From Budots to the Block
OXGN’s The Final Round starts with budots and hip-hop, and lets the clothes follow the rhythm.
Words Coleen Wong
Photos courtesy of OXGN
August 29, 2026
OXGN’s The Final Round
Budots never really stayed in one place. What began in Davao’s grassroots dance culture eventually found its way into parties and online spaces nationwide, often becoming recognizable within the first few beats.
OXGN taps into that energy for The Final Round, its latest campaign built around a new budots x hip-hop track by SGAMO and Jarreau Vandal.
The project pays tribute to DJ Love, the Davao-based pioneer behind the genre, while taking the sound into a new collaboration without losing sight of where it began.
OXGN’s The Final Round
The track appears in the campaign film and is used for a nationwide Dance Challenge started on August 13.
Dancing is engraved to the Filipino people, thus swaying to the rhythm of budots has always been part of our identity. The trend gives people another way to engage with the track beyond simply listening to it.
DJ Love and Davao also remain clearly part of the story. Budots may have travelled far beyond its beginnings, but The Final Round does not treat it as an anonymous sound picked up from the internet.
OXGN’s The Final Round
Its origins are acknowledged alongside the newer interpretation, placing the collaboration within a much longer history of how the genre has been shared, remixed, and danced to.
The clothes arrive in three drops across August, September, and October. Graphic tees, denim, and jackets take cues from AMEKAJI, the Japanese interpretation of American casual style, with key pieces starting at PHP 899.
The collection does not turn budots into a graphic cue. Its presence comes through more clearly in the track, the movement, the styling, and the people joining the challenge. Streetwear sits beside the music rather than trying to explain it.
OXGN’s The Final Round
That also keeps DJ Love and Davao visible throughout the campaign. The sound may be taking on a new form through hip-hop and performance, but its origins are not treated as an afterthought.
“With The Final Round, OXGN continues to champion local communities by creating spaces where Filipino artists, sounds, and street culture can be seen, heard, and celebrated on a bigger stage,” says OXGN Brand Director Cathleen Cotioco.
Budots has already passed through countless remixes, parties, and dance floors.
Here, it is not introduced as something new, but recognized as a sound that continues to find new audiences.
With The Final Round, hip-hop and streetwear become its latest companions.
