Gloc-9's Matrikula: Nursing student pays his dues

I caught Gloc-9 performing “Upuan" on a morning show. He kept flapping one hand, imperatively asking for whoever was working the sound system to crank it. The music stayed the way it was, but he soldiered on rapping the word as best he could with his voice near nakedly alone.

Which may not be such a bad thing since Gloc’s (aka Aries Pollisco) rep as a rap artist is nearly unrivaled. The Philippine Hip-Hop Music Awards has recognized him numerous times, and he’s a darling of the music video channels. Matrikula is his fourth album release and there is no hesitation or embarrassment about calling himself a makata (poet) several times over several songs.

However, if the sound man found it in himself to pump it up, everyone who was watching that show would have discovered Gloc’s “bring it" words coupled with some really engaging backing tracks. This makes for one of the most worthwhile local releases yet this year.

And bring it he does. It’s really hard to find local music that can sound as peed-off as Matrikula. “The Bobo Song" rails about telenovelas, showbiz gossip shows, actors turning into politicians, social snobs, poor people who look down on themselves and almost anything else that we secretly cringe over. “Lahat ng nakikita ko nakakabobo/Kahit nakapikit ako nakakabobo/Lahat ng nakikita ko kahit nakapikit ako/Nakaka nakaka nakakabobo (Everything I see makes me stupid/Even with my eyes closed it makes me stupid/Everything I see even with my eyes closed/Makes me, makes me stupid)."

Gloc 9 uses his inks and notes responsibly

Rap is a world so remote to this writer’s that when we were informed that Gloc 9 was to be the guest in Davao’s “Larolympics,” we had to double check who or what it was.

It turned out, everyone in Anak TV, myself excluded, had heard of him. His repute as a machine-gun mouth was rather widespread, we discovered, and his association with the late master rapper Francis M actually made him even more familiar to many. He was not a talent in Kiko’s stable, just a friend, he explains, who inspired him.

It was also a delightful astonishment when the predominantly teeny bopper crowd in Davao welcomed Gloc 9 with shrieks and fanatic screams of adulation. Here was a young man in very simple garb who hardly stood out in a crowd. When his music played and he took to the mic, he morphed into a rap star that literally swept the listeners off their feet. The scouting contingent had to cordon off the performance area lest overzealous fans break in and do something overboard.

Crowd reaction approached pandemonium.

For a while, we thought that everything else that should have mattered that afternoon became inconsequential: the Larolympics finals, the awarding ceremonies, even the VIPs onstage. What was already a musty and humid gym deteriorated into a sweltering sauna after Gloc 9’s songs, no thanks to the shrill shrieks and roaring thunder of applause.