FHM.com.ph

Yeah.
Yeah, there’s a lot. There’s Abra. LDP’s (LyricallyDerangedPoets). You’ve got Harlem. You’ve got Juan Tamad from Pasig. They’re my neighbors before. They started out by hanging out with us. Now, they’re battling it out on their own.

I wasn’t even there that last Flip Top but he [Juan Tamad] won. There’s a lot. It’s not just rappers. There’s so many. There are Emcees. More than just what you see on the TV and the internet.  There’s so many. The Philippines is packed with talent talaga…Kaunti lang ang matapang.

A lot of your fans are very young and a lot of them are aspiring rappers. What should people know about becoming a rapper?
Start now or don’t start at all. It’s the competition. Maraming magagaling ngayon. So kung ngayon ka palang mag-sisimula, huwag ka nang mangarap pa.  

Kung mag-aaspire ka lang, dream ka lang but wala ka talagang ginagawa as in “ah, I wanna be that guy” but you’re not investing in yourself, you’re not doing [anything] that you should be doing… if you’re not brave enough to try things that nobody else did, then you don’t deserve it.

 Your album is now out online. What is your vision for that? Where do you want it to go? Are you interested in going mainstream or just wanting to stick to “this is Loonie” and see where it goes?
I don’t really know the definition of mainstream. You could even say that I’m mainstream but…It’s not really a genre or how you look at an artist, it’s really more on the popularity.

Most of the people nowadays have come from the underground. Many people just liked them and that’s how they ended up in the mainstream. My album is a free download (www.soulfiesta.com). I’ll be having my album lunch in Saguijo on August 13. I’ll be doing a one hour set made up of 22 songs. Some of them are Francis M. songs.

What do you want your fans to know about you? Beyond the videos on youtube, beyond what’s obvious?
Most of them know me from Flip Top only. They probably think, “this guy raps…he listens to too much Eminem,” I’ve been rapping before that. Eminem’s my favorite rapper, don’t get me wrong. I have an album. It was released on June 18, you can download it for free. We also have a Civil War Mixtape that we’re doing with Mr. Mike Swift from Brooklyn, New York.

(Mike Swift enters) Mike Swift: The Civil War Mixtape. It’s about building this new community and leaving an old one that’s rusty stagnant and not moving along. It’s about progress, about unity. Check konektado.com. Loonie number 1!

Loonie: It’s a project that we’re doing. We launched it last July 25 sa Sunugan battle at Ka Freddy’s. It’s going to be really busy for hip-hop, especially during the second half of the year. I’m also doing a follow-up to my album. It’s going to be released from my birthday, hopefully, December 18.

Exactly six months after I released my first album. It’s not going to be for free anymore. I have a music video, from my first single Triple-X. It’s going to come out soon. It’ll probably hit the net before it’s shown on Myx. Add me up on my fanpage. That’s www.facebook.com/loonieversal

What’s your hope for the hip-hop community? How do you see it changing? Where do you want it to go?
Now that the scene is grown up, I hope that everyone grows up, as in everyone matures, and not “grow up” in terms of numbers.  

Because that’s what kills the community – immaturity, jealousy, everything. For the record, I get death threats every other day. That’s why I put it in my page. If you want to contact me for gigs, booking, death threats, contact this number! I’m not afraid of death threats. First hip-hop awards, I’ve been getting them. It comes with the territory, at least that’s what everyone tells me. I’m cool with it. I’m not scared.

Is there any message you want your fans to know?
I don’t know who the fans are anymore right now. Because the ones I consider as fans are the ones who really know the music I make. I put certain elements in my album that I could tell who the real fans are. I have a song in my album called “Sinungaling” and I have a puzzle there. I rhymed it. The last verse is a puzzle. Listen to the album. I don’t want to spoil it.

You just want your fans to listen to your work?
Yes, listen. Don’t just listen to the beat, listen to lyrics. I could do an album without a beat. That’s what I really work on, the lyrics. That’s it.