DJ Hapa on HP Tech, Feeling Beats and Beating Epilepsy

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During a recent trip down to LA, I had the chance to hang with DJ Hapa. We were meeting up because Hapa relies upon HP technology – like the ENVY laptops and TouchSmart 610 desktops that feature Beats audio – whether he’s running the decks or the Scratch Academy DJ school he helped found. But along the way, we got to talking about what drives him and how a diagnosis for epilepsy helped push him on to succeed. Here’s part of that conversation (and a quick video tour of his Scratch Academy).

TheNextBench: So you were saying that before leaving for UCLA in 1998 your life changed literally overnight.

DJ Hapa: I was an athlete in high school with a 4.2 GPA, and then all of a sudden this thing happens. I wake up in the middle of the night on the floor in my room. I had no idea how it happened. The next night, the same thing. I was rushed to the hospital and the doctors told me I had epilepsy.

One doctor in San Francisco told me that someone with my condition shouldn’t go to college. I’m 18 at this point and I decided I was going to do it anyway. I can’t thank my parents enough for supporting me. It was the best and worst thing I’ve done. I was getting Cs and Ds and incompletes because I was dealing with my seizures. That was also that time I started working on business we started called DJ City. I only had seizures at night when I was sleeping. So I just decided not to sleep. I worked 21 hour days. I created this unreal work ethic and drive and passion. I don’t think I’d be nearly as successful if it weren’t for my epilepsy.

TNB: Still, that was a big hurdle to overcome. And you’ve been pretty candid about how you’re dealing with it.
DJ Hapa: I have to share those experiences with people with similar challenges. I need to give them inspiration and drive. Everyone has a form of epilepsy in their own way. People come from broken homes or have a weight problem or whatever. If you strip it down, it equals a hurdle. And everyone at some point in life is going to have a challenge or a set of challenges that they have to rise above.

TNB: So let’s talk about how you really took to DJ-ing.

DJ Hapa: In ‘98 I moved down to LA to go to school at UCLA. I was DJing purely for fun, but I didn’t really know what I was doing. Then I started hanging out with a couple older DJs at UCLA who had a crew. I met a guy from the crew who was about the same age as me, but had been DJing a bit longer. He had this idea to start a business by buying multiple copies of records we found at record stores, and then sell them on eBay. We had access to so many records in LA. It kind of took off over night. His name was DJ Quickie, and we ended up partnering with another guy named Xclass. Xclass was the web guru, and Quickie and I were more on the DJ side.

TNB: What is it about DJ-ing do you love the most?
DJ Hapa: A DJ is unique because he is an artist who doesn’t necessarily play or write music. It’s more about obtaining new music and digging for old music that people haven’t heard in a while and finding ways to put that music together. DJs have to stay up on what is going on. You are breaking new records or introducing your audience to music they aren’t aware of.

TNB: The technology behind being a DJ has changed pretty quickly over the past couple years. How is it affecting your work?

DJ Hapa: It’s sad to say this, but I am definitely to a point where I don’t know how I would manage without technology. As an artist, I fought the technology wave in a lot of ways. I’m kind of a vinyl purest. I have seventy thousand vinyl records. Once I started to embrace technology though, I started to see how it could enhance what I do. I think everyone has to find that line where it helps you but doesn’t totally control your life. In clubs now you see DJs with laptops, and nobody is really sure how they’re using it and how they’re incorporating it into their shows. I see it as my duty to educate people about how they can use technology to add to the artistry but not take away from it.

TNB: Speaking of technology, I know that you’re using HP gear to make it happen…

DJ Hapa: I use the HP Envy as the central hub of my music. I have software that lets me manipulate the music the same way I would vinyl. I now have my music on a hard drive instead of in ten or twelve crates. I have also started to integrate technology into our business at the Scratch Academy. I use an HP TouchSmart to allow students to check into classes, check out needles and headphones and so on. We built our own app for that. When students aren’t in class, we have our own social network for them. They can login to check up on assignments, connect with other students or ask professors questions. That part of it allows us to be on the cutting edge of everything.

 I actually spent a lot of time talking about how Hapa mixes music and a business life in an interview over at our sister site, 367addison avenue.com – you should check it out!