Alter Ego Management and Booking

Artist: Domingo Yu / DJ Chino

Alter Ego: Daniel Zarazua

Management: Alter Ego

Booking: Alter Ego

 

 

The measure of a DJ lies not in what records he plays, but in the manner in which he plays those records. Case in point, Domingo Yu. There has never been anything conventional about him.

Born to a Taiwanese woman and a Mexican-American soldier, he spent the first part of his life moving from one military base to another. While traveling across the globe with his family he was very much aware of his being an American, yet the realities of everyday American life was as foreign as could be imagined. Young Domingo yearned to experience his country first hand as an All-American kid. He got his wish as a teen when his family ended up in Alabama and he joined the football team.

And if that was who Domingo was, the story would end here. But it wasn't.

Alabama's "All-American" lifestyle was not quite what he had imagined. "It was this whole other world I was unaware of. Living in Alabama, there is a white world and a black world." While he was neither, he gravitated towards the black one, intrigued by the sounds of the emerging hip hop scene. This wasn't like anything he had heard in his travels, a sound that he was unfamiliar with. It was something new. Or maybe it was just part of being a teenager, being antiauthoritarian. Or was it something else? He was beginning to understand that the All-American lifestyle he had envisioned was more fantasy than anything else. It had inspired him when he needed it. Hip hop's references to all things New York, from the boroughs, to the 5 Percenters, to Malcolm X, was giving him new inspiration. Now the music had a function in his life beyond simple entertainment. Music became an almost educational pursuit. "It parallels reading books, because books take you to a different world, you're somewhere else. I think music does the same thing."

His family moved to California and again, Domingo found himself not fitting in. While he had done his best to catch the latest sounds in Alabama, the folks in Cali weren't having it. In their eyes, "I was late, I was slow, I was country." That didn't stop him. He began buying records. Mind you, he was not spinning. He just knew that one day...

Domingo went off to college in Michigan to get a degree, but books weren't the only thing on his mind. Using money from his work on campus, he bought DJ equipment. That same day he spun his first party, "jumped right into it, made a lot of mistakes!" It was rough, but he had years of anticipation for that moment. Not satisfied with just spinning, he decided to partner up with a classmate and began hosting events. They were looking to promote hip hop from an Asian-American perspective as well as showcase area talent. Eminem and the Mountain Brothers were among the many Domingo showcased at these seminal events. For a time, Domingo became a battle DJ. Still, Domingo found himself and his partner to be considered "different" by the close-minded. "Folks thought we were trying to be black. Folks who listen to New Order aren't trying to be white, so why are we trying to be black?!"

It didn't matter. By this time, Domingo had gained an understanding of what he liked and what he was trying to do. "I've always been different, I'm used to being different. The mainstream was cool, but... I want more, and now it's more of a conscious thing." He began going back, taking hip hop to its Jamaican dancehall origins, he began reaching into his family's past, checking out Latin and Chinese music, in his words, "exploring the links." This led him to experiment with techno and jungle as well as house. The result is a style that is familiar, yet very different at the same time. Already solid in understanding music's power, Domingo is determined to not bend to others' conceptions, but to open people up to his world. A world where people listen to music not based on race or place, but what is good, what moves them. Domingo is emphatic, "I'm trying to bring the world to my party, to attract different types of people. It can be done, I've done it." And it goes beyond that. Domingo aims to use music as a tool for greater things. "Music by itself won't change things, but it's an entry point. A DJ can open people's minds to music, therefore to each other. That's what a lot of it is."

Domingo doesn't play music simply for pleasure. He is a man on a mission. He aims to please the crowd, not by feeding them the same thing they've heard a million times before in the same way. He does it by incorporating the familiar with the unfamiliar in a way that makes you think you've heard a song before even though it's the first time. It makes you think you're hearing a new jam before you suddenly realize, I know that!? And while there was a time when it might've bothered him, calling Domingo different is not only a compliment, but probably one of the best ways to describe him.