Blast from the Recent Past 5: Kaleidoscope World
This is my own little tribute to one of the great voices of our generation.
In 1990, he released the groundbreaking album Yo!, the first commercially released Filipino rap album. Yo! included several popular singles such as Mga Kababayan Ko (My Fellow Countrymen), Gotta Let ‘Cha Know, Cold Summer Nights and Man From Manila. With tracks that featured politically conscious and thought-provoking rhymes in both English and Tagalog, Yo! was a big success and helped catapult Filipino hip hop from underground to mainstream status. It also marked the birth of Makabayang or Nationalistic rap in Filipino hip hop.
In 1992, Francis Magalona released Rap Is FrancisM. With tracks addressing the various cultural and social problems that plagued his country such as drug addiction in “Mga Praning” (Paranoids), political instability in “Halalan” (Elections) as well as the detrimental effects of a colonial mentality in “Tayo’y Mga Pinoy” (We Are Filipinos), the record’s complexity and conscious message quickly earned it its classic status and became the standard by which future albums of the genre were to be compared.
Francis M was diagnosed last August 8, 2008 with acute myelogenous leukemia. After his first treatment and discharge, he made his return on Eat Bulaga together with Ely Buendia, who was also recently discharged. Not wanting to let the disease get the better of him, he remained active, chronicling his battle with the disease on his blog, A FREE MIND, and continuing to pursue his creative efforts in spite of his illness.
On March 6, 2009, at 12:20 pm, Magalona succumbed to multiple organ failure after having been rushed to the hospital and intubated the night before. He had undergone several chemotherapy sessions since he was diagnosed the previous year, and had been expected to undergo a bone marrow transplant.
Magalona had been slated to appear as a special surprise guest at the Eraserheads’ “the Final Set” reunion concert on March 7, 2009. Since he died the day before, the band instead dedicated the concert as tribute to Magalona. Buendia rapped the 22-bar portion in Superproxy which FrancisM had written and the penultimate song of their last ever Eraserheads performance was the reprise of what to me is one of the best songs ever made by a Filipino– Kaleidoscope World.
You will be missed, Francis M. (October 4, 1964 — March 6, 2009).
Kaleidoscope World
Francis MagalonaSo many faces, so many races
Different voices, different choices
Some are mad, while others laugh
Some live alone with no better half
Others grieve while others curse
And others mourn behind a big black hearse
Some are pure and some half-bred
Some are sober and some are wasted
Some are rich because of fate and
Some are poor with no food on their plate
Some stand out while others blend
Some are fat and stout while some are thin
Some are friends and some are foes
Some have some while some have mostEvery color and every hue
Is represented by me and you
Take a slide in the slope
Take a look in the kaleidoscope
Spinnin’ round, make it twirl
In this kaleidoscope worldSome are great and some are few
Others lie while some tell the truth
Some say poems and some do sing
Others sing through their guitar strings
Some know it all while some act dumb
Let the bassline strum to the bang of the drum
Some can swim while some will sink
And some will find their minds and think
Others walk while others run
You can’t talk peace and have a gun
Some are hurt and start to cry
Don’t ask me how don’t ask me why
Some are friends and some are foes
Some have some while some have mostEvery color and every hue
Is represented by me and you
Take a slide in the slope
Take a look in the kaleidoscope
Spinnin’ round, make it twirl
In this kaleidoscope world
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