The world watched, then forgot: Reflections on People Power

This week marked the anniversary of the 1986 People Power Revolution in the Philippines. The mass demonstrations, which included people from all strata of society (the middle class was central) and the Catholic institution, flooded EDSA Blvd. in Metro Manila and eventually forced out the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos, who declared Martial Law (which meant suspension of the democratic process) in 1973 was supported by the United States militarily and financially.

People Power provided a model of peaceful protest for other nations (especially in Eastern Europe) to follow. Today, in North Africa and the Middle East, it seems that People Power has not translated as the appropriate analog. Why?

The question as to why People Power has not popped up on the lips of CNN, MSNBC, Huffpost, etc. pundits is a mystery considering that its parallels to current unrest are obvious: dictator (U.S.-supported in the case of Egypt, Western-supported in the casse of Libya), cross-class peaceful urban protest, and demands for a democratic process.

Enter Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera seems to be the only news network that has taken time to analyze the People Power model's relevancy to the mass uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East.

Instead of dwelling on the shaky comparisons of today's revolts to the Tiananmen Square massacre (this was a loss for the protestors) and the Iranian Revolution (this was largely religious-based) so favored by the major U.S. news outlets, the clip above directly engages the Philippines to the what is occurring today.

As you've seen in the video, one interviewee gets the urgency spot on:

"What these people in Tunisia and Egypt have to watch out for, the same thing that happened to us. If they don't write it into their textbooks and educate the next generation of children that what happened was a bleak and black people in their history then they will see Mubarak's descendants and Ben Ali's descendants come back in ten or twenty years."

Clearly, the revolution in the Philippines was a limited one. It was actually more a reform than a complete overthrow of the system (i.e. it had a middle-class dominated agenda). Many things still need to be done, as you know. After the celebrations (Tunisia and Egypt especially, we have yet to see what will happen in Libya, Bahrain, etc.), the sobering reality of neoliberal trappings in the post-revolution era will have to be examined by the opposition.

(Valerie Francisco provides a rich narrative of the People Power moment, the lack of people's governance, and the infrastructural/developmental urban facade in post-Marcos Philippines).

Kiwi has it right in "Imagine." Let us imagine how a peaceful and just world can be. Then, let us act:

"Imagine if we got people to start thinkin.
Got people to stop talkin
And start doin
And come together to start
This next movement.
Imagine.

What if we stood up and fought for peace?
Took the cities and blocked the streets?
With a voice that would rock the beast?
Imagine what this world would be like."

The Philippines teaches us that the revolution is never complete: the "revolution" is an ongoing process. In Tunisia and Egypt, the people imagined what their world could be like. Then they took the cities and blocked the streets. Now, it is up to them to make sure the revolution does not end.

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The Filipino Flash X Deep Foundation knock out!

Manny Pacquiao is not the only Filipino boxer taking over the world. Nonito Donaire, the 3rd ranked pound-for-pound best boxer in the world, walked out to Deep Foundation's "Children of the Sun" in his bout with Fernando Montiel (from Mexico) on Saturday. The 28-year old from General Santos (he went to the same school as Pacman) knocked out his opponent in the second round with a powerful left hook.

Perhaps the three weight division champion will soon get the global attention of Pacman caliber. Until then, we love how the "Filipino Flash" reps hard for hip hop and for Fil Ams with his DF tribute!

That's not Photoshopped people! That knockout punch is real- live in HD. Montiel's face looked warped like a scene from The Ring, then he commenced to what seemed like a seizure on the mat.

The "Filipino Flash" celebrates, showing love for the lovely and fashionable Pin@ys in the crowd.

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Sunday Cipher: Big Game Peas flashback

Fallin up with old school Black Eyed Peas

When the East is in the house, oh my god. The Peas journey West.

The Grammy-award winning pop group The Black Eyed Peas delivered an epic Tron-inspired Super Bowl halftime show. This group--having humble roots in the early 1990's Los Angeles Filipino American clubbing scene where they were known as the Atblan Klan--has blasted off into unimaginable global celebrity.

In this song below from their first album as The Black Eyed Peas (1998), "Fallin Up" fittingly depicts the groups "westward expansion" in this pioneer-themed video. Indeed, they have expanded into the mainstream exponentially, especially after adding Fergie.

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Throwback Thursday: Celebrating Black History Month: Filipino American X blackness

Fictional depiction of Filipino "insurrectos" fighting U.S. colonizers. This screen shot is from found footage featured in the film Bontoc Eulogy. The Filipinos are played by African American actors.

In this edition of Throwback Thursday we celebrate Black History Month, which was founded by Carter G. Woodson whose connection to the Philippines as supervisor of schools during the early days of U.S. colonization makes the linkages of this blog to Black history so significant.

In my entry from April 2008, I discuss Filipino American participation in hip hop and the community's relationship to Black people and blackness. I've since refined my approach (for example, I've abandoned the term "mestizaje"), but my attempt to center Black history and positionality within a Filipino racial discourse is stronger than ever. Anyways, thanks for all the support and enjoy:

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I just got done presenting a very short synopsis of some of my research questions at this year's Association of Asian American Studies Conference in Chicago.

I showed "Hip Hop Mestizaje" and did an 8 minute discussion on what the hell its supposed to be about. Thanks to everyone who liked the film and appreciated my research on the intersections of Filipinoness and Blackness. For those folks exploring similar topics, keep on keepin on, it's an emerging topic (I hope!). Can't wait for the Filipino Soul conference that is in discussion.

Here is the paper I shared at the conference:

"Right now I want to thank god for being me
My soul won't rest until the colony is free
1896 Revolution incomplete
Silence is defeat, my solution is to speak
Resurrect the legacy of martyrs I beseech
Time to choose a side: It's the mighty verse the meek
My big brother Free brought the word from the East
We're the bullet in the middle of the belly of the beast."

These are the lyrics of Geologic, the Pinoy emcee of the Seattle hip hop duo Blue Scholars. When decoding the meaning behind the lyrics, such as “I want to thank god for being me,” we can see that his references of Filipino nationalism are curiously reinforced by Five Percenter Nation of Islam rhetoric, which is a pedagogical and spiritual discipline rooted in sects of African American Muslim tradition. In this verse, “god” refers to Geologic himself. For those who are not familiar, in the Five Percenter tradition, “god” refers the original Black man, or the god on Earth. So the question we ask is, “why is a Filipino emcee uttering a clearly Afro-centric phrase?” In my thesis, I interrogate the uses of Blackness by Filipino American hip hop practitioners. I contend that for many Filipino Americans, Blackness is both a resource and referent in their process of racial identification, and complements an existing racialized and hybridized Filipino subjectivity. Hip hop serves as an appropriate case study to demonstrate the emergence of Blackness among Filipino Americans’ racialized expressions. The recent JabbaWockeez triumph are a prime example of Filipinos’ dedication and loyalty to hip hop cultural production.

By evoking the often-neglected role of the Afro-Americanization of Filipinos, it is my intention to bring into focus the formation of race-consciousness among young Pinoys and Pinays—an effort that is built from the interventions made by scholars who have documented the process of deracialization among Fil Ams involved in hip hop. While we may be well-aware of young Pinoy and Pinays’ efforts to deracialize themselves (i.e. becoming the real “invisible” in the Invisbl Skratch Piklz), what is happening when they attempt to bring race consciousness unabashed? What does a post-1980s, hip hop generation, race-conscious Filipino American identification look like?

As seen from the video, Filipino Americans have been immersed in certain realms of hip hop forms since the late 1970s, but their participation in the broader forms of Black performance traditions dates back to contact made by Black Buffalo Soldiers who arrived in the islands during the Philippine-American War. The Americanization of the islands through music, education, and culture certainly contributed to Filipino familiarity with their White colonizers, but with the Americanization of Filipinos was the simultaneous Afro-Americanization of Filipinos. Therefore, the identification with Blackness among Filipinos has precedence, a precedence that is essentially rooted in U.S. Empire and the concomitant resistance partnered by Black Buffalo Soldier and Filipino insurgents during the war. At the turn of the 20th century when the Jim Crow South was solidified and U.S. Empire reached the Philippines, Blacks and Filipinos were rapping to a different beat, one underpinned by colonial domination and racist ideology.

Filipino Americans’ hybridity (or the “mestizaje” that I use) mediates their identification with Blackness in both its aesthetics and cultural origins. Elizabeth Pisares writes of Filipino American artists’ “invisibility” and lack of racial discourse, which allows for a flexible identity formation, moving in-between Asian-ness, Latinidad, Whiteness and Blackness. Many young Pinoy/Pinay brothers and sisters have been making visible a constructed notion of their Filipinoness through hip hop. The Pilipino Culture Nights, whose organizers were once skeptical of the “modern” hip hop sections of the theatrical shows (as Filipino hip hoppers were accused of “acting Black”), are now almost incomplete without them; hip hop has become staple for many PCN troupes. In another example, at a recent “Filipino Hip Hop Renaissance” showcase organized by the Kababayan Pilipino and “The Dark Boys” Pinoy brotherhood at University of California, Irvine, a graffiti-style artwork displayed on one panel the Philippine star rising above the Manila skyline and the word “Lost,” and on the opposite panel were displayed blaring boombox speakers along with the word “Found” (artwork by Pia Banez and Rommel Dimacali). As if evoking the Five Percenter “Lost-Found” lesson, young Filipinos continue to process racial and ethnic identification in the context of Filipino cultural recuperation. Here, hip hop is the recuperator.

Hip hop’s rise in popularity in the 80s among a generation of youth of all colors gave its resonance mass appeal, and for young Pinoys and Pinays, this resonance interwove with their existing racialized story here in the States and a broader story informed by Spanish and U.S. Empire. Commenting on hip hop’s appearance in the lives of young Filipinos in the early 80s, Geologic said in an interview “we had to respond to [hip hop] in some way. We had to either be a part of it or resist it. And why would we resist it? It’s something that we can kind of relate to.”

Even though Latinidad and Asian-ness can be powerful sources of racial affiliation among Filipinos (with Whiteness as the neocolonial racial default), my interest is the Blackness that is left unregistered, unrecognized, and even denigrated. As Geologic puts it, “I think a lot of ways when people down talk hip hop in the Filipino community, I think they do it with a tinge of racism to it. Because like a Filipino hip hop artist isn’t as legitimate as Filipino musical playwright. You know. Or a Filipino novelist. When in fact those three—first of all if they are all writing in English, then they’re writing in a language that’s not theirs. You know, so then who’s to say what is Filipino and what’s not?”

Filipino hybridity not only provides rich analysis for comparative race studies, even more, it presents the intersectionality of racialized groups and deconstructs the built borders surrounding ethnic studies disciplines. While addressing the fictiveness of essentialized Filipino identity, investigations of Filipino American performance of Blackness demonstrates the possibilities and promises of unpacking interracial subjectivities—indeed putting Blackness at the center of analysis—while never abandoning the critique of Whiteness as forming the broader structure of power relationships.

So it is worth asking, “what does a post-1980s, hip hop generation, race-conscious Filipino American identification look like?” It can look like many things, and rocking the dance floor to funk breaks and dominating the DJ scene illustrates an un-ignorable cultural dimension, like a bright colored graff piece written on a painted and repainted road sign.

In closing, it is important to acknowledge that Filipino American performance of Blackness is not free of deserved criticism. As Joel Tan writes in “Homothugdragsterism,” “it didn’t bother me that Filipino Americans we re affecting and talking Black. What vexed me was the ways this adopted Blackness went unquestioned…” Uncritical Blackness as drag should be scrutinized, especially when affiliation with Blackness does not necessarily mean a respect for Black people. In addition, Blackness in its constructed hypermasculine dimensions and its gendered role imbedded in racial significance should be taken into consideration. So in an attempt to re-imagine greater dimensions of Filipino racial discourse, a gesture towards the Afro-Americanization of Filipinoness is worth generous attention, especially for a people whose prism of difference is molded from every direction. Geologic best summarizes this re-envisioning:

“Rewriting what it is to what it ought to be.
I be the emcee in the place not to be.
Under constant revision is the poem that I be.”


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Sunday Cipher: In these streets that we done took

Egypt 2011 fights the power

Philippines 1986 power to the people

Will Egypt be able to fulfill the promise of democracy and equality that the Philippines has yet to realize? God-willing. But for now, the streets is ours...

Space and defiance. Here are different b-boys in egypt doing their thing...

"I never sleep.
Cuz sleep is the cousin of death."
-"New York State of Mind," Nas

"I got one rhyme for each reason
Two for each mother
Down on her knees weepin.
Fuck this government the
Guns mean it.
This is for the children
Who lay bleedin.
The fathers, the mothers,
The children who ain't eatin...
If you a gangta then you organized already.
Just turn that plan away from your brotha
And find your enemy..."

-"Slave Thinking", Native Guns

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Thursday Throwback: ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: B-Roc talk

Yet another Thursday Throwback! We catch up with B-Roc of Turbulence Productions, who has since this 2009 interview been doing bigger and more magical things. The events and music he contributes to detailed in his SOULFIESTA blog is a testament to the passion he puts into the culture, even when times are rough for hip hop or life in general.

Thanks to all my ARTIST SPOTLIGHT interviewees, especially to those who reached out to me personally.

B-Roc formulating science in his lab

B-Roc, "Booked Me a Flight"

We're grateful and fortunate to build with B-Roc of Metro Manila's Turbulence Productions. Although he is humble about his leadership role in the Metro Manila independent hip hop scene, B-Roc is a major figure and a key player in the rise of hip hop in the Philippines and Asia. He's not only a monster beatmaker who is proud to exploit a bass-heavy thump, nor is he merely a gifted and passionate rapper... as a visionary for Turbulence and organizer for major hip hop events (like the infamous The Community gathering), B-Roc is shot-caller in this game.

The Community flyer for '08

During my trip to Metro Manila a few weeks back, I did not have a chance to meet with B-Roc, but met and interviewed many of his crew. What I have learned from these kasamas is that hip hop artists in the Philippines have a deep, almost obsessive hunger to perfect and progress their craft. This is not your corny OPM (Original Pinoy Music) cover songs we may be familiar with made for commercial pleasure--safe, candy-sweet, and friendly for the Wowowee-consuming crowd. This is that boom-bap hip hop shit. It took a few weeks to find them, but as I met these brothas and sistas, I understood that the love for hip hop in the Philippines is strong, and B-Roc is one figure putting in mad work to progress the culture and sound.

You can catch an earlier (and a whole lot meatier) interview with B-Roc on the SoulSonic blog here.
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And now, words from B-Roc hisself:

I am a producer, and the founder of Turbulence Productions. I was born and raised in the Philippines with my roots in Ilocos Norte. I basically handle the affairs of the label. I manage the direction of the label with the help of my team. I've been around man, traveled around for the music, toured Taiwan with international acts and welcomed international acts into the Philippines as well. I am an entrepreneur, a visionary, a pillar of the To The Billboard movement and Philippine hiphop.

To The Billboard is more than literally making it to a billboard. You know how in the Phils people equate being successful to being on a billboard, and its a symbolism of courage amidst all the detractors you have. Like at any point, all your haters will pass by EDSA (a major highway in Metro Manila) and if you do have a billboard there, it would seem they looking up to you and you looking at them. It’s a symbol of hope for anyone and everyone. It’s a movie, a book, and a movement. It’s amazing how people from around the world submit songs about To The Billboard and shout it out for themselves as well.

The independent hiphop scene in the Philippines is really fun, although at this point after doing it for quite sometime and having the success that we've had with it achievement-wise, we feel as though we need a bigger playground. The scene is very hot in talent -- hiphop as a music genre in the Philippines has been oppressed so much the past few years, which of course results to sheer creativeness on our end. I am a firm believer that oppression makes us all the more creative and substance-oriented. Like Rizal's best books was written at a time when his freedom was suppressed.

The independent scene’s major challenge now is relevance. With the technology now, making it easy for us to make music, record songs, the challenge now is keeping yourself relevant to actually make those songs mean anything to your listeners. Technology makes us not have an excuse for wack music. Technology helps us promote ourselves. Internet networking sites -- these are all pluses if we know how to secure our relevance first. Technology makes people think what we do is easy, people buy they little machines and post pictures of them and their equipment and say they are independent. I've said this more than a couple of times, independent for me, means being cutting edge in everything you do -- you're album design, the music, the marketing approach, the execution, the videos and STILL BE RELEVANT.

B-Roc rockin a concert in Taiwan

The people are what makes the music worth it. We are out here to out-do each other, and this is the form of celebration me and my team want. Lets compete to “up” the quality of this scene, lets be about our best songs and albums. This is how we want to preserve the culture, hiphop as means of excelling through anything (record label drought, financial downturns, not enough funding to fuel projects) -- we want to preserve the culture of “beating the odds” too. The scene is very much alive to the point that even rock heads show respect to our own musicality.
So the independent scene really is an exciting scene right now, we see more than artists rise to the occasion. We see entrepreneurs and promoters come to mold the club scene -- some older people just have a hard time embracing the newness of hiphop.

I got involved with the scene after working my ass off. I was meddling with beats the year when recording was jumping from analog to digital. I had a clear grasp of doing things independently and didn’t want to be an artist waiting to get his shot on a list or trying to be put on by a major act. I was learning the ropes from Madd World production, hyping for Dcoy for a couple of shows and just learning and absorbing as much as I can. All this, while still messing with rhymes with my former group, Crecon (Creative Consciousness) -- then we built Turbulence and embarked on the journey, to carry the tradition that Bomb Azz and Ill Def left me—being independent.

As a kid of the future then, I did link up with some artist online -- there was a forum for lyricists called Urban Pinoy, which is a highly creative bunch of emcees who would critique everyone’s work, including point of corrections and question/show the science behind the rhymes. This site allowed me to meet Nimbusnine, Pornstar, PHD, Haven, Trip tha Light and more Pinoy emcees that will remain unheard of but will live through my music. Some of them, I met as sheer raw talented hiphop heads and through the years developed to be some of the best the Philippines has seen. I am a firm believer of artist development. It’s a lost art, some people think all they need is good rhymes. I believe they need to be developed as a person as well. Some artists like Traumatik I hunted down, all the rest really is family.

There have been several conversations happening between artists in the Philippines and Filipino artists in the States. On my end alone I was able to capitalize this internet thing early on -- I sent so many beats to people who are on the same wave length as me. Reaching out, either way, whether its me or Fil Am artists is always a good thing. I'm surprised that some cats from the States even think I'm big back home, when really I struggle just like them. I enjoy conversations with our brothers abroad cuz we all speak of the same struggle, we just act on it differently -- we always extend a helping hand to anyone who needs it. I think with the emergence of Nimbus9 three years back, it kinda showed some cats that hey we are legit with our English and yeah we can flip it back to Filipino too without having a sour taste on your tongue.

B-Roc and Chrizo feature in July issue of Gadgets Magazine

A lot of people juggle between English and Tagalog. Language is a medium of this craft. As I told you, I am a fan of artist development so Tagalog, as much as it comes naturally, we all need to study it too. Not via textbook but by continually using it and respecting its roots. Every one got they own twang and enunciation styles but really "if it comes from your heart then it can never be wack," word to Mike Swift. Luzon uses Ilocano in his songs -- the Philippines is a multi dialect country, and hiphop is about a message -- so whatever language you are comfortable with, use it -- and don't sacrifice the message just so you can spit in English. Be about the substance not just about the aesthetic.

The obvious influence in my beat production style are Just Blaze, Kanye, Primo, Large Professor, Pete Rock, Buckwild. I go for the drums. Whether it be an 808 bass heavy kick or something else. Andre Harris of Dre & Vidal once sat me and Chrizo down and told us that for him, the drums gotta be banging as it is the backbone of the groove. Locally Protege moves me, Juss Rye, Jedli, Mic and Skarm of AMPON -- they are a mean batch of producers.

I hope the independent scene could finally become a haven for business and art -- I could only play my role and hope that everyone else gets just as lucky. But as I told you, everyone here who think they can rap are suddenly artists, we are losing fans and this is what makes it suck. And when somebody breaks through there will be more kids who think they can do just that without putting in work and paying they dues. I hope to see the hard workers get a fair share of what the indie scene can offer and I want to see corporations investing in the scene and take the middle man (the labels) out and deal with us directly.

Back 2 the New School was a project we did for 2 weeks just to test our clock work whether we were getting rusty or not. We had cats even from Singapore rocking a Chrizo beat. What we try to do on every release is discover a new act that could potentially break through within the next few years. In this project we came across Kimmie, who has the makings of what could be the resurgence of Pinay homegrown talent in hiphop. The team just wrapped up Marquiss' GRAE (Greatest Rap Album Ever) which is a masterpiece. We are wrapping up recording AMP's GOLD BARZ. We will be working on Nimbus9's debut CD this year, and SILVERBACKS, which will be out as well.
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You can catch B-Roc on his blog, SoulFiesta. And be sure to peep Turbulence's new spoken word poetry video, "Beyond Beyond".

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Sunday Cipher (360 edition): "Got us in check!" Vintage Mike Dream doc

Some words to ponder on NFL Championship Sunday! 360 edition brings you past Sunday Ciphers, like this one on Mike Dream.


After a month in the motherland and questionable internet connectivity, the Sunday Cipher is back! I just want to thank everyone in Metro Manila who took me around and extended the opportunity to build, especially Jerome. Shouts to Chelo and Knowa and everyone else from the Philippine Allstars and Capital G Shop. B-Rocc, good to finally meet up! Next time, more sober atmosphere hopefully.

Back to the Cipher, below is a vintage Mike Dream documentary. Good (often profound!) material here. Just thinking about dude after returning to the sterility of the first world from the funk of the motherland.

Peep game:

(5:08) "Writing wouldn't be writing if it weren't illegal. It gotta be illegal. It gotta stay illegal... When you don't see writing on the wall then damn, it's something wrong! To me that just shows muthafuckas really got us in check!"

(4:10) "Truth is, a brotha with five cans of paint and the majority of it being silver could serve somebody using a whole buncha colors just because he know how to freak the style. Style to me man- you can have a laced out, nice, just freaked out wild style piece with you just saying the words that could cut up a whole ten man production, to me. That's just cuz that style just outsize that production."