HIP HOP FOR THE INTELLIGENT LISTENER

The Rhymeweaver - Mencari Cinta

2009-11-03T00:02:00.000+13:00

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Artis: The Rhymeweaver
Album: The Mixtape Series Vol. 4: Music From the Depths of My Heart
Lagu: Mencari Cinta

[Korus]
Oh girl, I'll be in trouble if you left me now
Coz I don't know where to look for love
I just don't know how (ulang 2x)

[Rangkap 1]
Aku bagai Orpheus, kau bagai Eurydice
Kita saling mencinta, kau selalu di sisi
Ku bagaikan ritma, engkau bagai puisi
Untukmu dunia juga segala isi
Ku punya misi walau ku rasa amat pahit
Engkau dilarikan si raja alam ghaib
Lalu ku mencarimu hingga sampai ke gerbang
Anjing tiga kepala buat nafasku terbang
Ku pegang tali-temali si kecapi hikmat
Dan ku perdengarkan muzik yang sungguh nikmat
Anjing tiga kepala cukup ganas dan kejam
Penangan kecapi ku, mata terus terpejam
Tanpa lengah, ku laung namamu, ku lihat
Kau terbaring lemah, syukur dikau selamat
Kita berpelukan, walau apa menimpa
Kerana kamu aku kan sanggup mencari cinta (c/o)

[Rangkap 2]
Aku bagaikan Rama, engkau umpama Sita
Kisah cinta kita jadi bahan cerita
Aku bagaikan minyak, engkau bagai pelita
Menerangi kehidupan yang gelap-gelita
Sampai berita, kau dilarikan ke Lanka
Angkara Ravana, siasah perang dirangka
Siapa bakal juara? Bukan mudah dijangka
Aku kan selamatkan mu, usah dikau menyangka
Soldadu musuh menyerbu, mula menggempur
Tenteraku sudah siap sedia untuk bertempur
Dengar hiruk pikuk, darah merah menyembur
Ku berdepan Ravana yang garang menghambur
Kami bertempur sengit, buku bertemu ruas
Aku cuba bertahan dari serangan buas
Ravana tewas, kemenangan sudah tercipta
Kerana kamu aku kan sanggup mencari cinta (c/o)

[Rangkap 3]
Aku bagaikan Adam, engkau bagaikan Hawa
Dua badan tercipta dari satu nyawa
Kita berdua berkasih sayang di dalam syurga
Hingga terjadi perkara yang tak pernah diduga
Kita tercampak dari syurga yang kita huni
Terpisah tanpa rela, dua penjuru bumi
Tak ada malapetaka yang lebih ku geruni
Dari kehilanganmu, tak sanggup ku harungi
Tanpamu di sisi, ku tak bisa berdiri
Empat puluh tahun ku menangis sendiri
Kakiku melangkah tak ada arah tuju
Hanya panduanku memori bersamamu
Namun Tuhan masih kasihan, perit ku rasa
Kita dipertemukan oleh Yang Maha Kuasa
Walau seribu tahun sayang tetap di minda
Kerana kamu aku kan sanggup mencari cinta (c/o)

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

How About an Audio Novel?

2009-10-29T00:03:00.002+13:00

If there is such a thing as a graphic novel, I don't see why there shouldn't be such a thing as an audio novel.

The term 'audio novel' is not my invention. There are almost 85,000 results when you google "audio novel" (with the quotation mark). But to put this number into perspective, there are nearly 7 million results when you google "graphic novel". This implies that there is still plenty of grey areas when it comes to audio novels, which I think should be explored.

What came up in the Google results for 'audio novels' were authors recording readings of their books and publishing them as podcasts. Semantically speaking, yes, they are audio novels because:

a) they are stories (the 'novel' bit)
b) they are appreciated by listening rather than reading like conventional novels (the 'audio' bit)

But for me, that definition is closer to audiobooks. If anything, audiobooks are a companion to the conventional novel, rather than constituting a separate genre. No disrespect to the 'audio novel' authors, but they can always publish their works as conventional novels (in print or electronic) if recording them doesn't work in the long run. After all, they were reading off the novel when they recorded it.

What I have in mind when I talk about audio novels is something that constitutes a separate genre. It cannot be published into a conventional novel because it will be ungainly and its unique characteristics will be destroyed. Hence, an audio novel can only materialize in one form, which is audio. For me, an audio novel is a marriage between music and speech in conveying a story. The music and the speech work together; you cannot fully appreciate the story in an audio novel just by listening to the words. The music contributes to the mood and pace of the story while the words contribute to the setting, characterization and plot.

It's the same like graphic novels, where pictures and written text combine to tell a story. You cannot expect to enjoy a graphic novel by just reading the words. Even if the dialogue and the captions in a graphic novel is sufficient to convey an understandable story, the pictures contain much more details that enrich the narrative. For example, the graphic novel Watchmen contains so much detail in the artwork which isn't even mentioned in the text.

I don't believe I can propose a definition of an audio novel just yet. What I have in mind are just concepts of how an audio novel should be. Off the top of my head, I'd say that Immortal Technique's song Dance with the Devil is a kind of audio novel. So is Jedi Mind Tricks' Uncommon Valor, Killah Priest's Deja Vu and Nas' I Gave You Power (search these titles to listen). Either way, I believe there won't be such a thing as an audio novel until someone come up with a work that is explicitly labeled as an "audio novel". Only then can we flesh out a definition based on that work's characteristics.

Maybe the next step in my journey as a rapper is to make an audio novel.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Shazet's Superhero is in Top 8

2009-10-24T00:02:00.001+13:00

You might not know that Shazet, Rogue Squadron's resident beatboxer, is also a comic book artist and an illustrator. His superhero submission, Amok, was recently inducted into the Top 8 finalists of the Merekacipta Adiwira Malaysia 2009, a competition to find the best Malaysian superhero design. The design of Amok is inspired by a mosquito (nyamuk in Malay), hence the name.

I would like to challenge the reader to come up with a description of Amok. Who is Amok? How did he become a superhero? What are his super-powers? Who are his enemies? Post your thoughts in the comments and be as creative as you can. I'll make sure Shazet reads your submission and who knows, you might end up teaming with him to write the first issue of Amok's own comic title.

Know more about Amok and Shazet by clicking here. Here's hoping Amok will buzz his way up to the first prize.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

A Measure of Wheat for a Penny

2009-10-19T00:01:00.005+13:00

If there's an annoyance of mine that's worse than indecisive people, it's the petty people. (Not pretty people, petty. Without the R).

You know the type: they argue endlessly about token sums of money and will pursue the matter until they get their hands on the dough. Which is not that much to start with. It's almost embarrassing to see them running around in pursuit of a meagre couple of bucks from the owing party (who probably doesn't give a shit about all the emails and telephone calls they receive from these petty people anyway). Seeing them busting their arses off makes you think these people would've made a lot more money if only they channeled that energy into work.

I don't mind if the sum in question is a hundred or a thousand dollars. Matter of fact, I'll probably join the struggle if the situation involves that kind of money. If you've legitimately earned the money but it's being denied from you (e.g. you were cheated, scammed, or withheld from payment), that's injustice. I don't reckon it's petty to pursue injustice. If you stepped in shit that involves an obscenely high amount of money being owed to you, I'll join you in your fight to get it back.

But the moment your fight stops being one against injustice and morphs into the ugly visage of pettiness is when the sum is pitifully low. Do you honestly think it's worth to pester people for, say, $60? Granted, $60 can pay for a lot of things. And I don't pretend to be bloody rich that $60 means nothing to me. But sometimes you just gotta chalk it up to experience. You were cheated out of $60. Just grin and bear it, mate. Next time, don't have any dealings with that shady bastard. Be alert of your surroundings. Read the contract twice, clarify any grey areas, et cetera. Look at it this way: $60 is the price you pay for a bit of knowledge (be alert and don't trust anyone) that you'll definitely use throughout your lifetime. Seems like a decent trade-off to me. After all, we paid a lot of money to learn more useless shit in school.

Are you one of the petty people? If you are, I wish we wouldn't have anything to do with each other. Keep chasing after that couple of bucks if you want, but don't drag me into it.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Saphuan feat. DMent - Clap to This

2009-10-14T00:01:00.003+13:00

Saphuan, whom I featured a while ago with his song Fancy Lights, is back with another new single called Clap to This, featuring DMent. Groovy beat and headnodding chorus make this song catchy as hell. Some improvements are in order but an impressive work nonetheless. Listen to Clap to This at YouTube or Saphuan's MySpace page.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Today in the History of this Blog

2009-10-09T00:01:00.000+13:00

Following up on my post about today in history, here's a recap of posts dated the 10th of every month since this blog was created.

10 May 2008
I confess my ignorance about Marvel Comics characters and how I wish to see the then-recently opening Iron Man (of which I had no regrets whatsoever).

10 July 2008
I explain why rappers need to have a biography written-up.

10 Sept 2008
I get an inspiration on what to write for my (ultimately fruitless) Malay song in my first mixtape, Music From and Inspired by Classic Literature.

10 Oct 2008
I excitedly proclaim the release date for my first mixtape Music From and Inspired by Classic Literature (thanks to everybody who downloaded it)

10 Nov 2008
I explain why rappers need to compile their own personal rhyming dictionary.

10 Feb 2009
I feature a rock song from my friend's band called Raptor.

10 Apr 2009
I feature a Malaysian hip hop classic from Poetic Ammo and Sheila Majid.

10 Jul 2009
I release the single The Philtre off my third mixtape Supernatural Horror in Rap Music.

Thanks for reading, and happy browsing!
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Today in Whose History?

2009-10-04T00:08:00.000+13:00

For the past couple of months, I've been collecting info on events and births that happened every single day in history (thanks to Wikipedia). For instance, today (4th Oct) in 1957 marks the launch of Sputnik 1, the first man-made object ever to reach outer space and orbit the Earth.

I'm not doing this out of any unfulfilled aspiration of becoming a historian. Rather, I want to use this information for my class when I become an English teacher. A good teacher always starts their class with some anecdotes, but since I don't have that many anecdotes to share in the first place, I figured a brief 'today in history' (TIH) session should do the trick.

Even though I've been collecting historical information for months, most items that I found are concerned only with the Western world. For example, on any given date, a Wikipedia entry usually contains 4-5 TIH items about the American Civil War and American Revolutionary War and 5-6 items on events happening in Europe. The births section often feature more Western personalities than Eastern ones. I'm hard-pressed to find TIH items that are relevant to me as a Malaysian and as a Muslim.

I can understand if there's no record of birthdays of famous Muslim polymaths like Ibn Rusyd or Ibnu Sina, being born hundreds of years before the Gregorian calendar was even conceived. But it makes no sense if there's no mention of when exactly the Malayan Emergency occurred or the date of the Naning Wars. The date of the Peace of Westphalia (whatever that is) holds no relevance to me, yet it is featured in a TIH page. Who decides which event or birthday should be mentioned or ignored?

I'd like to think that I'm pretty open as far as TIH categories are concerned. I gather info about birthdays of authors, scientists, actors, musicians, poets, athletes, politicians, thinkers, film directors and religious figures, among others. I also take note of wars, revolutions, natural catastrophes, the Holocaust, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, first publications of important literary works, technological firsts and space explorations, etc. But there are almost no TIH items on important Muslim and Malaysian personalities and events.

Whose history am I looking at right now?

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Stalking Superman

2009-09-29T00:15:00.000+13:00

In Superman Returns, there's a scene where Perry White, the editor of Daily Planet, rebuffs Lois Lane's refusal to cover the return of Superman.

Every newspaper in town has a female reporter - a good-looking female reporter - stashed on a roof covering Superman.

This got me thinking: if Superman exists in real-life, wouldn't that be true? People, not to mention reporters, will be perched on rooftops with binoculars and telescopes to get a sight of their favorite superhero. Some might be fans, some might be researchers, and some might be stalkers.

Why wouldn't a real-life Superman have a stalker (or stalkers)? He's got all these cool super powers, he's a paragon of virtue, and he's frequently depicted as being good-looking. Robert Pattinson couldn't hold a candle to Superman if he exists. I mean: come on, even hideous, non-superpowered celebrities have stalkers.

If there's a real-life Superman, I bet there would be people who spend massive amount of time, money and effort to stalk him. Radar, GPS, telescopes, the whole detection buggerall. There would be people who write him love letters and send him presents at his Fortress of Solitude. There would be people who, taking advantage of Superman's super-hearing, continuously whisper their adulations in the hopes of getting his attention. And then there'd be psychos who commit crime, or even worse, put themselves in danger, just to get Superman to save them. Again. And again. And again.

Who would be a candidate for a Superman stalker? What would characterize their personalities? What would they do to get Superman's attention? How would a real-life Superman react to these people?

I think it's time to write a song.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Pacmee vs. Twitter: A Struggling Rapper's View

2009-09-24T00:02:00.000+12:00

Recently I was introduced to a website called Pacmee. Fundamentally, it is like Twitter because it enables users to send updates to other people, either from web-to-web, web-to-cellphone or cellphone-to-cellphone. But in some aspects Pacmee is not Twitter because:

a) it is geared towards Malaysian cellphone users. In other words, users can send updates through Maxis or Digi (not Celcom though) rather than sending them to an international number like Twitter.
b) as well as txts, users can send photos, music and videos through MMS. To the best of my knowledge I don't think Twitter allows that.
c) users get charged for updates they send out (first 50 messages sent free, RM1 for 20 subsequent messages sent out per month, excluding telco SMS charges) and followers also get charged for updates they receive (first 50 messages received free, RM1 for 50 subsequent messages received per month, no telco SMS charges).
d) the Premium Channel feature in Pacmee enables users to earn 50% from the updates they send out.

I won't tell you how Pacmee works because this isn't a tech blog. There's a helpful introductory video at the Pacmee website which you can watch instead. But before you raise an almighty hue and cry over the charges, I think this presents a struggling rapper with a few things worth thinking about, which I'm going to elaborate in this article.

You've probably seen the various ads for cellphone subscriptions, where you pay a fixed amount of money to get ringtones, graphics, prayer times, and funny anecdotes delivered to your phone on a regular basis. You subscribe to these services by registering your cellphone through a short code (e.g. send REG to 56789!). A struggling rapper would vastly benefit from this as he could send out updates (like Twitter) but also exclusive photos, video footage and unreleased tracks (unlike Twitter), thus reaching out to his listeners the way a website can, but in a mobile setting. Fans don't have to sit in front of the computer to download his exclusive song, they can just get it from their mobiles.

The problem is setting up a mobile subscription is a bitch of a hassle. You have to have an agreement with a telco company, for a start. But with Pacmee, you can set up a channel and gather followers. People can follow your channel by registering their mobile at 22700 (Maxis) or 36400 (Digi). Once you have enough followers, you can start sending out updates, photos, music and video.

But if people get charged for receiving updates, why would they want to follow me in the first place?

Here's when it all falls down into place. Following someone on Pacmee is really akin to getting ringtones and graphics from mobile subscriptions like I mentioned earlier. You willfully pay to receive content. So if you want people to follow you on Pacmee, you have to give them a reason to do so, seeing that they'll get charged for doing that. And that involves sending out quality, real quality, updates, such as advance notifications on album releases or gig dates, ringtones, exclusive songs, exclusive photos and exclusive videos. Nobody subscribes to a ringtone subscription plan just to receive a 'I just had pasta for dinner' message, coz they bloody paid for it. Think of it as your own cellphone subscription plan which you can set up by yourself.

A lot of people see Twitter as inane because receiving tweets on mobiles is free. So the sender can tweet about anything, even shitty things, and the followers won't be charged a cent. This model is effective if you're really famous or if you use Twitter to spread news. But for Pacmee, you absolutely cannot post shit updates. You have to post quality content or there won't be any followers for you to update to. Conversely, if you're real consistent with posting quality content on your Pacmee, you will retain your followers and they will gladly recruit more followers for you.

I also mentioned the Premium Channel feature in Pacmee where you can earn 50% of all the cost associated with receiving and downloading your updates. This is a good way to monetize your music through cellphones, although the 50% profit is not really attractive as far as I'm concerned.

My opinion is that a struggling rapper in Malaysia should have both Twitter and Pacmee in his marketing arsenal. Twitter is for general marketing, while Pacmee is for exclusive content. Come to think of it, I might get myself a Pacmee account soon.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Cool As Rap-Graffiti Crossover

2009-09-19T00:03:00.001+12:00

Phiberwryte Crew (PW), a collective of graffiti writers based in Shah Alam, recently gave me a shoutout on one of their works. The piece was also done to commemorate Nenok's (the writer of the piece) one decade in the graffiti game. I think it's bloody awesome to have 10 years in your resume, particularly when you're in graffiti which unfortunately hasn't had the recognition it deserves as far as Malaysian hip hop is concerned. SSK, Rogue Squadron's Malay rap trio, was also shouted out in this piece.

Below is the picture (click to enlarge). The shoutout is located at the lower-left corner of the pic. You can know more about PW by checking out their works here as well as MySpace pages of their members here, here and here. If you're keen to check out the piece in person, you can come down to the Shah Alam KTM Komuter station at the boundary between Seksyen 17 and 18. You don't need no black tie or posh attire to attend this gallery. This is guerrilla art, ya dig.

In the spirit of Richard Wagner's gesamtkunstwerk, PW is planning to do a piece based on one of my songs. I am also planning to do a song based on one of their piece. It will not be easy and it will be certain to break new ground, but then again you can't really say 'The Rhymeweaver' without also saying 'breaking new ground'. More updates as it develops.

Thanks heaps to Nenok and PW for shouting me out in their piece. I sincerely wish them all the best and my full support goes to the boys, all day and every day. For those who lament that Malaysian hip hop is dead, hip hop isn't all about rap. You can always ask Phiberwryte Crew about that.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

E-Mags as a Promotion Tool for Struggling Rappers

2009-09-14T00:02:00.002+12:00

A lot of people nowadays overlook China as an originator of things. Most of the time when people talk about Chinese products, they're thinking knockoff iPods or flash drives; created in the West, mass-manufactured in China. This is weird considering that the Chinese was the first to discover gunpowder, printing, paper, the compass, and silk, among others

I don't have any soft spots for the Chinese anymore than I do for the French, but I have to give credit where credit is due. And because the thing I'm going to talk about is created by the Chinese and up to this point has not seen widespread usage in the West or any other regions in the world, I have to give a big dap to China first and foremost for coming up with this ingenious little gem.

I'm talking about e-mags. E-mags are, in simple words, e-books that you can flip like a real book. You view it on your computer screen as an open book, and when you want to proceed reading, you just click on the page and it will flip to the next like a normal book. No scrolling involved. It uses Adobe Flash technology to enable the flipping effect, and you can put pictures, music, videos and animation (.swf files) in it as well. E-mags can be opened without using any particular application so it's really easy to share. There are softwares that can be used to create e-mags, which I'll talk in a little bit more detail below.

Kids in China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan have been using e-mags as a kind of electronic scrapbook of their favorite celebrities. They decorate the e-mags with colorful, glittery graphics and insert images and videos of the celebrities. While reading the e-mag, they can listen to the singer's music which has been embedded in it. These e-mags are then shared between fans of that celebrity. Surprisingly, the celebrities who are the subjects of these e-mags don't claim any royalty from these kids for using their songs and images.

I had the opportunity to read an e-mag about the popular Korean boy band TVXQ, as shown by my girlfriend who is a huge fan of the band (she didn't make it, she obtained it from others). It was fan-created but it sure looked like a professional job. It was about 30-35 pages with 3-4 videos embedded in. Plus there were about 3-4 cuts from TVXQ's music catalogue playing as well as countless pictures (there weren't many words, let alone that I could read). Occasionally there would be little glittery hearts fluttering across the page, which is actually a Flash file in action. And you could flip the pages back and forth with a mouse click, just like you'd flip a real magazine. I was quite engrossed with the technology, to be honest.

So what does this mean for struggling rappers? As I mentioned earlier, celebrities in China and Korea don't charge their fans money for making e-mags about them. But if you're a struggling rapper, you can make e-mags about yourself and charge people for it. Make it a bonus material in your releases. When you buy an album off iTunes, you usually get a digital booklet in PDF format about the artist and the album. Why not one-up the competition and offer an e-mag as an additional material? For starters, PDF files cannot be flipped like a real book, and it can't be embedded with music, videos or animation. You'll also need to have Acrobat Reader to open a PDF file. You can forgo all those constraints with an e-mag.

Because the technology originated from China, all e-mag creator softwares available now are written in Chinese, so you better be proficient in that language or get help from someone who does. One such software that you can download for free (and legitimately) is the Nuojie Digital Wizard (website is in Chinese). It is a free version, which has a few limitations compared to a standalone creator. But the end product is still pretty decent for a free software. I won't tell you how to use the software because this is not a tech blog. Plus I figured it all out from scratch, seeing that I know fuck all about Chinese, so I don't see why you can't do the same. Makes you think a bit eh?

I will include an e-mag in my next mixtape Music From the Depths of my Heart, and there will be little glittery hearts fluttering across the pages as it is a love mixtape. Just wait for it. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to hearing your exploits with the e-mag!

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Malaysia-Indonesia Space Race

2009-09-09T00:03:00.001+12:00

If you've been reading the news, you should know about Indonesia's recent successful test launch of an unmanned rocket. This is the country's first step towards having its own launch capability for putting satellites in orbit, which is scheduled to be around 2015. More details about the Roket Pengorbit Satelit (RPS), Indonesia's satellite launch vehicle, can also be found here.

A lot of people including me don't know this, but there was a NASA space shuttle mission in 1986 that was slated to carry an Indonesian astronaut, Pratiwi Sudarmono, into space. However the mission was canceled in the aftermath of the Challenger disaster and she never had the chance to fly again. This would've been perceived as really big in Indonesia, I'd imagine, similar to the hype surrounding our own Malaysian astronaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.

If Indonesia succeeds in developing their own launch capability in the future, there should be no problem for them to send their own astronaut to space, as an indication of national triumph as well as for its scientific values. Where will Malaysia be when that happens? Do you think there will be a space race between Malaysia and Indonesia as part of the bigger Asian space race?

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

A Merdeka Carol

2009-09-04T00:03:00.003+12:00

Very early in this blog I briefly mentioned a play staged by Malaysian students in Auckland last year in celebration of Merdeka. I'm pretty sure there won't be any play staged this year as Merdeka Day overlaps with Ramadan so the celebrations are likely to be religious and sober in nature.

Anyway, if I could be in the director's seat, this is what I'd do for a Merdeka play. I would call it A Merdeka Carol, because it borrows heavily on Charles Dickens' famous work A Christmas Carol. It has three acts and involves three supernatural entities, and in the end the protagonists learn a lesson. Pretty simple really.

The three protagonists, stereotypically named Ali, Chong and Raju, are 20-something Malaysian blokes who don't give a shit about Malaysian history. They also take the 21st century conveniences for granted. Then one night, BAM, they are visited by the ghost of Rentap (why Rentap? I don't know. You tell me). Rentap tells them that they've been taking their freedom for granted and therefore he will show them how their lives would've turned out if Malaysia was not merdeka.

Then Rentap transported the three of them to an alternate universe where World War II never occurred (yes, I know this is historically improbable but I took some dramatic license). With no threats from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, Britain managed to keep its hold on Malaya well into the 21st century. The three friends then see how they are kept apart based on their ethnicity as per the British policy of divide and conquer. Malays are kept in rural areas, the Chinese are kept in towns, and the Indians are kept in estates. This creates a perpetual racial tension. With all the nation's wealth being siphoned off to Britain, the overall population remains poor. Faced with the loss of Malay rights, Ali foamed at the mouth and fainted.

Then Rentap teleported them again, this time to another alternate universe where World War II ended in an Axis victory. For some reason, United States signed an armistice with Imperial Japan, ensuring no American attacks on Japan's new Southeast Asian colonies. Meanwhile, Britain was defeated by Nazi Germany, ensuring no British reclamation of her former empire (again, these are grossly inaccurate in terms of historical probability). Malaya is now a Japanese possession, and the three friends see the struggle to live under Japanese rule. They see alternate versions of themselves being shipped to other acquired territories as slave labor and how tapioca becomes a staple food. Japan's particular hostility towards the Chinese results in discrimination and executions of the Chinese population. Faced with the risk of Japanese extermination, Chong foamed at the mouth and fainted.

Rentap then sent them off to the last alternate universe, where World War II ended with a complete Axis victory at the cost of the Allies' destruction. The uneasy alliance between the victorious Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan then quickly crumbled as Berlin smashed Tokyo with a nuclear bomb, starting World War III. Nazi Germany then took control over Japan's war colonies in the Southeast Asia and launched a massive undertaking to exterminate all untermenschen in the sub-continent in order to make way for Aryan colonists. They watched as everybody is herded into death camps to be gassed and some are selected to be serve the Germans as slaves. The first to be exterminated are the Indians due to their complexion which the Nazis deem 'undesirable'. Faced with the risk of Nazi genocide, Raju foamed at the mouth and fainted.

Then Rentap returned them to the real world with a final reminder to appreciate their freedom and to defend it with their blood and toil. The friends then hug each other. Curtain closes. The end. What do you think?

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Celebrating Merdeka at Home

2009-08-30T00:04:00.003+12:00

Why aren't we celebrating Merdeka at home?

What I mean by 'at home' is a gathering of friends, family or colleagues, with food, drinks and merriment. Maybe some music, games or movies. Or it can be just chilling around and talking. Ask some war veterans or old-timers to talk about the pre-independence days. Break the national record by cooking the largest Malaysian dish. Organize an eating contest or an arm-wrestling competition. Prayers for the safety and prosperity of the nation. Whatever.

As far as Merdeka celebrations are concerned, I think Malaysians are more contented to wait for government or corporate-sponsored events. And those events are usually tainted with a lot of booze, drugs, unsafe sex and violence. Why then do we let our children go off to these events when we can celebrate Merdeka in a safer way at home or within the community?

Just remember that it won't be long before future generations associate Merdeka celebrations with opportunities to drink, shoot drugs, fuck and bash people.

I reckon most Malaysians see displays of patriotism as something corny. Maybe they think putting up and waving flags is something that is only done by schoolchildren. That is bloody absurd, as far as I'm concerned. Who's gonna fly the Malaysian flag if Malaysians won't do it? You can't possibly expect the Bangladeshi or Indonesian guest workers to wave the Malaysian flag around.

Merdeka celebrations don't have to be overwhelmingly patriotic. They don't need to have poetry recitations, people dressing in national colors, costumed parades, fireworks or even a thousand mini-flags (just a few would do). Malaysians need to realize that the real purpose of a Merdeka celebration is to reaffirm our identity as a free country.

Merdeka is perhaps the only holiday which every Malaysian can celebrate together. Aidilfitri has no real significance for non-Muslim Malaysians, and some Muslim hardliners prohibit Muslim Malaysians from celebrating Deepavali and Chinese New Year (which is really stupid and disrespectful). There are a lot of problems surrounding religious and cultural holidays, so Merdeka seems like the only choice for a truly Malaysian holiday.

And because Merdeka is really underrated as a holiday, we have the opportunity to set the norms for a Merdeka celebration, unlike Aidilfitri or Chinese New Year which already have their own traditions . The Americans normally have barbecues on their Independence Day, so we too should start setting up some traditions in celebrating Merdeka. Unless we want our children to think that drinking and fucking and shooting drugs are the traditions for Merdeka.

When I have a family of my own, I will definitely start celebrating Merdeka at home with my wife and kids. And it will not involve watching the parade on TV or letting my kids go off to the midnight countdown. I'll cook some delicious food, call my friends and family, organize some fun activities and have a wonderful Merdeka celebration as proud Malaysians.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Great Ideas, Poor Execution

2009-08-27T00:02:00.006+12:00

One thing that I dare say about my rapping is that my concepts are so bloody brilliant. Mind-bogglingly brilliant. Par excellence. Whoever had thought about doing a song based on classic literature or ghost stories, for example? I am the first to do so (at far as Malaysian hip hop is concerned). At the risk of sounding arrogant, I'm actually proud of myself for coming out with such excellent ideas for my songs.

But great ideas are nothing if they aren't carried out properly. And that's the pit that I've fallen into: the actual songs are not up to par with the great concepts that underlie their creation. I'd spend weeks thinking up great ideas for songs, reading up on background material, getting a dope beat, and polishing my rhymes, yet when it comes to recording and mixing the songs, I'd slide into a slacker mode where everything is 'all right' and I wouldn't bother with re-recording a particularly screwy line or modifying my emotions to better fit the rhymes. The end result is a bunch of great rhymes on a beat delivered in a half-arsed way.

This is definitely not good.

What I had in mind was the way I recorded The Philtre, a song off my third mixtape Supernatural Horror in Rap Music which you can listen for FREE here. It's a great song, lyrics-wise; the narrative was straight up horror, there's a nice twist ending, and the rhymes flow smoothly like a baby's bottom. I spent about 3-4 weeks crafting that song. But when it came to putting that great work on wax, I slipped into a 'that's good enough' attitude which resulted in a shoddy job. I knew there were screwy lines that needed to be re-recorded, I knew there were some clicks and glops in my voice that needed to be edited out, and most of all I knew I should've changed my voice and delivery to better accentuate the horror conveyed in the song.

But I didn't do all of those things, and now I regret my decision because I knew that song is great, concept-wise, but the actual audio didn't turn out to be on par.

I think this might have something to do with the fact that I handle my own recording sessions. I decide when and how long I'm going to record. No one tells me to re-record a particular line if it's screwy, and I can ignore a minor click or twang in my voice for the sole reason that I can't be buggered to fix it. I think my recording is good enough for the song, and I can stop recording whenever I want. So it's inevitable that the end product is crap, because my attitude towards recording is crappy anyway.

I think I need a producer or someone who can oversee my recording sessions so that they could point out any screwy lines that I need to re-record, and force me if I refuse to. But it's hard to find someone with enough knowledge to fill that position. I don't want to have someone who hasn't got a clue about recording to oversee my recording. That's a paradox at the very least, and a nuisance at most.

How I wish my brilliance at coming up with great song concepts is matched by my brilliance at actually rapping the song on the microphone.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Jangan Jadi Jahlul

2009-08-23T00:01:00.004+12:00

Terlebih dahulu aku mengucapkan selamat berpuasa kepada pembaca yang beragama Islam. Diharap pada bulan Ramadan ini pahala anda bertambah-tambah, rezeki anda mencurah-curah dan air tebu dalam jag di meja makan anda melimpah ruah.

Antara perkara yang diberi keutamaan bila menjelangnya bulan puasa ialah menjaga mulut dari mengumpat dan mengata perihal orang lain. Kurang pahala puasa, kata ustazah aku. Secara amnya, apa-apa pertuturan kita yang mungkin menyinggung perasaan orang lain haruslah dikurangkan sepanjang Ramadan ini.

Tapi tahukah anda bahawa anda mampu menyinggung perasaan orang lain dengan pertuturan anda walaupun anda tak berniat langsung nak mengumpat atau mengata? Perkataan baru yang aku cipta bagi fenomena ini ialah 'jahlul'. Aku suka hati je cipta perkataan sendiri sebab aku tak tahu ada ke perkataan yang mampu menggambarkan fenomena ni dengan seadanya.

Jahlul bermaksud bercakap tanpa ilmu. Ia terdiri dari gabungan perkataan 'jahil' dan 'bahlul'. Jahil bermaksud bodoh atau tak berilmu, dan bahlul bermaksud cakap lepas atau semberono (ini makna yang aku beri sendiri). Secara amnya, orang yang bersifat jahlul suka meluahkan sesuatu tanpa ada ilmu tentang perkara yang diperkatakan itu. Juga, selalunya orang yang jahlul suka bercakap tanpa berfikir dulu tentang kesannya terhadap orang lain.

Sebagai contoh, Si Luncai yang mengkritik rakan beliau, Pak Pandir, kerana tidak mahu menyertai acara berbuka puasa di restoran adalah seorang jahlul. Si Luncai tidak tahu apa sebabnya Pak Pandir enggan menyertai mereka: mungkin kerana dia ingin menghabiskan masa dengan keluarga, mungkin kerana dia ingin berjimat cermat atau mungkin masakan isterinya lebih sedap dari hidangan di restoran. Walaupun Si Luncai tidak tahu, dia terus mengeluarkan kritikan tersebut. Itu boleh dikategorikan sebagai jahlul. Walaupun Si Luncai tidak berniat langsung hendak melukakan hati Pak Pandir, hati Pak Pandir telahpun terluka dek kejahlulan beliau. Jika pun Pak Pandir tidak mendengar kritikan tersebut, orang lain yang tahu mengapa Pak Pandir bertindak sedemikian akan merasa tidak selesa juga.

Maka sia-sialah Si Luncai menahan diri dari mengata dan mengumpat sepanjang hari kerana kejahlulan beliau telah dibalas dengan dosa kering serentak dengan tersinggungnya perasaan Pak Pandir dan orang-orang di sekeliling yang mendengar.

Bagaimana anda boleh mengelak dari terjerumus ke lembah kejahlulan? Anda seharusnya ambil tahu tentang banyak benda: mengapa Pak Pandir tak mahu berbuka bersama-sama, mengapa penganut Hindu tak boleh makan daging lembu, dsb. Kalau anda dah tahu, baru anda boleh buka mulut. Kalau tak tahu, jangan buka mulut; lebih baik diam dan perhati. Sebelum anda membuka mulut, peruntukkan sesaat dua untuk berfikir tentang kesan pertuturan anda terhadap orang lain. Mungkin anda fikir anda tahu kenapa Pak Pandir tak mahu berbuka bersama-sama, tapi anda mungkin silap di situ. Jadi fikir dahulu sebelum bercakap, tak usah terburu-buru. Dua saat boleh menentukan samada anda seorang jahlul yang bakal menerima hamper dosa kering ataupun tidak.

Jika anda bukan seorang jahlul tapi tidak sengaja telah melakukan kejahlulan, minta maaf dengan ikhlas kepada mangsa kejahlulan anda. Jika anda seorang jahlul sejak azali lagi, maka selamat menerima dosa kering. Tak dapek den nak nolong.

Selamat berpuasa dan jangan jadi jahlul!

Terima kasih kerana membaca
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Love Rap Updates

2009-08-18T00:02:00.004+12:00

Just thought I'd talk a bit about my upcoming mixtape Music From the Depths of My Heart (Love Rap).

Writing about my personal life is always hard. There's so much to talk abut yet too little space; how much can you say in 3 minutes about the family who's been taking care of you for more than 20 years? There's so many people to acknowledge; just when you thought you've mentioned them all, another one pops out in your mind. Then there's the question of topics: with a quota of five tracks, what are the things you should rap about?

This brings me to the notion of originality. Heartfelt songs are one of the topics in rap music that's been whored to death, aside from battle raps. Every rapper and their mums have written about their girl, their mama and their appreciation towards hip hop. What, then, is left for me to rap about? Unless I'm being really original, another slew of mushy heartfelt songs isn't going to get much of an attention.

Throughout the writing process, I listened to a lot of ballads (think Celine Dion or Luther Vandross) and read a lot of poems, chiefly because I want to get out of my storytelling mode from Supernatural Horror and reset my rhyming compass towards what you can call a poetic north. Every rhyme that flows from the tip of my pen must evoke emotion and paint a beautiful picture. Ballads, in my opinion, are even harder to write than rap because their space is much more limited, so what I'm striving now is to convey the emotion of ballads in rap successfully. Poems, on the other hand, serve as a model for me in sculpting my words.

So in essence, writing a heartfelt song is orders of magnitude harder than writing a battle rap or even a storytelling song (whatever the story is). Battle raps only involve coming out with creative ways to render your imaginary opponent deceased. Storytelling songs only involves writing what is happening and where is it heading to, in such a way that the audience understands it easily. In contrast, heartfelt songs involve a skillful combination of coherence, creativity, choice of words and consideration of what exactly am I talking about. Coincidentally I noticed that the previous sentence is alliterative.

Luckily I know a way to go about writing a good love song (or at least get over the business of writing one and avoid writer's block). You can read more about it here, and give me credit if you think it's a bloody fine idea.

Promotion-wise, I just noticed that I've stepped up my extra material game. I used images in my first mixtape, PowerPoint presentations in my second and PDFs in my third. With each mixtape, the extra material gets more sophisticated. I'm coming out with something even better for my fourth, which is Love Rap, and that begs the question: what am I going to include my my fifth and last mixtape? Anyway that's too far out, we'll cross the bridge when we come to it.

I only had two people so far who sent in their dedications for the Love Rap contest. You can click to read more about it here. If you aren't keen to send in your dedication, there's a 50% chance for each of these good people to win two free copies of Love Rap. Not one, but two FREE mixtapes delivered free to their doorstep. It's dead easy: just write a few beautiful sentences to your loved ones (family, friends, spouses etc), send it to me and you'll stand a chance to win two copies of Love Rap absolutely FREE of charge.

I've written four out of five songs for Love Rap and I'm currently banging my head against the wall trying to write the last one. Recording is slated to commence in September, and I hope I can release it by early November. If I can't then I'll fall back on Valentine 2010 as the release date.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

I Have Beef with You Eating Beef

2009-08-13T00:05:00.005+12:00

Being a Muslim, I always feel uncomfortable when someone cooks or eats pork in my immediate vicinity. Muslims don't eat pork and consider pigs and their derivatives (pork, ham etc) as unclean.

But then again, I consider myself to be quite tolerant because I don't cringe from non-Muslims eating non-halal meat or poultry around me, even though non-halal foodstuffs are also considered unclean by Muslims. For comparison, I've met a Muslim person who hastens her steps with a visibly disgusted expression on her face when she walks near a Chinese restaurant. I don't do that, no. I don't have any problem with anyone eating or cooking anything around me, as long as it's not pork. Even if I find pork to be repulsive, I try not to show my disgust because I don't want to offend the person cooking or eating next to me.

Anyway, I was cooking dinner and there were three Indian guys who were also cooking nearby (we have a communal kitchen). It was near the end of my cooking when it finally clicked in me that these blokes were Hindus and they were repulsed with my beef dish. Cows are sacred in Hinduism and beef consumption is forbidden for Hindus. No wonder one of the guys were glancing at my frying pan now and again. I hastily cleaned up and mumbled an apology before bugging off.

Now I know how the person who cooked pork next to me felt.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

High School and Talking about Changes

2009-08-08T00:01:00.004+12:00

Amid all the recent craze of uploading school photos on Facebook and gushing about the good old days, I just feel like I need to say my piece.

It's been six years since I left high school, which is a really long time indeed. I would be lying if I say I didn't remember my high school friends and I would really love it if I could meet them again. Well, some of them anyway.

But if I were to meet my high school friends again, I would much prefer us to talk about what we've been up to for the past six years rather than gushing about the good old days and how much I've changed since then.

I don't need them to tell me that I was once a skinny boy who wore translucent school uniforms two sizes too big, or that the girl who went out with me did so because she just felt she had to humor me somewhat. I know that and you know that. Everyone knows that. Not much point in repeating things that you've known, is there? Plus they don't know that those bits of memory bring back pain. How would they know? They aren't me. They did not go through what I've experienced. A funny little piece of nostalgia to one might be picking a painful scab for another. For me, high school carries a lot of negative baggage, and as far as I'm concerned, it's all banished into the trash bin of history. So I don't need people digging up the bin and shoving all those rotten pieces of history back to my face.

I would instead prefer us to talk about what we've been doing since we parted ways. Six years is a long time; you got a job, you got married, you continued your studies. We did a lot of things over the past six years, so there should be a lot to talk about. Also as we're approaching adulthood, so we should already have plans lined up. We could talk about that too. It makes more sense to tell me things that I don't know about, rather than repeating things that we both know. It makes for a more interesting conversation, don't you think?

Recounting things makes you look like someone who are mentally stuck in the past. Do you honestly still think that after six years, I'm still a skinny, bumbling wannabe rapper who wore baggy trousers and had a pseudo-girlfriend? Fuck you, man. Stop greeting me with that faux-hip hop bullshit like you did six years ago. I'm a grown man and an established rapper with a respectable wardrobe and a lady I planning to marry. You're the one who hasn't moved with the times.

Change is always the topic of conversation when you're meeting someone that you haven't met in a long time. But it doesn't have to be the changes happening since we first saw each other until we parted ways. It can be the changes since we parted ways until we meet again now. Give this a good couple of minutes' thought.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Rapping for Rap's Sake

2009-08-03T00:02:00.001+12:00

Previously I outlined my intention of quitting rap because I'm going to be a teacher and so I don't think I will be able to devote as much time to writing and recording songs as I do now. However much to my surprise, a lot of people have responded to my announcement with chagrin and implored me to continue spitting rhymes, often with convincing reasons why. I have since been thinking maybe I shouldn't quit but have rapping as a side project instead.

But now I realize why I wanted to quit in the first place. Time is the practical reason, but the underlying motivation, one that even I haven't noticed before, is that I don't rap for the same reason as other rappers. Other rappers rap for rap's sake; they revel in the intricacy of rhymes, the dopeness of beats and mic showmanship. I don't.

For me, rap is just a medium for me to broadcast my thoughts, beliefs and imagination. I don't rap for the sake of the music; I rap because rap provides me with an avenue to say something to people. Rap enables me to be heard, but what I want people to hear in my raps is not the rap itself. Rather, I want them to hear what I think and what I believe in when they listen to my rhymes. For instance, I have a deep interest in the Holocaust and I think other people should too, so I did a song based on Maus. If I'm rapping for rap's sake, I wouldn't even bother with Maus but bust out a battle rap instead.

I could've easily expressed my views through other media like painting, music, photography, or writing a book. But the problem is I don't know how to do those things. I can't draw, I can't sing or play instruments, I don't have the eye for taking good pictures and I can't even write a decent prose. The only thing I'm good at is rap. So naturally, I use rap merely as a vehicle to express my views. To use an analogy, rap is like a cart and my thoughts are turnips. You can use ships, trains or even airplanes to deliver turnips, but I choose a cart because that's the only thing I know how to drive (even then, very badly).

So the reason I'm quitting is because my agenda is different from the other rappers in the scene. I'm going to let them shape the scene. Not me, because I rap to further my own views. It's time to let those who rap for rap's sake be heard in their own right. Maybe the best course for me is to take up another "vehicle" like blogging or teaching to express my views.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Shakespeare vs. Rasa Sayang

2009-07-29T00:02:00.000+12:00

The longstanding dispute between some Indonesians and some Malaysians about ownership of cultural stuffs like Rasa Sayang and gamelan got me thinking about Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare hailed from England and he wrote a lot of plays, and many of his plays revolve around the royalty and nobility of neighboring European countries. Hamlet is about a Danish prince, Macbeth is about a Scottish thane, The Tempest is about an Italian duke, Julius Caesar is about a Roman dictator, and Antony and Cleopatra is about an Egyptian queen. There's a lot more from where those came from, but you get my drift.

But even though Hamlet is extremely well-known, you don't see the Danes screaming for Shakespeare's head just because Hamlet was Danish. And you don't hear the Italians claiming The Tempest as their rightful cultural property just because Prospero was Italian. And the English doesn't try to paint Hamlet as an English character just because he was created by an Englishman. After 410 years, Hamlet is still portrayed as a Dane and the play is still portrayed in Elsinore.

The transfer of ideas is inevitable when you have two peoples living side-by-side. Migration and trade do that, you know. Why do you think Shakespeare in England wrote about the royalty in Denmark? Because they are in the same continent; the distance between London and Copenhagen is only 1196km. The Danes and the English practically live side-by-side. By the same token, so are Malaysians and Indonesians (1185km). Therefore it's inevitable that ideas get transferred. We have mutually intelligible languages, share most of the same folklores, and wear most of the same clothes. Even our ghosts are mostly similar. I bet the circumstances are the same for the English and the Danes.

So why the sudden uproar? I reckon some bastard hiding behind a pen (or a keyboard) who's been fanning the proverbial heat. Or maybe politicians who are looking to make a public controversy, just to be seen as if they're working. Either way, I reckon there must be someone who's been egging the public because there's no way that a large number of people suddenly realized that on the other side of the sea, the same song is being sung and the same instrument is being played.

In a final analysis: chill the fuck out everyone.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Send Your Loved One a Dedication and Win TWO FREE Mixtapes!

2009-07-24T00:03:00.006+12:00

INTRODUCTION

Greetings, I am The Rhymeweaver. I am an unsigned rapper and I'm currently working on the fourth mixtape in my Mixtape Series project, The Mixtape Series Vol. 4: Music From the Depths of My Heart (Love Rap). Click HERE to know more about the mixtape.

Love Rap is a collection of rap songs about, well, love. Love of God, hip hop, my girlfriend and my family. As the longish title suggests, it's also a collection of songs about my personal life and feelings. But the average person can also identify with the various human issues portrayed in the mixtape: regret, angst, determination, desire and humility, among others. It is a personal record made for the public to hear.

THE CONTEST

To promote Love Rap, I'm giving you a chance to win not just one, but TWO FREE copies of the mixtape, one for you and one for your loved one, delivered FREE to your doorstep. Just send a dedication for your loved one using the form below, and if your dedication is the most beautiful and most poignant of all, you'll win the CDs. It's really that simple.

You can send a dedication to your boyfriend, girlfriend, fiancé, spouse, ex-spouse, friend, platonic friend, roommate, classmate, schoolmate, teacher, student, principal, senior, junior, maid, nanny, neighbor, colleague, boss, officer, captain, subordinate, staff, parents, foster parents, grandparents, children, nephew, niece, auntie, uncle, cousin, cousin twice removed, your crush, your long-lost twin, your pet...you get the idea. If you send a dedication to any of these people and you win, you'll receive two FREE copies of Love Rap.

You can also send dedications to God and religious figures (of any religion), your favorite celebrities, politicians, scientists, athletes, fictional characters, abstract concepts (e.g. peace), animals, plants, inanimate objects and places (e.g. your country). For obvious reasons, if you send a dedication to these categories and you win, you will only receive one FREE copy of the mixtape.

HOW TO WIN

Simply enter in the form below:

your name (or nickname, I don't really care which)
your email
your dedication

and click Submit.

There can only be ONE winner, and I will determine who it is from the bunch. The winning dedication might be funny, it might be frank, it might be cheeky, it might be cheesy. I have no specific criteria in mind right now, but I know a great dedication when I see one. So basically I reserve the right to choose as the winner whichever dedication I want, and my decision is final. No arguments.

THE DEADLINE

Currently the contest has NO deadline, so take your time and compose the most beautiful dedication ever. I will provide a notification well in advance of setting the deadline for this contest.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

Here are some rules to make life easier for everybody:

You CAN send as many dedications as you want.
Dedications MUST be written in 50 words or less. Longer dedications will be truncated at the 50th word.
You MUST enter your real email address coz I will need to notify you if you win.
You CAN copy from famous poems, song lyrics and/or movie quotes. I'm not guaranteeing that you'll win though.
If you win the two CDs and you decide to give one of them to your loved one, you must do so under your own expense. FREE delivery of the CDs is only available to one postal address.

Click here to see an example of a dedication (English) and here for another one (Bahasa Melayu).

SEND YOUR DEDICATION

DISCLAIMERS AND SUCH

Here are some legal stuff you should read before you fill in the form:

By submitting the form, you give me permission to subscribe your email address to The Rhymeweaver's e-newsletter, in which you'll receive monthly updates about my music activities and those of my crews. You can choose to unsubscribe at any time and your email address will not be disclosed, shared or traded with any third party.
By submitting the form, you agree to give me permission to publish your dedications or any part of it in Love Rap's digital booklet, which will be offered as an exclusive paid feature in the mixtape. Published dedications will be altered to maintain your privacy.
I reserve the right to approve or reject any dedications without giving any reason whatsoever.

Please post your questions in the comment form below and I will gladly answer it.

Thanks for reading, and looking forward to your dedications!
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

Love Rap: As Dreams are Made On

2009-07-22T00:02:00.002+12:00

WHAT
The Mixtape Series Vol. 4: Music From the Depths of My Heart (also known as Love Rap) will be the fourth mixtape in in my Mixtape Series project. It's a collection of songs that celebrate love: love of God, my family, my girlfriend, and hip hop. As its long title suggests, it is also a testimony of my personal feelings; regret, angst, determination and humility are some of them. Unlike the previous mixtapes in The Mixtape Series, Love Rap is personal. It deals with people and circumstances that affect me and how I'm responding towards them.

WHY
There are several reasons why I want to do Love Rap, but above all I want to be known as a multidimensional rapper.

When I first came out with Hip Hop Lit, some people thought I was a nerdcore rapper because I rapped about classic literature. After that I dropped Battle Rhymes and those people saw me as a homophobic rapper who eat from trash cans at abortion clinics. Then I released Supernatural Horror and made them think I'm a horrorcore rapper who had dealings with the devil. So I'm dropping Love Rap to reinvent myself yet again, this time as an emotional poet. I just like to subvert people's expectations.

Another reason why I'm doing Love Rap is because I think I should address some personal issues in my music. I've done too much storytelling and battle raps in the past, but I haven't really done any tracks on a personal level. Music is a form of self-expression, but I haven't really been expressing myself to be honest. So Love Rap provides me with an avenue to do that.

Also I think it's high time I do some radio-friendly tracks after too much output of niche songs like horrorcore and battle raps. This particularly applies to casual listeners who don't really dig that type of shit. Love Rap will also mean I could employ a looser style of rap as there's no meticulous research involved. If Hip Hop Lit is the equivalent of writing an academic treatise, Love Rap is equivalent to writing a diary; the style is different for each work.

WHEN
I'm planning to release Love Rap on Valentine's Day, 2010. But since I've already finished writing three tracks from the mixtape while I was writing Supernatural Horror, the release might be shifted to an earlier date. Then again, I will be overseas on Valentine's Day, so there's also a possibility of delay.

WHO
There will be a substantial number of guest rappers on Love Rap, and I'm planning for my first ever trio collaboration (three rappers on one track). I also realize that casual listeners, mostly female, make up a significant majority of my listeners' demographics. Therefore the mixtape will be targeted towards that demographic segment.

HOW
I'm currently drawing up plans for a contest to promote Love Rap, where people can submit dedications to their loved ones. These dedications will be published in a digital booklet included in the mixtape, and the best dedication of all will win two free mixtapes. Details are being finalized and I will post up the contest page very soon.

For any suggestions or questions, feel free to contact me by clicking here.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

More interesting posts HERE

The Schizzowphrenic in Stores Now!

2009-07-20T00:01:00.002+12:00

Rogue Squadron's Schizzow has released his debut solo album titled The Schizzowphrenic this month. You can get the album for only RM20.00 at these Rock Corner outlets:

• The Gardens, Mid Valley City
• 1 Utama
• Mid Valley Megamall
• Bangsar Village
• Subang Parade
• The Curve
• Trend-SOGO

The Schizzophrenic is also available at the OSIXNINE boutique in SS15, near Taylors College.

For customers outside Kuala Lumpur, you can send an email to Schizzow at schizzow@gmail.com to get your copy.

To listen to previews of the album, head over to the official Schizzowphrenic ning site here.

Support your local rap scene and get The Schizzowphrenic for only RM20.00!

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

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Supernatural Horror in Rap Music: Post-Mortem

2009-07-18T00:02:00.000+12:00

The intelligent hip hop listener will notice the pun in the title.

I've recently released my third mixtape in The Mixtape Series, called Vol. 3: Supernatural Horror in Rap Music (Supernatural Horror). It took eight months from conception of ideas until release. Perhaps the most appropriate words to describe those eight months are an epigram from Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil:

If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you

Supernatural Horror is the abyss, and I've gazed into it for eight months. In search of inspiration and reference, I watched countless horror movies and TV shows, listened to American horrorcore rap until my ears throbbed, read horror fiction by the numbers, memorized ghostly folk tales and urban legends, cajoled people to share their ghost stories, and kept myself in ominous situations in order to capture the mood of horror in my rhymes. For instance, I deliberately stayed up alone until 3am to write my songs, even though I'm actually an early-to-bed type.

And what happens if you gaze into the abyss? The abyss gazes back into you.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I had some really terrifying nightmares over the course of those eight months. One of those nightmares even made it as a song in Supernatural Horror. There were also times when I felt as if I was being watched while I was writing or mixing the songs. I had this nagging feeling that what I was doing is actually dabbling in things I know very little about and things that are best left alone, for true knowledge of those things might literally tear my mind apart and haunt me for life.

Needless to say, I was extremely relieved when Supernatural Horror was finally uploaded for download and burned onto CDs. It's like a burden has been lifted from my shoulders; not only a burden of doing something that other people haven't done, but one of perpetual terror and paranoia. I originally wanted to release the mixtape on Halloween, but I shifted it to July because I wanted to get rid of the project as soon as possible and move on to the next, less depressing one.

The abyss has gazed into me, and I don't like it one bit.

I used to snicker when an actor/actress playing a horror (especially supernatural horror) movie revealed strange things happening at the scene or a creepy atmosphere pervading the shooting. I simply thought of it as a gimmick to boost ticket sales. Now that I've walked a similar road, I understand how they feel. Regardless whether it is a gimmick or not, when you deal with these things, you tend to feel something. It may be the result of a gentle brush between our world and theirs (whoever 'they' are) or it may be just the effect of hormones secreted by fear. I can never know for sure. What I do know is I'm glad to have released Supernatural Horror and I'm not looking forward to doing it again.

Now it's time to do my love mixtape.

Thanks for reading
The Rhymeweaver

The Rhymeweaver
Malaysian hip hop for the intelligent listener

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