DJ Qbert

 Richard Quitevis, known professionally as DJ Qbert or Qbert, is an American turntablist and composer. He was born on October 7, 1969, in San Francisco, California, to Filipino immigrant parents from Bacolod, Negros Occidental and Ilocos Sur. Qbert grew up in San Francisco's Excelsior District on Moscow Street and graduated from Luther Burbank Middle School and Balboa High School in 1987.

Qbert started playing with records at the age of 15, but he got his first Fisher-Price turntable as a toddler. He was influenced by the street performers and graffiti artists of the local hip hop community in the mid-1980s. It was at Balboa's school cafeteria that he first met Mix Master Mike in a DJ battle; the two have been good friends ever since.

Qbert started his musical career in a group called FM20 with Mix Master Mike and DJ Apollo in 1990. In New York City when playing a show, FM20 was spotted by Crazy Legs, who invited them to join the Rock Steady Crew. Going by the name Rock Steady DJs, they then proceeded to take the 1992 Disco Mix Club World DJ Championships (DMC) world title. Qbert was also one of the founding members of the band Invisibl Skratch Piklz. Although there were other turntablist crews before the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, the Skratch Piklz were the first to apply the band concept to turntablism, layering drums, basslines, and scratch solos on top of each other.

Qbert's solo efforts include 1994's Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik and 1998's Wave Twisters. The latter album was created mainly with samplers and beat machines versus the turntable, and later turned into an animated feature of the same title. 2001's Wave Twisters movie was somewhat unusual in that the animators and digital artists had to invent images and movements to the pre-recorded music, as opposed to the other way around (Disney's Fantasia was made the same way).

Qbert has also worked with Vestax to develop the QFO, an all-in-one scratching instrument. The QFO combines a turntable with a mixer's crossfader. In 2006, he introduced the Qbert turntable cartridge, a model put out by Ortofon.

In May 2009, Qbert launched the Qbert Skratch University, an interactive online learning school and community for DJs through the ArtistWorks website. He was awarded America's Best DJ in 2010 and was DMC USA Champion 1991 (solo) and achieved titles as DMC World Champion in 1992 and 1993.

Qbert's music has been featured in the video game Tony Hawk's Underground, and he appeared as himself on the Slam City Jam level. He also appeared as himself in DJ Hero 2. Qbert has received numerous awards and credentials, including being featured in Hang the DJ by Marco & Mauro La Villa, Cannes Film Festival, France, appearing in the documentary film Modulations, and appearing in the documentary Scratch. He is a vegan and has been awarded the DMC Legend jacket at the 2016 edition of the DMC World DJ Championships.