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| Abra |
Some
months ago, a bunch of friends wouldn’t believe me at first when I told them
that I just met a young rapper named Abra over at Radio Republic . He, along with his
manager and beatboxer Josef Amarra, were guests at the station’s Swag program.
Before they went on air, I had the chance to chat with them for a bit, asking
them a few questions about the hiphop music genre. At that time, I had no idea
who Abra was and how big he is in the rap scene especially in FlipTop battles.
Friends pointed out afterwards how foolish I was for not knowing who Abra is.
This spurred made me to take note and anticipate what he would come up with
next.
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| Abra and RAd |
Incidentally,
what came next for Abra was Gayuma,
the phenomenal track featuring Thyro Alfaro and Jeriko Aguilar that talks about
how a young man was duped by an unattractive lover through the use of a love
potion. The music video also featured Easter Eggs in the form of cameos from
various hiphop personalities. It has already amassed 22 million views so far (and
counting) making Gayuma the most
viewed music video by a Filipino artist. The video also won the Favorite Urban
Video and Favorite Music Video at the MYX Music Awards 2013.
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| Abra and Thyro Alfaro |
Now,
Abra keeps things rolling with the release of his newest single Ilusyon featuring Arci Muñoz of Philia This
new song is another track composed by Abra himself that serves as a reminder
for corrupt politicians to clean up their act. The music video had Abra dressing
up as other personalities like a crocodile hunter, news reporter and even a
female drama anthology host.
What’s
next for Abra is the release of his highly anticipated album under Artifice
Records and distributed by Ivory Music and Video. As a way to tease hiphop fans
for this upcoming release, an event dubbed as Triangulo was held over at Eastwood. Triangulo was a star-studded affair headlined by Loonie, Ron Henley, and the Lyrically Deranged Poets that also featured
an army of guest artists from the hiphop world. Guests like Mike Swift,
the duo of Thyro and Yumi, and Kat Agarrado posed no problem for me since I’ve
known and met them before. But I admit that I had a very hard time keeping tabs
on the other performers there like Beatbox Philippines ,
BLKD, Smugglaz, DJ Spinz, DJ Buddah, Basilyo, among many others. I was
overwhelmed by the sheer number of artists who participated and I even joked
that I felt like having an overdose of hiphop since I hung out at the wings during the entire event. But the performances that featured a mix of tracks already in my playlist along with a bunch of songs that I’ve heard for the first time
ever, was great as always and it got the Eastwood crowd alive and going. I
remember Mike taking note of me swaying to the beat when Kat was singing the
chorus to Ron Henley’s Hagdan. I
still feel bad for missing out on Araneta
Dreams back then (my apologies Mike), so Triangulo was my way of catching up and making up for what I’ve
missed.
I am
always the first to admit that I am still not yet through exploring the world
of hiphop. I consider myself very fortunate that I had the chance to know Abra
and Josef personally and these two has further opened the door of hiphop for me.
So I believe that it will no longer surprise my friends when they find out that
I am among the ever growing number of hiphop fans patiently awaiting Abra’s
album as it lands in stores this August.
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| Celebrating Homeworkz victories at the 25th Awit Awards |
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| Taking a ride with Mike Swift inside the R2A van |
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| The Beginning Knowa Lazarus, Chelo Aestrid, RAd, Flava Matikz and Jerome B. Smooth |
Since
I’m talking about my hiphop journey, I must not forget to thank those who gave
me my start namely Jerome B. Smooth, Q-York’s Knowa Lazarus and Flava Matikz,
Chelo Aestrid and JayR. Special thanks also to the fine folks over at Radio Republic where my hiphop education
started.
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