HAPA
HAPA is the leader in growing the newest breed of DJs, thanks to his role as Executive Director of Scratch DJ Academy, which was first founded by RUN DMC’s late Jam Master Jay. His credibility as a Professor of the art form of DJing speaks for itself. HAPA has rocked crowds in the hottest night clubs across the world from Hong Kong to Milan, Cannes to Canada, and even Singapore to Kuala Lumpur to name a few. He has DJ’d exclusive VIP and private parties for the likes of Michael Jordan, Carmello Anthony, and Ed Hardy’s Christian Audiger. Los Angeles has started their days with Hapa on the Emmy Award Winning KTLA Morning News Show, as the first DJ to ever be on a morning news show. He currently DJs for Grammy Award Winning Macy Gray, and has performed alongside Earth Wind and Fire, Snoop Dogg, and Fergie. HAPA’s acute influence on the DJ community has even led him to help consult on new music technologies and marketing initiatives with such companies as Native Instruments and Redbull.
When Hapa is not jet-setting around the world performing, you can find him juggling one of his many businesses, or volunteering his time with the REHAB Center for the Arts or the Epilepsy Foundation. Even with his crazy schedule, Hapa finds time to be a national spokesperson for epilepsy, giving motivational speeches to children living with epilepsy, and sharing his experiences of the condition he himself has been battling for over ten years. His efforts to inspire children through his experiences also expand into his newly launched program in collaboration with cities and school districts called, “Elemental Arts Center,” which focuses on supplementing the music and art programs which have been cut from schools around the country. The “Elemental Arts Center” model creates social change, by giving youth the tools to do so, using art as their medium to communicate. “In order for me to appreciate where I am today, I can only keep giving back to the community what I received, ten-fold. What’s the point in going wherever I am going, if I am not helping cultivate the future leaders of both my industry and community? In the end, it is the young people of today that will affect my experience of tomorrow. I have no other choice but to help influence that. I choose music as my classroom.” –HAPA