EM026

DJ Love

Now That's What I Call Budots (Pop Remixes)

Filipino ‘Budots’ pioneer DJ and producer DJ Love (Sherwin Tuna) drops his remixes package: 'Now That's What I Call Budots: Edit Pack #1' released January 29 through Eastern Margins.

Introducing the budots king in his pop princess era with a brand new release for the baes, gays and theys:

[Now That's What I Call Budots: Edit Pack #1]
featuring remixes of:
APT - Rosie & Bruno Mars
Satisfaction - Benny Benassi & The Biz
La La La - Sam Smith
Mamushi - Megan Thee Stallion ft. Yuki Chuba

Sherwin Calumpang Tuna, professionally known as DJ Love, is a trailblazing Filipino music producer from Davao City. Globally renowned for cultivating the electronic dance sound ‘Budots’ native to the Filipino archipelago’s region, DJ Love co-founded the Camusboyz budots dance group in 2004 which helped catapult the genre’s exponential movement in the early 2000s.

Budots originated in the southern part of the Philippines in the 2000s and 2010s. The name ‘Budots’ is derived from a Bisaya slang word meaning “slacker”. Originally burdened with derogatory connotations around juvenile delinquency, it was DJ Love who ‘shifted the definition of Budots from simply bumming around to an art form of expression’ (Mixmag, 2020).

Imbued with a talismanic positivity, DJ Love used Budots and dance as a powerful vehicle to tackle the socio-economic strife native to his beloved Davao City. Both Budots and his dance groups such as Camusboyz and Camusgirls are about empowering his local community with purpose.

In the mid 2010s, Budots exploded in the Philippines. Budots became the bona fide sound of Jeepneys, malls and driveways across the entire Archipelagos. It even reached the point of being used in political campaigns and being danced to by the polarising President Rodrigo Duerte.

Nowadays, in large part due to the digital dissemination of information via social media, Budots’ reputation spreads far beyond the Philippines. Its repetitive yet attention-grabbing nature has made budots ubiquitous on short form video platforms, its sound scoring countless TikTok, Douyins and YouTube videos. DJ Love remains at the centre of this movement: classic tracks of his such as TiwTiw have racked up 50,000 creations on TikTok alone, whilst his set at the now legendary Manila Community Radio Boiler Room of 2023 is the most viewed Boiler Room from the Philippines.