The art of the diss track, or song calling out another party combatively, is not unique in hip-hop culture, but it certainly is more prevalent there than in any other form of modern popular music.
Politics used to be a staple subject matter in hip-hop music, but activism in the 90s has faded into bragging rights and narcissism today. It was a long time between the days of Public Enemy and the current face of political-again hip-hop, Kendrick Lamar.
It’s a little surprising, then, that not one, but two local hip-hop songs have been released online that touch directly on Malaysia’s current political undertainty.
One song, ‘Gelora Kuning’, was uploaded to YouTube by The Orfeus, founding member of veteran hip-hop group 5Forty2 – and the alter ego of Edry Faizal Yusof, chairperson of DAP’s Bandar Utama branch and the party’s Subang Jaya DAP Socialist Youth (and coordinator of DAP’s Roketkini website).
Apart from clearly being able to do many things all at once, The Orpheus is also angry, as is best demonstrated (see what we did there?) on his latest track:
‘Gelora Kuning’ opens with a snippet of a poetry reading by noted Bersih patron and National Laureate A Samad Said, and it gets ever more vehement from there on in.
Featuring lyrics like “Hidup kalau susah kita disuruh berubah / Dia teguk madu kita hirup air ludah” (“When life gets hard, we’re told to change how we live / They sip on honey, while we’re sucking on spittle”), the song is nowhere near being subtle with its call to action, but that might be the entire point.
Taking a more humourous, but no less frustrated, tone is the song by mysterious hip-hop group MACC (which stands for, of all things, Masters of All Ceremonies, Cuz), also uploaded to YouTube yesterday.
MACC’s diss track – don’t laugh! – is a reworking of Rihanna’s summer smash ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’, titled JBHMM, which stands for, we kid you not, Jib Better Have My Money:
In English, the emcees (and female vocalist on the chorus) air out all their grievances against Prime Minister Najib Razak and his handling of the Federal Government and the country’s finances.
The tamer lyrics in the song include such choice cuts as “Tell me who you tryna fool, young or the old? / Tell me whatchu tryna do, squeeze me til I’m broke?” and “Don’t act like you forgot / we call the shot shot shots”, with others being a bit too NSFW for print.
Speaking of (very) NSFW, here’s Rihanna’s original version, for reference:
(You deserved that short break from national politics. You’re welcome.)
Between this and the Bersihmobile zooming around in JB, we’re calling it: #BERSIH4 is turning into a pop culture movement, one that’s increasingly more difficult to silence.
