The beauty of this project is that I get to feature artists around the world. I have featured artists from Sweden, England, New Zealand, and now the Philippines. We are going to be discussing the brief, yet eye-opening career of Filipino hip-hop artist Abra. Tomorrow(or within the next couple of days), we will be featuring another artist named Abra.
Abra made some noise in the hip-hop industry with his song “Gayuma”. It is a song about him receiving a love potion only to realize that his love interest is transgender. The video would receive over 26 million hits on YouTube and has been recognized around the world for empowering the LGBTQ community. Check out the video below!
“Gayuma” by Abra featuring Thyro and Jeriko Aguilar
Abra began his career with the Filipino hip-hop group Lyrically Deranged Poets and in its inception they won the award for Best Urban Group in 2010 and 2011 at the Urban Music Awards. Abra became huge in the Filipino rap-battle community. He became a viral YouTube sensation and this led to Abra performing on radio shows, live TV, and performing at various concerts and events around the Philippines.
In 2013, Abra won an award for “Best Music on YouTube” from the 2013 Global Tatt Awards. His collaboration with Maja Salvador for the song “Halika Na” gained further recognition. The song boast three million hits on YouTube.
“Halika Na”
In 2016, Abra won the MYX Philippines Music Video Award for the song “Cerberus”. The song features Loonie and Ron Henley.
Madness To Creation’s take: Very interesting artist. It showcases that music can break down barriers and languages and it is always intriguing to see what music and culture is like in other countries. The flow that Abra possesses could be somewhat of a guilty pleasure as the beats flow nicely with Abra’s lyrical content in his native language. I think he has potential to be at the top of the game in his home country and maybe expand his audience throughout Asia. I can also see an underground following in the United States as well. Madness To Creation surprisingly enjoyed Abra as he gets an 7.5/10 star rating.