Man On The Side: Rap is not baduy, says Spotify Emerge winner Shehyee

A competition to discover the next big Filipino music superstar happened over the last few weeks, but no, it wasn’t televised and didn’t feature snarky judges and questionable covers of popular hits. In yet another sign of the shifting landscape of the entertainment industry, this one was entirely online, and the winner says a lot about the tastes and preferences of today’s music-listening public.

Spotify Emerge is a program from the world’s leading music streaming service that “offers unique insights into up-and-coming music talent across Asia by leveraging Spotify’s wealth of data to identify ten emerging artists from the region based on their virality (or increase in streams and shares week on week).” It’s basically a popularity contest to find out who’s the most happening artist according to the listening habits of Spotify users.

After weeks of intense campaigns, the big winner was rap artist Shehyee, who triumphed over other talented up-and-comers, each with their own sizeable contingent of fans and followers, including December Avenue, Jeric Medina, Kai Honasan, Kito Romualdez, Marion Aunor, Midnight Meetings, Paolo Valenciano, Save Me Hollywood, and The Ransom Collective.

I haven’t been as exposed to it as much as other musical genres, but the fact that Shehyee, whose real name is Christopher John Ongkiko, won is a clear sign of the immense popularity of rap and hip-hop in the country. It’s possible, of course, that the lone rapper stood out among the rest who are all in the general indie-pop-rock genre (though it’s near impossible to box any of the finalists into a specific category), but the talent is certainly there.

The 23-year-old showcased his skills at an exclusive performance at the Spotify Emerge winner’s announcement at 12 Monkeys last week. Afterwards, I managed a quick chat with Shehyee, who was still clearly dazed that he had won the prestigious honor. “I’m overwhelmed,” he said. “I’m just happy that the hiphop community is being represented. I just want to be able to dispel the notion that rap and hip-hop are baduy. We want to prove them wrong.”

Shehyee first started performing when he was 13 years old and counts Gloc-9, Eminem and the American rapper and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda as some of his primary influences. After winning the FlipTop battle rap league, he signed with Viva Records and released one album before he was invited to join Spotify Emerge.

“We’re thrilled to celebrate with the first winner of Spotify Emerge in Asia, Shehyee,” said Sunita Kaur, the company’s managing director for Asia. “We’re looking forward to showcasing his talent on the global stage and collaborate with him on even more exciting opportunities. This is our way of supporting not only the OPM industry, but also the Philippines, our fastest-growing market in the region.”

It makes sense for Spotify to focus on the Philippine market. After launching in the country in April 2014, the Swedish company reported 2.5 billion streams from Filipino subscribers one year later. That was enough to make the Philippines the second fastest-growing market for Spotify in the world, and number one in Asia.

Shehyee is in good company. Other winners of the Spotify Emerge include British band Bastille and Grammy-winners Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

“I just want to continue doing what I’m doing, and hopefully improve,” Shehyee said. “I want to be able to live up to expectations of people but still stay true to my craft.” — BM, GMA News

Paul John Caña is a magazine writer and live music geek. He is also co-founder of libreto.org, an online collective of writers and artists. Email him at pjcana@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter and Instagram @pauljohncana.