Rap in Tondo: From street to stage

MANILA, Philippines - Three years after real life gangsters in the slums of Tondo starred in the award-winning indie film “Tribu” and made headlines, the tribe is back in the limelight.

This time, it’s not their life, their angst, their existence or the squalor and violence of their neighborhood that will be the highlight of their unlikely return to the spotlight; it’s their music, their poetry, their art, which were first showcased in the film, although playing second fiddle to the more powerful theme of the severity of struggle in the country’s largest urban slum.

Taking off from their performance in the rap and hiphop soundtrack of Tribu, the gangsters, who are also homegrown street rappers and artists in their own way even before writer-director Jim Libiran tapped them for the movie and polished their craft, are ready to take on another battle – the dance floor.

Like in their debut as actors in the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival where Tribu bagged the Best Film, Best Actor and Best Sound awards, Libiran – himself a Tondo native – is playing a major role and largely instrumental in their reappearance from the street to yet another stage. 

In his many media interviews after Tribu gained local and international recognition, Libiran was quoted as saying that in shooting the film, he struck a pact with the Tondo boys to renounce violence in exchange for training and movie exposure and that during the shooting of the film he assumed the role of “gang leader” and ruled with an iron hand to instill order and discipline.

Now, gang leader Jim, along with Mitchelle Moreno, is once more rallying his boys to do yet another unforgettable performance, this time with well-known rap and hiphop artists from France and Germany.

From May 26 to 31, the gangsters from Tribu and other rap artists from the slums who form the core group of Sigaw ng Tundo – Shielbert Manuel, OG Sacred, Felimon Dionisio and Raynoa – will be participating in a three-day workshop with the German-French rap/hiphop artists MC Narco, DJ Access, The P.A.T. and Fly.

The workshop will culminate in warm-up concerts in several venues and a main concert in a Tondo basketball court on May 29.

Dubbed “Rap in Tondo,” the project is spearheaded by the Goethe-Institut Manila and the Alliance Française de Manille and seeks to establish cultural exchange and cooperation between German, French and Filipino rap and hip-hop artists. 

Richard Künsel, Goethe-Institut director, and Stephane Doutrelant, Alliance Française director, said in an interview that the local rap artists and the Philippine hiphop scene first came to the attention of France and Germany when Libiran’s Tribu  won the  Prix du Public award at the Paris Film festival in 2008 and was screened at the Berlinale in the same year.

“The film Tribu has both a French and German connection in the sense that both were screened in Berlin and Paris,” Künsel says.

The seed fund for the project, he says, came from the Elysee Fund, which was established jointly by the French and German governments for joint cultural activities a few years ago as a way of celebrating the anniversary of the signing of the Elysee Treaty between German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and France Chancellor Charles de Gaulle more than 50 years ago.

“Proposals from the Alliance Française and the Goethe-Institut come from various countries every year. Our project this year in the Philippines was selected because of its artistic and social dimensions,” he explains. The project is sponsored by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

As an art form that originated from the streets in many parts of the world, what is known today as hiphop (to loosely refer collectively to music and dance genre that includes among others rap, improvised lyrics, rhyming and verse, and break dancing) has evolved into the mainstream and is, in fact, very strong among the youth.

Both the Goethe-Institut and Alliance Française recognize its popularity among young people in Tondo as well as in France and Germany, that Rap in Tondo was conceptualized to connect the local hip hop scene with the French-German hiphop scene.

This joint project, says Künsel, carries a particular meaning in the sense that it aims to support the artistic and social development of young Filipino artists in a week-long event where they can share skills, pit talents and duel on the dance floor in a language that today’s generation understands.

“We would like to encourage them more to show what they can and learn from others,” Doutrelant says.”It is interesting for them to meet. I’ve seen in France how kids from the unprivileged suburbs of Paris became famous, those who were able to make a career from rap and hiphop. You know, from school dropouts and living on a path which will mostly definitely lead them to prison, they were saved by rap or hiphop. Where art can save you, it can also change your life.”

“Performing,” agrees Künsel, “has already profoundly changed these young Filipinos’ lives – from a life as a gang member to a life where art is a possibility to have a new life. I think it is an example also for the young that there is a way out, that there is a way for them to contribute in society,” he says.

While there are no definite plans yet for future activities that will sustain and help in the continued development of the local hiphop artists, Doutrelant and Künsel share that talks are ripe for possible expansion of the project to the provinces in the years to come as well as many other areas of artistic collaboration between Filipino and German artists in the future. 

Meanwhile, four artists “with rather difficult names” are coming over for the workshop and more local artists “with rather difficult names” will be waiting for them in the streets of Tondo.

From street to stage, once more.

For details on Rap in Tondo, contact Goethe Institut at tel. 840-5723 or email [email protected] or Alliance Française at tel 895-7441 or email [email protected]