Issue #51
Publisher and Editor: Jose Party Time
Assistant Editor: Tricia Party Time
Interviewers: Jose Party Time
Photographer: Jose Party Time Kas
Cover photo by: Courtesy of DJ QBert
Party Time Recordings: Jose Party Time R2D2
Magazine DJ: R2D2
Party Time Magazine (PTM) is published monthly or whenever we feel the need to release an issue (subject to change without notice). PTM is published to provide accurate and authoritative information regarding the subject matter covered but is relaying on information given by third parties in most cases. Articles which appear in PTM are an informational service to our readers. The contents are the opinions of the authors alone and do not necessarily represent those of PTM. PTM makes a reasonable effort to establish the integrity of their advertisers, they do not endorse any advertised services or products unless specifically stated. No part of this magazine can be reproduced without the permission of PTM. All requests to reproduce any part of this magazine need to be made via email to PartyTimeMagazine@yahoo.com (Please allow up to 7 days for response).
PartyTimeMag.com
©1996-2025 Party Time Magazine
more year at we will be turning 30, maybe we should start planning for a big party.
In our last issue #50, I decided to be a little selfish lol and feature someone that I had never featured before, I featured me, myself, and I. I also decided to not share that issue with the public, and only shared it with family, friends, and fans that reached out to ask to see it. I just figured I wanted to do something different, and do something for myself at the same time. Hopefully those that got to see it already enjoyed it, and hopefully more of you will reach out and ask to see it too.
In this issue #51, we are featuring the legendary scratch-master DJ QBert. I personally found this interview to be one of the more interesting that I have done, and even learned about healing powers from music, scratching, foods, and most of all about how important water is in our lives.
As always, thank you for your support, really means a lot to us. Please continue spreading the good word about us, and if you have missed the past issues, make sure you check them out on our website at:
PartyTimeMag.com
Thanks, Party Time Magazine Jose Party Time - Editor @PartyTimeMag
This issue is dedicated to You. Without You, there is no Party Time.
We attend L.A. Comic Con year after year and always look forward to seeing and running into all the celebrities, friends of ours, vendors, and checking out all the latest and greatest collectibles that come out of the toy, anime, trading card, and comic book industry. This past October, to our surprise on Sunday, day three of the Con, I came across a booth at which the world-famous DJ QBert was doing a meet and greet in support of a newly released comic book “Below Sycamore”in which he is featured as the main character named Key-Rei. Of course, I had to go up and say hi to QBert. I told him, we can’t believe that we have never interviewed him before, he replied, and he said let’s do it right now, I was like not right now lol, I’m not ready for a proper interview, so I told him I’ll prepare some proper questions and catch up with you soon, he was like cool. So here we are, I'm glad that you still came through, I just wanted to be prepared and have a proper interview for you.
I’m now ready, are you ready?
Let's go.
Let's do this.
one in L.A., and there's a big one in San Diego that I also go to.
And I just go there to buy comic books.
But they said next year they want to bring me back, and they want to have me actually DJ the Con, so that might be kind of dope.
That'd be amazing.
Yeah, maybe I'll wear that Key-Rei character outfit.
You dressing up as your character would be pretty dope.
Besides all the comic books in your booth, tell us what cool stuff did you see around the convention this year?
When I grew up, I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and I used to buy, I think I have Uncanny X-Men, the first appearance of the new X-Men.
I have a giant size X-Men, so it was nice to see all those kinds of characters, and it's just fun to be at that place, because I'm a nerd for comic books and all that. It was a big pleasure for me to run around, and I see all these people in costumes, and that's always fun.
That's what I was going to ask you next; did you get a
At Comic Con LA, you were promoting a new comic book featuring you as the main character Key-Rei, congratulations on being picked as a comic book character, not too many DJs can brag about that. Tell us how this project came about, and will there be more issues or books in the works?
Thanks, and I don't know, it's up to them if there will be more issues which, that’s something that has not yet been discussed, but I was in another comic book, it was a hip-hop comic book maybe a few years ago, and maybe six years ago too. I was in that one, but then this one's different because they have me as some kind of a character or whatever, named Key-Rei, but it's like Rei-Kei backwards. Rei-Kei means to heal, so it's kind of like a superhero kind of healing guy rather than a destructive guy.
Was this your first time at Comic-Con LA, or do you attend every year?
I kind of go once-in-a-while, not every year. I go to the
chance to interact with any of the celebrities, or any of the cosplayers over there?
Not really, when I got to the convention, it was the day that they were already closing. I couldn’t attend sooner because I had a show in another city the day before, so I had to fly in that day which was the last day. I was like, oh man, I kind of just scraped the end tail of everything.
Cool, so this year you didn't get to participate in any panels, but next year you're probably coming in bigger and stronger to L.A. Comic Con.
Yeah, I hope so, we'll see what happens.
That's cool. What are you into more, DC or Marvel?
I was definitely more of a Marvel guy, because a lot of the artists were amazing when I was buying comic books. You ever heard of Gru? Sergio Aranda was on that too. I’m into that whole series, and have always been a fan of McFarlane, Lee Field, and Jim Lee, I always liked that stuff. And also they had a thing called What If? And I'm like a big What If? person. There was a series called What If? And there was another series that I collected called Marvel Universe, they had all the characters and
stuff, I was always into that type of thing.
That's cool.
Yeah, at the Con they had the whole cast of What If?
Star Wars or Star Trek? Which one are you a bigger fan of?
I’m more of a Star Wars kind of guy, I have a giant-sized Star Wars number one. But now lately I've been finding out about Star Trek, they were also ahead of their time because they had all this military technology that they were revealing in the TV series, but it's all coming out now and stuff, the same with Star Wars too. They're revealing a lot of truths, it's almost like a documentary of what's happening with our ancient history that no one's talking about, it's kind of like we're just finding out about it now. The moon is kind of like how the Death Star is in Star Wars and all that stuff, crazy. I love Star Wars though.
Crazy. They had really cool Star Wars people at the con too. Now when it comes to horror, Freddy or Jason?
None because I do a lot of meditation now. I've become more on a spiritual path in life, so if I have to do horror, it's kind of hard to meditate because then you fucking see all the crazy shit when you're meditating, so now I'm like, no horror for me. That's when I was a kid. I used to be all into that Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Now I'm finding out that shit's real. All the child trafficking and human trafficking and all that. It's fucking real, it's crazy. I try to be more clear minded now without the horror going on through my brain because I do a lot of spiritual work now.
Cool, cool, cool.
What about Anime? Do you have a favorite Anime and character?
Shit, the first thing that comes to mind is Ninja Scroll, that was my shit. I like the more adult-ish kind of like ninja stuff. You know, I've always been wondering, in Lone Wolf the Cub, the samurai guy has a baby in his cart, what’s up with that?
I have not idea, maybe the samurai was a single Dad lol.
Yeah, I was wondering how come they never made a freaking Anime out of that, it would have been sick, yeah, not too much in that realm. Evangelion was kind of sort of that. There's a couple movies that I like, but I forgot the names of them though, but yeah, Ninja Scroll was one of them.
Because of your DJ name, Qbert, I have to ask what your favorite video games are?
Oh, sheesh man. You talking about when I was a kid, or you talking about now?
What games are you playing now?
I grew up in the 70s and 80s era.
Super Nintendo back in the days, right?
Yeah, it depends, there's different years, I mean, Street Fighter was a big one.
That was a dope one.
What else is there? I did a lot of Halo, but now my whole life is a video game, I found out that we live in sort of like a virtual reality. I'm like, oh shit, life is a video game, so now everything I do is with my talents with DJing,
scratching and all that, so I'm making that a video game. It's like, oh, I got to get to this level. I got to learn this scratch. I got to get to this juggle pattern. I got to get to this musical style. I got to get to this healing level of making music to heal people's lives and make the world a better place, so I'm looking at life as a video game now. So that's kind of where I'm at, but as a kid, it was the normal things, Asteroids, Defender, you name it. Dig Dug, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, whatever. All that stuff was amazing, but now it's like freaking, we are in a video game. I figured it out, so it's like, oh shit, the more I play this video game, the more I succeed in life, so it's like, oh shit, I love this video game now.
That's cool. And while we are still speaking of video games, and forgot to mention, DJ Hero 2 and Tony Hawk's Underground, which are you featured in? How good are you at those two games?
I was in those video games, I was featured in them, but I sucked bad at them. I was just so happy to be in them, but I never played it really.
That's cool. Besides collecting vinyl, do you collect anything else? You did mention you collect comic books, right?
When I was a kid, I collected a lot of comic books, and then I got into collecting toys. When I was even younger than that, my first collection was a lot of Japanese robots. I started getting into collecting all these die-cast, really heavy robots, and then I started getting, like I said, into my video game of life. And now I just collect old school drum machines, because these drum machines help make the world a better place. I can make beats for people, make drums. I put them all out for free on my website, Djqbert.com. I have like seventy-five breakbeat albums for free on my website.
That's badass.
Turntables or CDJs? I'm just kidding, that's a rhetorical question. We know you love your turntables.
I don't even have to answer that one, you already know that one.
Alright, so enough with the stuff about the Con. Let's take this back a bit. Tell us where you were born, and where you were raised, and where you're currently at?
Yeah, San Francisco, and I live here in the bay. I was born in the Excelsior, back in the day, they used to call it the Big E. I was around a bunch of, all my friends were Latinos, so I grew up in kind of a Cholo environment, so that's kind of where I was raised, out here in the Big E, in the Excelsior District in San Francisco.
Cool, what genres of music did you start off playing with back in the days?
Yeah, I was like right in the center of, you know. First of all, San Francisco is a big melting pot of different cultures, so when hip-hop came out, that's all I loved. Like a lot of Electro Hip-Hop, and a lot of the Rap stuff, and that was the culture, the breakdancing culture in the 80s, and the popping culture from the dancers in San Francisco, and what they listened to. A lot of Egyptian Lover, and Sugar Hill Gang too. A lot of Rap from the east coast would get trickled in here through underground radio stations like KPOO, KPFA. And that's the type of music I really loved. I hated everything commercial. Sometimes there would be some cool commercial music, but ninetynine percent of the time, it sucked, so it was always trying to tune into these really hard to find signals. These radio stations, KPOO, and KCSU from San Jose, they always played real east coast underground Hip-Hop music. It started in the east coast too, that was the music that was hard to get out here, and it was so fascinating to hear that different type of music.
Cool, cool, cool. Tell us about your DJ crews that you've been part of, and about the world championship competitions and titles that you have won and earned?
At the age of fifteen, we had a crew with my high school friends, it was called Lifestyle Productions. We would do all these weddings, quinceañeras, debut parties, high school dances, proms, all kinds of stuff, that went on for many years. And behind the scenes, we would be practicing our scratching, and all that stuff at the same time. We would go all over the bay and do all kinds of parties. One day, maybe six years later, I was like, let me try to get into this DMC competition. In 1991, I won the west coast championship. It forwarded me to the US championships which I won, and that took me to the world championships. In 1992, 1993, 1994, we won the world competitions for the DMCs, big shout out to Mixmaster Mike and Apollo, my team members. Mixmaster Mike is the DJ for the Beastie Boys, of course. After that, we started another crew called the Invisibl Skratch Picklz around 1996, that crew is still going strong. Big shout out to Shortcut, D-Styles, and Mixmaster Mike. We are still doing it, we have another
album coming out soon.
That's big time, that's cool, pretty awesome. Speaking of breakdancing and all the old Hip-Hop stuff, what did you think about Breakdancing finally making it out to the Olympics as a sport?
It was so amazing, it was the best thing ever. There were really amazing breakers like Hong Ten was in there. Everyone was amazing, the guy that won, Philip Kim from Canada was amazing. Everyone makes a big deal about the Australian girl, Raygun, but the Australian team was amazing. It was just that girl, but everyone was making a big deal out of her, forget that. Look at all the dope shit. It was almost like everyone was looking at the glasses half empty. Let’s look at all the other amazing people that were in it, it was killer, it was awesome.
That's cool. What about some of the brands that have represented and sponsored you over the decades? Can you talk a little bit about that?
Oh man, that's a lot. Monster Cable, Vestax, Technics, Mixware, Reloop, Pioneer, Algorithm, and that video game company that put me in those video games, Sony.
That's a lot, the majority of DJs out there can only say they’re sponsors by Me, Myself and I lol so good for you.
That's almost like, just throw darts at all these manufacturers and maybe they have sponsors for me. I don't know, it's too many.
That's pretty cool. You're like the NASCAR guy of DJing. You're sponsored by everybody.
I should make a jacket like that, yeah.
You should, bro, that would be fire.
That would be so tight.
I don't think anybody else can come close to all the sponsorships you've had.
That's so tight, tell us about some of your upcoming tracks, remixes, artist projects and collabs that you're working on.
We did a Dr. Octagon thing not to long ago, a lot of people were shocked. They're like, oh, so you were the DJ for Dr. Octagon. That was with Cool Keith and Dan the Automator. And then recently we also released a new Invisibl Skratch Picklz album. We're really just getting back into our roots of strictly raw scratching in that album. Everything was made off of the turntables, so that's exciting for all the scratch nerds of the planet.
Nice, let's see, is there anyone out there that you would like to work with that you haven't had a chance to work with yet?
Sure, there's a lot of people, but right now I can't think of anything. I'm still focusing on this Invisibl Skratch Picklz album that we recently released. It's so fascinating to just be all turntables, that is what my true love is. I don't
really want to work with anyone right now except for my Invisibl Skratch Picklz crew. I mean I do, but this is my passion. To have an all turntable scratch band, everyone's on the turntables. There's four turntables up there and there's us three DJs. Me, Shortcut, and GStyles. That's my main focus.
Gotcha. Now besides music and comic books, what else are you into? Something that people might be like, wow.
My whole goal in life is to make the world a better place. What better way to make the world a better place than to
be helping people that are unfortunate. People that are in third world countries. My roots are from the Philippines. When I go back there, I see a lot of people that need a better lifestyle. Some places don't have water and things like that. I would love to supply people with machines. Nowadays you can make water out of thin air. They have these machines and things like that. I would love to supply a whole village or even more with that type of stuff.
Wow, that would be so cool.
What do you think about that?
Sounds like that’s something that needs to happen, I can’t believe people live without water still in some parts of the world, and they do need help, and need to be supplied with machines that produce water if that’s the only way to get water to them. I love that.
Personally, my family comes from Guatemala, Central America, some parts of the country sound pretty similar to the Philippines.
You know exactly what I'm talking about.
Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
That's cool.
For pet lovers out there, do you have any pets?
Yeah, my dog just jumped on me right now. My dog, Magic, he's on my Instagram videos. Add me on Instagram at @djqbert and you can see my dog doing all kinds of things with me in random videos.
What kind of dog is it?
He's half Pomeranian, half Yorkie.
Cool, what’s your favorite adult drink, if you have one?
Well, I used to drink back in the days when I used to party a lot, but And then when I discovered scratch, I'm so deep into scratching, it's ridiculous. I'm so deep into it that when I found out that alcohol, wait, you ever go to the store and it's called spirits, it’s because the alcohol, it pokes these holes in your auric field and it lets spirits go in you. And that's why sometimes you have a split personality. Like when I used to drink, I would get a little bit violent. I used to like to throw chairs around in the club, and so it's because spirits can enter you. And also for scratching, it makes me slower, so I love scratching so much that I don't do that anymore. I mean, you know, on occasion, if there's a party, like, you know, whatever. Maybe I'll take a little bit or whatever. But in general, I stay away from liquor as much as possible.
Cool, we'll stick with H2O then.
Yeah, and the H2O is also special because it is part of your body, so it's also a spiritual kind of like a living being, and so I respect water more than ever now, and so the only water I drink is like we have to harvest our own water from a natural spring, and we re-bless it. And my girl restructures the water and makes it more harmonious. It's kind of like a spiritual being you have to respect. Now, I was like, wow, what the heck? What's all this now? And so I'm really into like a water that's way more living. I can't just drink sink water. You know, they put all these chemicals in there like fluoride, which messes up your pineal gland. And your pineal gland is your third eye, which I kind of need my third eye because I scratch. And so scratching is a spiritual healing thing, so I can't drink any type of water, it has to be a very special kind of water that sings.
Nice, kind of reminds me of the Waterboy movie, but this sounds like legit stuff here.
I'm inspired to drink more water now. It can't be plastic either because plastic has BPH in it. You know, there's all these chemicals in plastic bottles, so it has to be a glass bottle for the most part. It's connected to God now, it's like it's another thing. You know how they baptize you and they can change how you are. They knew the power of water back then in ancient times, and so like water is also a portal if you want to go into an alternate reality of your higher self. You can do that when you're in the shower. While you're in the shower, you can meditate and say, I want to access my higher self and you'll be reborn into your higher self. And as you exit the shower, you can talk to it. It's connected to the whole planet. It's the most nuts thing I've been learning about recently.
That's so cool, I also read that you are vegan. Tell us about some of your favorite vegan foods and favorite restaurants that you would go to?
Yeah, I used to be vegan many years ago and now I just eat super healthy that's more organic because I also dis
He's half Pomeranian, half Yorkie.
Cool, what’s your favorite adult drink, if you have one?
Well, I used to drink back in the days when I used to party a lot, but And then when I discovered scratch, I'm so deep into scratching, it's ridiculous. I'm so deep into it that when I found out that alcohol, wait, you ever go to the store and it's called spirits, it’s because the alcohol, it pokes these holes in your auric field and it lets spirits go in you. And that's why sometimes you have a split personality. Like when I used to drink, I would get a little bit violent. I used to like to throw chairs around in the club, and so it's because spirits can enter you. And also for scratching, it makes me slower, so I love scratching so much that I don't do that anymore. I mean, you know, on occasion, if there's a party, like, you know, whatever. Maybe I'll take a little bit or whatever. But in general, I stay away from liquor as much as possible.
Cool, we'll stick with H2O then.
Yeah, and the H2O is also special because it is part of your body, so it's also a spiritual kind of like a living being, and so I respect water more than ever now, and so the only water I drink is like we have to harvest our own water from a natural spring, and we re-bless it. And my girl restructures the water and makes it more harmonious. It's kind of like a spiritual being you have to respect. Now, I was like, wow, what the heck? What's all this now? And so I'm really into like a water that's way
more living. I can't just drink sink water. You know, they put all these chemicals in there like fluoride, which messes up your pineal gland. And your pineal gland is your third eye, which I kind of need my third eye because I scratch. And so scratching is a spiritual healing thing, so I can't drink any type of water, it has to be a very special kind of water that sings.
Nice, kind of reminds me of the Waterboy movie, but this sounds like legit stuff here.
I'm inspired to drink more water now.
It can't be plastic either because plastic has BPH in it. You know, there's all these chemicals in plastic bottles, so it has to be a glass bottle for the most part. It's connected to God now, it's like it's another thing. You know how they baptize you and they can change how you are. They knew the power of water back then in ancient times, and so like water is also a portal if you want to go into an alternate reality of your higher self. You can do that when you're in the shower. While you're in the shower, you can meditate and say, I want to access my higher self and you'll be reborn into your higher self. And as you exit the shower, you can talk to it. It's connected to the whole planet. It's the most nuts thing I've been learning about recently.
That's so cool, I also read that you are vegan. Tell us about some of your favorite vegan foods and favorite restaurants that you would go to?
Yeah, I used to be vegan many years ago and now I just
eat super healthy that's more organic because I also dis covered that a lot of vegan food has been weaponized. A lot of vegetables that grow in the earth have been weaponized by the government to keep us in a lower vibration, so now I eat food that you have to find out where the meat comes from, like free-range grass-fed animals and cage-free chicken eggs and things like that. So I'm a mixture of all kinds of foods now, but you also, once again, just like the water, you have to bless it and tell God to make the atomic particles healthy for you to become a better person, so all the food I eat is... I now even know the farmers, and where they grew up. My girl goes to the farmers market and talks to all the farmers and makes sure all the farmers are legit, because not all the farmers are legit too. Some of the farmers work for the powers that are trying to bring us down. It's fucking crazy, a lot of people might think I'm nuts, but a lot of people know exactly what I'm talking about.
I get you, if you are not aware, yes, this can seem a little too much, but everything you’re saying actually does make a lot of sense if you think about it. So out there in the bay area, where would be a spot to go eat at?
There's farmer’s markets out here. We make our own food, we have our own garden. We make our own food. And then we eat at restaurants. There's millions of restaurants in the Bay Area, but we only eat at the ones where the food is sustainable and high-vibration foods, where they as well use food from the farmers that are top of the line.
Interesting, so let's suppose you weren't a DJ. What would you be doing for a living to pay the bills, a farmer?
I don't know, because this is the only thing I know. Everyone is born with a gift from God to make the world a better place, and that's what I've accessed, and we all can access that. So I'm sure if I didn't know what to do, I would just have to. It always has something to do with your passion, so whatever you love to do, that is what you can use to make the world a better place. If there was no DJing, I guess my second love would be martial arts. I used to love to do martial arts. I guess I would be in that area. I used to have a big old punching bag in the backyard, and we would be in this thing called ROTC as a youngster in high school. And then if you're late to class, everyone lines up, and you get to punch. This guy has to walk through everyone, and everyone gets one punch, and I would be the guy. Every time it would be my turn to punch them, I would knock them to the floor. And they never knew why. It was because I had a freaking punching bag. My Dad gave me one as a kid, and I didn't know that it makes you actually stronger, so I guess I really love martial arts, that's my second passion.
That was dope, so where can we catch you, what are some upcoming shows that we can catch you at?
I’m all over the place, best thing you can do is go to my Instagram and I always post or mention in my videos about my up-coming dates.
Do you have any shoutouts, special thanks for any one out there?
Well, number one is God, and what else is there? My crew, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, because we already talked about them, and I want to say thanks to everyone, because we just came out with a new 12-inch record and it's almost sold out.
Tell us about that record?
It's called the Dirtstyle 30th Anniversary of Dirtstyle Records. It's all the samples that we scratch with, and more, and we even put it all in alphabetical order. Yeah, it's like thousands, four records full of sound effects and beats and things to DJ with. One record is all electro beats, one record is all funky breaks, and the record is, like I said, the Dirtstyle Dictionary, which is on probably more than one record. And then there's some things to juggle with, some drum-scratching sound effects, some other sound effects that are timed to half-time beats and double -time beats. There's so much things in there, DJ tools in that anniversary set, that it's priceless to have, and is available on my website djqbert.com.
That's sick, I'm just curious, how long did it take to put an album like that together?
To get all that and all the samples? Maybe about three years.
Dang, because I mean, even ABC Order, that's crazy.
Yeah bro, it's fucking intense man, I was like, what have I gotten myself into? Daily, just grinding, putting all these samples in alphabetical order, man. I was like, when the hell am I going to finish this? It was crazy.
That's crazy. Alright, so we got to the end of the interview. That wasn't too bad lol. I really appreciate you. I'm really happy how this came out.
Me too! I really appreciate your whole vibe.
I did not expect a lot of the stuff we got around to conversating about. Our conversation dealt with a lot of stuff that we have never conversated with in any other interview.
That's beautiful. It's meant to be. It goes back to the comic book character. I was talking about Rei-ki, and he was doing Reiki healing and stuff. Also, I've been attuned to be a Reiki healer. That's what that character is about, Kirei.
That's cool, man.
I appreciate that. I even do it when I scratch, when I'm conscious of it. I send healing vibes to everyone as I'm scratching. If you come to one of my show, it's like being at a free hospital to heal you.
That's cool, I look forward to catching you at one of your up-coming shows to receive some healing.
