Most of you ardent Hip-Hop enthusiasts who live in Kuala Lumpur should already know about Raising The Bar by now, as the ubiquitous indie movement in Malaysia that keeps spearheading everything Hip-Hop locally. The movement is behind the successful monthly Hip-Hop performance nights that have been around for a little more than 3 years now, and has steadily built their following over the years while also contributing gregariously to the local Hip-Hop scene.
Last Sunday, Raising The Bar payed tribute to the latest batch of young talent who have been making some noise in the last year. Aptly titled ‘Raising The Bar : New Kids On The Block’, the event was exactly that. With almost 300 people showing up to the event, it was all about supporting the up & coming talents that will go on to become the movers & shakers of the industry. We at HYPE, was also present to support the children!
Organized & hosted monthly by Jin Hackman & Mr. Dan, who also happen to be famed rappers in their own respect, the event kicked off at about 8.30PM with DJ sets from Naufal & I-Sky. Playing music from their favourite genre of Hip-Hop & Bass music, the duo set the tone & then made way for the next crew to perform.
In came production/rap collective Kraziesounds who first displayed a few impressive beats by their roster of producers, later making way for their rapper who took the stage to perform some of the new music coming from the outfit. Right after that, was Reezy Roy…the new Punjabi rapper on the block, who held his own even though spitting bars in his mother tongue, Punjabi. Arguably the first proper Punjabi rap artist of his kind in Malaysia, who also does pretty well on the mic in English…Reezy showed why he is a sure shot to be in the next year.
Bowing out after a 3 song medley, it was time for The Blacksmiths to take over. This American duo, consisting of emcees Semi-Six & Mo Iroy who currently reside in Malaysia, brought their A game on stage. Displaying that lush ‘Boom-Bap’ sound, topping it off with good content & tight delivery was indeed the highlight of their performance. Right after that was SwaggaMix, who also seem to be a very unique trio due to the fact that the leading member is Tamil, and his supporting members are Somalian & Sudanese respectively. These dudes who are college mates, just happened to make music and recently put out a single online a couple months back while getting quite a bit of attention for it. They wowed the crowd with their antics on stage & actually got a warm reception for their performance.
Reef Aljafri was up next. This guy has some buzz going on locally, probably due to his Lil Wayne-esque punchlines that keeps stealing the show. He performed 3 songs in total, garnering a number of WOAHS from the crowd for his crazy bars. Dude killed his part & made way for Prhymekid hailing from Penang island. Pryhmekid, coming all the way from Penang & appearing alongside his fellow Penangite rappers Jay Bean & Ash Azmi were commanding the stage as the brought that Northern swagger in their set incorporating very new school Trap flavours.
Representing Kuantan, Pahang was YMY, also known as Young Malaysians. The duo performed 2 songs, including their track titled ‘Hip-Hop’ that has been playing on some local online radios, over the last year. Albeit starting off a lil shaky, they eventually blended in & got crowd participation throughout their set, closing off the show with a bang. That marked the end of yet another eventful #RTB event night. On display below, are some pictures captured during the event. Should you be interested to check out the next installment of #RTB, keep it locked in on HYPE as we will be the first to get the relevant information/news. Also, big ups to Riduan Mohammad for the awesome pictures! Peace yo!
