Young JV thinks green

MANILA, Philippines - Young JV is joining the green bandwagon. The 19-year-old rapper is planning to add a song on the environment to his growing list of compositions. 

Not only that. He’s organizing a group of young people like him who will come up with environmentally-friendly activities. Just what these will be — tree planting, waste management, etc. Col. Red Kapunan’s youngest son doesn’t know yet. What Young JV is sure of is that the new group will do something to save Planet Earth before it’s too late.

Even if he can very well do so, Young JV did not just stay in his comfortable home while others were reeling from the effects of typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng. He went to ABS-CBN, repacked relief goods and carried them to the network’s waiting vehicles for two straight days. Feeling this wasn’t enough, he joined friends in Ateneo to help in the university’s relief efforts.

This sense of social responsibility is not new to Young JV. He founded Lahing Bayani Foundation, which donated relief goods to the Sagip Kapamilya campaign. 

The foundation is not looking only at short-term solutions. It is thinking far into the future by sending 15 orphans — sons of slain soldiers — to school. Young JV shoulders not just their tuition. He also pays for their books and daily allowance out of his (and his parents’) pocket.

Now who says youth is wasted on the young?

That military discipline Young JV is getting from his dad is now paying off. He may wear loose pants and a casual T-shirt the way most hip-hop artists like him do, but don’t be fooled. The laidback look doesn’t reflect Young JV’s character. The young man is as wholesome as a guilt-free conscience.

He attends Bible study sessions every Wednesday with friend Gab Valenciano. Young JV plays basketball with Gerald Anderson every Monday. 

Above all, he hasn’t given up his studies. He goes to Thames international business school Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for his classes as a student of entrepreneurship.

“That’s my deal with my parents when I entered showbiz,” reveals Young JV. “I should finish my studies no matter what.”

His class schedule is flexible and his current academic load light. So Young JV has time for his passion: Singing. His debut album, Ready or Not has climbed to the top spot on Odyssey charts just three months after its release.

You don’t blame Young JV for being that inspired. He’s eyeing a Gold for the album this year. He will soon release Don’t Know You, the second single off the album. The album’s video premiere on MYX comes next.

Thanks to his growing following, Young JV is becoming more and more familiar to the man next door. And this requires a few adjustments on his part.

“I must now be well-dressed whenever I step out of the house,” he relates. The young artist can no longer wear his favorite sando and pair of slippers when he so much as buys something at Starbucks.

“I was thinking of wearing just that in getting myself something to eat at Starbucks,” Young JV recalls. But his manager stopped him. People will recognize you, she warned. And they did.

“Ate (the sales girl) knew my name,” recalls JV, who thanked his manager for convincing him to change his otherwise customary get-up in going to Starbucks.

Young JV will become even more visible now that he will share the stage with Billy Crawford, Jay-R and the award-winning Philippine All Stars in a hip-hop concert on Dec. 11.

“There will be singing, dancing and rapping, of course,” beams Young JV.

The title of his album says it all: Young JV is here, there and everywhere. So you better watch out — whether you’re ready or not.