Rapper's Delight
Sunday 07 December 2008 (Michael Bugeja - Sunday Circle)
“I was always into the groovier side of music” Jon Mallia (aka rapper Pen_Demonium) tells me, while introducing me to his newest pet, a cute black puppy he calls Six. And while Six got acquainted with my recording equipment, Jon played me a couple of new tracks he’s been working on. “My earliest recollection of a song that really got my attention was probably I heard it through the grapevine; not the Marvin Gaye original though”. Indeed, it was Creedence Clearwater Revival’s version that stirred Jon’s musical genes.
As is the case with most of us, mainstream music also played its part in Jon’s musical awakening. In his case it was Snow (the artist who made it big in the pop world with Informer in 1993), Coolio and later The Fugees and Warren G; the inclination towards music that featured slick grooves and rap becoming all too clear, even if not to Jon himself at the time. “I also listened to other stuff” he divulges, “but I seemed more drawn towards this kind of music, even as a child”. The inclination towards rap grew stronger after Jon got hold of a tape with Californian rap group N.W.A.’s music on it. “I remember being quite impressed with the stuff on the tape; more than the explicit lyrics (which N.W.A. were notorious for) it was the musical rhythms and structures that really got me hooked”.
His affair with rap music grew even stronger thanks largely to his sister’s friends, who were heavily into hiphop, and to Tupac’s seminal album, All eyez on me, which to this day remains firmly one of his all-time favourites. Thanks to Tupac he started to pay more attention to lyrics, and while he wasn’t too taken with the artist’s thug lifestyle, he recognized a poetic streak that he could relate to in the rapper’s words. By the time he discovered Cypress Hill and Wu-Tang Clan, Jon had gotten deeper into the hiphop culture that would eventually inspire practically all of the musical projects he has been involved in since, the most recent of which is of course, Sixth Simfoni.
“Unfortunately, the gang culture that started to infiltrate hiphop has overshadowed the music, which is why rap music has such a bad reputation in general. Hiphop was never about violence – its roots are in music, rapping and breakdancing”. Along with graffiti, these are in fact the main elements of the hiphop subculture. When I urge him to expand further however, Jon politely declines, telling me that he’d rather stick to talking about rapping and music, since these were the fields he is more familiar with. But what does he think about the current state of things in the hiphop world?
“That all depends where you look”, he explains, with a look in his eyes that tells me he has strong feelings about this issue. “The mainstream hiphop scene has become diluted – it’s all about how many cars, women, bling, drugs, cribs, etc they’ve got. I mean seriously, what message is that sending across to the people?” He barely gives me time to comment before continuing. “It’s all become so materialistic and unrealistic. Even worse, it’s inciting fans to forego their daily necessities and obligations just to have the same pair of expensive pumps or the new designer t-shirt that the artists on MTV are wearing”. Admittedly, the hiphop – or maybe that should be R’n’B – we are exposed to on music TV is quite superficial and shallow. But where does anyone looking for the genuine article go?
“The underground is a good place to start. The scene there is not dictated by consumerist policies. The artists are authentic people who love hiphop with a passion and are doing it because they love what they do. They don’t sell out to the corporates, they’re not out to promote any materialistic possession. The lyrics are about real issues, real people, real lives”. Clearly, keeping it real is what gives hiphop its essence, which is more than can be said of the manufactured pseudo-soul/R’n’B/rap hits that more often not takes over a big chunk of chart action in most countries.
Jon is keen to point out that he has always looked to avoid this superficial side of the music world. As part of Sixth Simfoni and their ongoing project in finalizing their debut album, he has earned a lot of experience, sometimes the hard way. “It hasn’t been rosy all the way, but I can assure you that it’s been a great experience, and it’s taught us to look deeper and harder inside ourselves for inspiration and that extra push to get us to where we want to be”.
The other way is of course to let the music do the talking, and of particular note, I point out a track called L-Offerta off the band’s upcoming album. “It’s built on the melody of an old church hymn”, Jon explains, “but we’ve reworked the song into a rap reflecting the youth of today, so it’s not exactly a spiritual track”. Behind the rap, which is all in Maltese by the way, the song does however project a celestial ambience and the whole exercise works beautifully, especially because it proves that the real hiphop exists when artists step outside the box instead of tagging along and producing soundalike tunes.
One artist that Jon is raving about is a chap called Immortal Technique. The name isn’t exactly catchy, but then, this Peruvian-born US-raised artist isn’t about selling records by the ton; he is an artist of integrity and vision, and his songs belong in the ‘real’ category Jon mentioned earlier. “There’s a ton of other artists out there right now that you’ll never get to see on your TV screens, essentially because they’re not willing to promote the consumerist agenda that the capitalist owners of MTV have pinned on rap music. Do check out Slaine, Atmosphere, RA the Rugged Man, La Coka Nostra.. a few of the many who all deserve a place in the Hiphop Hall of Fame!”