It's not a surprise to find Andrew E. hollering up on the finer points
of pop culture, Filipino or otherwise. It's in his rapper's interest to
do meticulous research on just this sort of thing, nicking off bits and
pieces from the psyche of youth and serving them up in soundbyte chunks
in the in-your-face idiom of hiphop.
People who know Andrew know that this local boy takes his hiphop
seriously, and is trying to find ways to legitimize the genre in a
Filipino context. Since 1983, when he saw a black guy rapping in a gas
station near Subic Bay, he has been fascinated with hiphop. "You'll
really discover a lot about black culture when you listen to rap
albums," he says. The much-maligned use of slang--particularly the
subject-verb disagreement ("Give me a rap song that has an 's' ending
the verb!")-- is a celebration of the rhythms of ghetto speech as well
as defiance of the white man's crusty use of correct grammar. "The
whole thing is really a process of loving one's culture," he adds.
"Like that bit about 'never correcting my broken English.' We can
identify with that."
On his third album, WHOLESOME, Andrew E. marries hiphop's conventions
with his hilarious take on Filipino culture. Just like his alter ego,
Andrew Ford Medina, the rapper on WHOLESOME trains his wit and powers
of observation on everyday life. The sly rhymes, the social signposts,
the knowing twitch on Pinoy culture all mix in a crazy quilt run riot
in Andrew E.'s trademark "bastos" style (think "Binibirocha"). Whether
it's women unlike any other ("Baño Queen," "Malupit,"), self-important
guys asking for their comeuppance--at the hands of Andrew E., of
course-- ("You Don't Know Me," "Top of the World") or, um, pleasurable
pursuits ("Rubber Dickie," "Fax Me"), Andrew E. draws from both
personal and public experience to tell hugely entertaining stories
littered with low, off-color humor and buffed up by heavy doses of
rapper's braggadocio. Just like the best of today's hiphop, the tracks
feature resung hitmakers: "Bano Queen" is sung to the tune of "Stand By
Me,"; "Malupit," to "Whip It, Baby." Some songs have necessary musical
references, based on mischievous wordplay -- "Fax Me," from "Touch Me
In The Morning."
From the get-go, WHOLESOME is one long laugh track. The listener is
rewarded with puns, wicked plot turns and never-fail one-liners. Even
the rapper's intended objects of ridicule will find it hard not to
chuckle. Andrew keeps his verses double-tongued enough to turn the
tables on anyone who may take offense. 'Maggie," for example, is full
of suggestive come-ons that come off as perfectly innocent: Maggie,
akin na! ... kakainin ko na... ang iyong food! Maggie, akin
na!...kakalikutin ko na...ang iyong kotse!
"I'm pretty proud of that song," says Andrew E. "Because I proved to
myself that I can write a naughty song without saying anything naughty.
Para mong pinagalaw ang utak nila sa wala."
Although he claims that "ito na ang pinakabastos na album ever," he
dares anyone to find anything offensive about it. "I have yet to give a
single centavo for every bastos word I used in the album," he declares.
"Hindi mo maaamoy yung bastos kasi naaaliw ka," he continues. "If you
listen to the songs and nakatawa ka, I don't think you ever found
anything offensive." And to anyone the least bit scandalized, Andrew
E. has a ready answer (as usual): "I have two questions for them.
First, anong sinabi ko? And, second, I'm not talking about you, I'm
just telling something that may or may not have happened to me to you,
as a way of storytelling."
A keen observer of his surroundings, Andrew E. can go on a night out
and come home with three songs in his head, just from sitting at a bar
and looking around. It comes as no surprise that a lot of the songs
detail a map of sorts of Manila nightlife, name-checking almost all of
the happening bars and hangouts in town.
Despite the commentary and the reportage, there's an underlying
personal, quite angry, subtext to WHOLESOME. Not for anything is there
a song titled "Top of the World," celebrating his recent successes
(including this new album). He dedicates the song "to all his critics"
and to all the people who ridiculed him or did wrong by him (listen to
the album for more info). There's a lot of spite mixed in with the
clowning in WHOLESOME. "This album is an answer to all the blank years
when Andrew E. was so quiet," he says. "When people called me names and
ridiculed me. This is my way of returning the favor."
Starting his showbiz career as a DJ in Euphoria disco in 1989, Andrew
E. catapulted to fame in 1991 with the monster hit, "Humanap Ka Ng
Pangit," a novelty song about taking the path of least resistance when
it comes to choosing a partner for life. Rapping about the virtues of
the plain looking and not exactly being matinee-idol material himself
struck the public as funny and amusing, but it also opened Andrew E. to
censure from certain quarters. It didn't help that the song also
launched a successful movie career, with the rapper getting choice
leading ladies in the 22 movies that followed his rise to stardom.
Another song, "Binibirocha," gave him infamy to spare. There was talk
of his songs being banned from radio, and made Andrew E. even more a
household name. "I think some people saw me as this guy who was not
good-looking who seemed to get everything," he offers. "And it rubbed
them the wrong way. They couldn't take it that they were better-looking
and yet I got the girls."
Once he watched one of his movies incognito and had to endure the
countless hoots from male viewers whenever a kissing scene came up.
"I'm basically a nice guy, I can't just fight back. So now, I'm doing
it
through words. And even then, I'm not totally in their faces. I prefer
to do it through comedy."
Success may be a lot sweeter this time. Apart from his Sony album,
Andrew E. just has become the first Filipino artist to cut a record in
Nihongo. This June 3, he released the mini-disc "Bakajanai" in Japan
under the newly Formed Tobita Music World label, an independent outfit
which is distributing the record in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, three
major cities.
Prospects for a major hit in this highly inaccessible market are good,
he says. Translated, "Bakajanai" means "Hindi Ako Gago," and apart from
chronicling the misadventures of a tourist (he styles himself in Japan
as Anduru E.) in Tokyo, the single is remarkable for the boldness of
its title. "Japan is a very polite society. This is the very first
song in Japan, which used the word, 'gago.' Hearing the word is enough
to get their attention. More so when they listen to the story, which
is about a tourist who wanted to go to the club district of Shinjuku
but ended up in very wa-class Shimbashi. And yet he claims hindi siya
gago."
And because rapping goes against the grain of traditional Japanese
hospitality ("Even when they're angry, they're so formal," he
observes.) and pop fare ("There, it's either all love songs o mga kanta
ng mga walang
pag-asa sa buhay"), he has a swell chance of carving a niche for
himself. "Bakajanai" also will make it in Japan, Andrew E. adds,
because he took care to sound Japanese. "Even if you're singing in
Nihongo, the Japanese will know you're a foreigner by the way you
sound, and will dismiss your record," he explains. Nihongo is a
difficult language to master in terms of pronunciation and Andrew E.
had to sweat it out in the studio trying to nail those wayward
phonemes. "It took me 60 takes to get one two-syllable word right, at
medyo napipika na nga ako. One of the technicians in the booth broke
the tension by charting the takes and holding up the bond paper with
his head bowed down, parang hiyang-hiya. You just had to laugh and take
it easy after that."
Since 1997, Andrew E. had been making annual trips to perform in
Japanese clubs. On his third stint April this year, he caught the fancy
of Yukio Tobita, a Japanese businessman who was so delighted with his
songs and performance style he set up a label just for the rapper.
Andrew E.'s two-song mini-disc (the other cut is "Setagaya Girl," which
he says is sort of like the Japanese equivalent of his hit "Alabang
Girl") is distributed along the Osaka-Tokyo-Nagoya bullet-train
commuter route, thus giving it major exposure in the Japanese market.
"During the Second World War, Japan invaded the Philippines. In 1999, a
Filipino is invading Japan," Andrew E. declares in typical bluster. Who
can blame him if he's feeling on top of the world?
joyce fernandez
PROUDLY BUILT BY CHRIS MASICLAT 1999-2001
This Is a Filipino WebSayt........2001
