By Edison Joseph Gonzales
The pandemic shut down Manila’s nightlife, but DJ Cupcakes remixed it for TikTok- and found viral fame in the process.
“I was doing normal DJ stuff, then the pandemic hit,” DJ Cupcakes recalled in an interview on the Bilyonaryo News Channel’s “Beautiful Day” program. “I tried putting a meme into a track, and it blew up.”
It was his first viral mashup that set the tone for his eventual success.
“Do you know the meme where the guy says ‘Optimus Pride’? I remixed that with Chris Brown’s ‘I Can Transform Ya.’ That one blew up,” he said.
Playing them live, he admitted, was riskier. “It’s not normal for DJs to play stuff like that. But you have to own it,” he said.
Fortunately, his first attempt during a gig at a meme-themed bar night worked.
Behind the humor, however, is painstaking solo work.
“People only see the surface, that I’m funny and edit my own videos. But it was a lot of work,” he said, citing his background in advertising and video editing as crucial to the grind.
Even his stage name is a joke in itself. “I used to be into hard rock, metal, dubstep, aggressive music, so the light name creates a funny disconnect when I play heavy tracks live,” he said.
For DJ Cupcakes, the mashups also double as cultural pride.
“P-pop is something to be proud of, our own genre,” he said. Onstage, he has improvised live remixes with groups like SB19 and BINI.
“To remix and represent it is meaningful,” he shared
One track built on rapper Baby Freeze’s rant went global. “People from Indonesia, Nepal, and the U.S. shared it,” he said. “It’s one of my most liked and viewed videos.”
The formula, he said, is simple, but universal.
“Everyone loves music, mashups, and memes. Combine them and it resonates beyond the Philippines,” DJ Cupcakes said.
