific focus within this text is on the reciprocal influence of Hip Hop and Filipino American culture.

Villegas provides crucial historical context, revealing how Filipino Americans have significantly shaped the trajectory of Hip Hop (2). The study is set against the backdrop of the colonial imperial history of the Philippines, including centuries under Spain and subsequently under the rule of the United States. Villegas emphasizes the profound impact of this historical context on Filipino American contributions to Hip Hop. This influence spans from the early stages of the culture to the present day and has often been overlooked despite individual successes like those of Apl.de.Ap (of The Black Eyed Peas) and Chad Hugo (of The Neptunes). Villegas’s meticulous research uncovers coast-to-coast Hip Hop networks, primarily focusing on the contributions of latchkey kids from immigrant Filipino workers, connecting military communities in Long Beach, CA; Jacksonville, FL; Subic Bay, Philippines; Yokosuka, Japan; and beyond. These extensive networks empower Filipino Americans globally, enabling them to utilize music, dance, and the visual arts to construct and narrate their cultural identities.

Manifest Technique is an intimate study of Hip Hop as a vehicle for navigating the complexities of race and identity. Villegas skillfully exposits how Filipino Americans use Hip Hop to negotiate their position within the broader social framework, drawing connections to historical experiences of colonial and racial violence. The book dissects the language of defiance within Hip Hop's cultural grammar, positioning it within the broader context of decolonization. Villegas succinctly states, "Hip Hop offers generous opportunities for fun and community building while simultaneously inspiring cultural decolonization through self-creation" (58).

Furthermore, the book delves into how "Hip Hop’s cultural lexicons and political embodiments empower Filipino Americans to reevaluate their very names and the category 'Filipino'" (101), adding depth to the reader’s understanding of how Hip Hop serves as a means for cultural reevaluation and empowerment. The author illustrates how Filipino Americans draw inspiration from Hip Hop to reimagine their bodies, histories, and dignities, creating a profound movement of racial consciousness. Villegas highlights that, "The outlandish, alien, and creative community formations of Filipino American hip hop cultural performances respond not only to the civic politics of U.S. racial exclusion but to the elusiveness of a popular and durable mythology venerating a precolonial Filipino civilization" (95).

The book broadens to encompass to the wider cultural and political landscape, establishing parallels between the strength and resilience of Filipino people and culture and those of African Americans. Villegas compellingly argues that Filipino American decolonization is linked in complex ways to the broader Black Freedom struggle, unveiling shared histories of resistance against oppression (x). His conclusion introduces a well-thought-out concept in Chapter Three, which is entitled "Nation in the Universe - The Cosmic Vision of Afro-Filipino Futurism." The analysis in this chapter enriches our understanding of Hip Hop's role in the formation of Filipino American identity by highlighting its significance, its global connections to Black liberation and Islam, and its cultural expression and portraying how Hip Hop serves as a catalyst for the socio-political consciousness of Filipino Americans.

Manifest Technique may be considered alongside Villegas’s earlier work in Empire of Funk: Hip Hop and Representation in Filipina/o America. These two works stand as crucial milestones in Mark R. Villegas's body of work. Released in 2014 by Cognella Academic Publishing, Empire of Funk is an edited collection that uniquely amplifies the voices of Filipino American Hip Hop artists, as many contributors to the volume were Hip Hop artists themselves. In contrast, Manifest Technique represents a focused deep dive into Villegas’s own ideas concerning the relationship between Filipino Americans and Hip Hop. It concentrates on the reciprocal connections between these communities, analyzing aspects of identity, decolonization, and cultural empowerment. Together, these works significantly contribute to our understanding of the complex dynamics between Filipino Americans’ experiences, cultural expression, and societal structures within the realm of Hip Hop. Villegas's transition from curating edited contributions in Empire of Funk to personal investigation in Manifest Technique exemplifies the maturation of scholarship in Filipina/o American youth culture and Hip Hop.

Although Manifest Technique skillfully explores the relationship between Filipino Americans and Hip Hop, its narrow focus on Filipino American perspectives sidelines other marginalized racial groups that are crucial to Hip Hop's diversity. The book overlooks contributions from other Asian American, Caribbean, and white musicians integral to Hip Hop’s evolution and thus provides a limited understanding of cultural dynamics.

Manifest Technique nonetheless stands out as a thought-provoking and meticulously researched foray situated at the intersection of Hip Hop, Filipino American culture, and the broader discourse on race and identity. Villegas not only addresses a critical gap in existing literature, but also encourages reflection on the transformative power of Hip Hop in shaping narratives of cultural heritage and empowerment, particularly within marginalized communities, such as the Filipino Diaspora in America and abroad. His assertion that "Hip Hop, therefore, offers a crucial counter-discourse to the United States’ racialized and colonial history and geographies" (34-35) emphasizes how Filipino American Hip Hop serves as a postcolonial culture, contoured by a colonial legacy. Villegas skillfully demonstrates the role of Hip Hop as a decolonial vernacular through which Filipino Americans access and innovate, responding to the imperial legacies and colonial dispossession of their identities and those of the Philippines.

References

Villegas, Mark R., Kuttin’ Kandi, and Roderick N. Labrador, eds. 2014. Empire of Funk: Hip Hop and Representation in Filipino America. Solana Beach, CA: Cognella.