Hip Hop Don’t Stop 3rd Edition

Event Details

This event took place at Sky 9 Bar, 41 Đường Số 41, Thảo Điền, Quận 2, Ho Chi Minh City, from 9 PM on 29 February 2020 until 3 AM on 1 March 2020. Scientific Sound Asia brought Hip-Hop Don’t Stop across the river to Thảo Điền for its third edition, combining Old Skool beats, New Skool flavours and a rooftop setting overlooking Saigon.

The event followed the second edition of Hip-Hop Don’t Stop at The Lab - Shots & More in District 1 and retained the series’ free-entry format. Moving to Sky 9 Bar gave the night a different atmosphere while keeping Hip Hop at the centre of the programme.

FREE ENTRY remained one of the main features of the event, allowing guests to arrive throughout the six-hour session without needing an advance ticket. The rooftop setting gave dancers and listeners the opportunity to enjoy the music alongside views across Ho Chi Minh City from Thảo Điền.

The music policy continued to connect different periods of Hip Hop rather than concentrating exclusively on either classic or contemporary material. Old Skool records provided the foundations, while New School Hip Hop, Trap and R&B introduced more recent production styles and club rhythms.

Scientific Sound Asia’s DJs again performed using Technics SL-1200 turntables, equipment closely associated with Hip Hop DJ culture, scratching and vinyl mixing. Their use reinforced the connection between the series and the turntable traditions that helped shape Hip Hop from its earliest years.

Vietnamese DJ TUS opened the night and represented the newer generation of Ho Chi Minh City selectors. His selections moved through New School Hip Hop, Trap and R&B, giving the opening part of the event a contemporary local direction.

TUS came from Ho Chi Minh City and had developed his DJ skills through Golden Cast Academy by MUSE INC. He graduated as one of the academy’s strongest students before establishing himself further through resident DJ work at several clubs around Saigon.

At the time of the event, TUS was still developing his individual style and expanding his experience behind the decks. His appearance at Hip-Hop Don’t Stop gave him a platform alongside a considerably more experienced DJ while allowing the younger side of the local Hip Hop scene to be represented.

His musical direction complemented the broader concept of the series because the event was never intended to concentrate only on older records. Trap, R&B and newer Hip Hop gave the rooftop a contemporary opening before the selections moved deeper into the history of rap music later in the night.

TUS also provided an important local element to an event series influenced strongly by British and American Hip Hop culture. Placing a Vietnamese selector within that context helped connect international musical traditions with the DJs developing inside Ho Chi Minh City itself.

DJ Psycho-UK, also known as Bearhead, brought the Old Skool foundations and a much longer history of DJing to the third edition. He began playing at the age of fourteen in East London using a pair of Soundlab DLP1 turntables and a four-track mixer.

Hip Hop was one of the earliest genres to influence his musical development before his interests expanded into House, Acid House, Hardcore, Jungle and Drum and Bass. That progression placed him close to several important changes in underground British music while maintaining a connection with the rap and turntable culture that had first drawn him towards DJing.

Growing up in East London exposed him to Hip Hop during the period when the culture was establishing a much larger presence in Britain. American rap, breakbeats, record collecting and turntable technique became part of a musical foundation that remained relevant even as new British rave genres appeared around him.

The arrival of House and Acid House expanded the range of music DJ Psycho-UK was playing and led him further into underground parties and warehouse culture. Hardcore, Jungle and Drum and Bass later followed, creating a DJ background that eventually stretched across several generations of underground dance music.

He also played on London pirate radio stations including AXE FM and Fantasy FM. Pirate radio provided an important outlet for new Hip Hop, House, Hardcore, Jungle and Drum and Bass at a time when much of this music received limited exposure through mainstream broadcasting.

His wider involvement with the UK underground included parties connected with Outcry Syndicate, OTT and London Overground. These networks placed him inside a culture of independent events, warehouse parties and alternative spaces where DJs, promoters and sound systems operated outside conventional nightlife.

By the time of the Sky 9 Bar event, DJ Psycho-UK was entering his thirty-second year behind the decks. For Hip-Hop Don’t Stop – 3rd Edition, that experience was channelled back towards raw Hip Hop selections and the records that formed some of the earliest parts of his collection.

The contrast between TUS and DJ Psycho-UK gave the event a natural Old Skool and New Skool structure. TUS could represent contemporary Hip Hop, Trap and R&B while DJ Psycho-UK reached back into earlier rap records, breaks and party selections.

That difference in experience also gave the night a cross-generational character. One DJ was still establishing himself within Vietnam’s club scene, while the other had begun playing more than three decades earlier in East London.

The Technics SL-1200 turntables formed another link between those generations because the decks became a standard piece of equipment throughout Hip Hop and club culture. Their direct-drive design made them particularly associated with cueing, scratching and the physical control of vinyl records.

For Scientific Sound Asia, the use of turntables also reinforced the identity of the Hip-Hop Don’t Stop series as a DJ-focused night rather than simply a playlist of popular rap records. Selection, mixing and the culture surrounding the decks remained important parts of how the music was presented.

The move from District 1 to Thảo Điền gave the third edition another geographical identity within Ho Chi Minh City nightlife. Rather than returning immediately to The Lab, the series crossed into District 2 and used Sky 9 Bar’s rooftop as the setting for its next chapter.

Thảo Điền had developed its own nightlife and hospitality scene alongside the more established bars and clubs of central District 1. Holding Hip-Hop Don’t Stop there allowed Scientific Sound Asia to bring the series to a different audience without changing its underlying musical direction.

The rooftop format was especially well suited to a party based on Hip Hop, R&B and social energy rather than an intense all-night electronic music programme. Guests could dance close to the decks, move around the bar or take in the city views while the music continued.

Free entry supported that atmosphere by keeping the event open and informal. People could arrive specifically for the DJs or discover the music as part of a night out in Thảo Điền without a ticket barrier.

The third edition also showed that Hip-Hop Don’t Stop had developed beyond a one-off event. The first two nights in District 1 had established the format, while Sky 9 Bar demonstrated that the concept could move between venues and still retain its identity.

Scientific Sound Asia’s Hip Hop activity during this period sat alongside a much broader programme of underground music. The organisation was also presenting House, Techno, Drum and Bass, turntablism and international live acts through events around Ho Chi Minh City.

That wider history is now connected through Scientific Sound Asia’s current events, radio station, DJ agency and music news sections. Hip-Hop Don’t Stop provided one of the clearest dedicated outlets for Hip Hop within that broader programme.

The series also complemented earlier Scientific Sound Asia events involving Too Many T’s, JFB and Swing Master J. Those bookings had brought live rap, turntablism and classic DJ culture into the organisation’s event history, while Hip-Hop Don’t Stop provided a recurring local format built around regular selectors and free entry.

Sky 9 Bar gave the third edition a new setting without requiring the series to abandon the elements that had worked previously. Old Skool and New Skool Hip Hop, Technics turntables and accessible entry remained in place, while the rooftop views created a new backdrop for the music.

Hip-Hop Don’t Stop – 3rd Edition therefore brought together two different generations of Ho Chi Minh City DJ culture on the leap-day weekend of 2020. TUS supplied New School Hip Hop, Trap and R&B, DJ Psycho-UK brought raw Hip Hop from more than three decades behind the decks, and the Sky 9 rooftop provided the space for both sides of the music to meet.