Experiencing Fliptop Rap Battles Live INTERVIEW BY: GELO GONZALES AND LOLA ABRERA PHOTOGRAPHY BY: BERT

BAINTO July 22, 2010 Fliptop is a rap battle league that puts two people in a match to have them insu lt each other with the cleverest punch lines and sharpest rhymes . You can say it's one of the biggest youtube sensations of 2010 because it has go ne viral with several of their videos hitting a million views in just a couple m onths. Last July 17, they had a gig at Freedom Bar in Anonas, QC. FHM checked it out, a nd put the man behind the league, Anygma, on the hot seat. Be sure to check out the gallery below as well, for a photo-by-photo account of what happened that night. You can also check out their Youtube page by clicking here. How did Fliptop start? It was as simple as applying some format from America to the Philippines. We've ha d battling ever since also in the Philippines, but when Grind Time was shown the American league, probably the biggest in the world too and when their format, the concept of it was introduced to the greater public, I picked up on it. I applie d it here. How did you put it all together, from inspiration to execution? Grind Time they have the exact same format, in the sense that, it 's free battles on Youtube. In a sense, you cut out the middle man, you don 't even have to look f or someone to air this or think about making a DVD and selling it. Profit is rea lly not the priority. I 'm aware of the talent here in the Philippines. I just put two and two together, like So, if we have this kind of talent, what would it tak e for it to work ? Would it be wiser to divide the Filipino and English conferenc es? Would it be wiser to have these many divisions all around Manila? Like, woul d it be wiser to go with this or that? We just went with whatever works in the P hilippines. It 's an entirely different paradigm. I don't even market anything, and that 's not to be cocky or anything. All we have is one Facebook, one Youtube, and one Formspring. I just go online, and answer questions, or post a poster if the re 's an event coming up. When did this start? Our first event was in February, if I am not mistaken. Are you the sole organizer of Fliptop? Well, I guess, with the logistics and eve rything, and the actual organizing, yeah, I do majority of the work. I have some partners too, the cameraman, Kev, and DJ Umph from Miscellaneous, who is like m y second-in-command. He takes the footage and edits it. Of course, I get a lot o f moral support, and brainstorming help from my camp from my homeboys and everyt hing. Are you an emcee as well? Yeah, yeah I'm an emcee. My crew is AMPON, and Talksic W ays. AMPON has been my camp ever since. Talksic Ways, we got together like a cou ple years ago, which is made up of several AMPON emcees and two cats from Audibl e, Protg and Liquid. Fliptop is getting pretty big with some of the videos reachin g a million views already. Did you expect that it would get big this fast? I kne w it would get big, just not this fast, maybe 50,000 views overall for all the v ideos. Why do you think it's such a hit? Well, who doesn't want people insult each o ther? I think it's pretty innate in most Filipino males, from grade school and hig h school, you know, in the parking lot, you guys just insult the hell out of eac h other , just saying all types of shit. There 's that, and then, I guess it also comes into play the fact that as a race, the Filipino is known to be non- confro ntational, you know what I mean. So when they see these rap battles, they have s omething to aspire for, in a sense that, like Hey, I don't get to do that on a dail y basis, but here, these guys are fucking insulting each other, and then right a fter, they're friends. Speaking of insulting each other, have any of the guys gotte n into a fight, after a match? No, no, probably the closest thing to that is cal ling the next cat out after a battle. Like some guy hears a punch line for him, he 's like I'm going to battle you in the next battle. At the end of the day, these gu ys are still friends. I'm sure they hold their own hidden grudges against each oth

er, but like, whatever, that 's their own problem. What do you say to the people w ho comment that you 've judged a battle wrong? When people say that Fliptop has ma de a wrong judgment, they 've got to break it down and say like Yeah, it's just this one judge who made a mistake, like, I don 't agree with his judgment. You can't gener alize and say I think it's wrong, all the judges are wrong, therefore the entire Fl iptop is wrong. And people have said that. They say like we rig shit. We don 't ev en have time to rig shit. It bothers me once in a while. How do you match people up? If I think it's a good match up, I propose it. It's real ly democratic. I ask both parties like Yo, what do you think of this battle? If on e of them doesn't it, then wala. Both sides must agree on everything. They 're free to agree on money down, trade t-shirts if they want, if they want it to be unlimit ed time. I just propose it, and if they 're both down with it, then it happens. So there are prizes when you win a battle? Lately, it's been a tattoo, and we're looki ng at the shirts. Monetary, so far, not yet. People haven 't stepped forward yet w ith the money down or whatever. Can you give us a picture of how these rappers p repare for a battle? Is all of it freestyle or are the lines written? It's a commo n misconception that all of it is freestyle. People think it's all freestyle, but in one battle league for instance, Smack, people weren 't admitting yet that they actually prepared these lines. They were still trying to claim it was freestyle, but I have a good feeling most of it was written. As an emcee, shit like that i s impossible. If you tell me like all of that is freestyle, that 's bullshit. Comm only, battles are a mix of freestyle and written lines. In an openly written bat tle league, like Grind Time, emcees who can 't even freestyle are allowed to join battles if they just think that they can come up with a couple of insults. Anyon e can join, but I 'll tell them off, if I don't agree with it, like Yo, I think that's fucked up, you're kind of bastardizing what we're doing. There are still a certain cr iteria that emcees have to meet. At the same time, some of the battlers in Flipt op though haven 't assimilated themselves to Fliptop's openly written format. I tell them Yo, you know your opponent in advance because you 're supposed to prepare for him. Of course, if you forget your written lines, then you 're forced to freestyle . So freestyle is still really, really important. If you can't, people will hold i t against you, and go like You're just one of those guys who prepare their shit. Yo u haven 't paid your dues and shit. You have to do everything hiphop, you know. Wha t's the best line you've ever heard? I don't know man. That's too many. I'd have to consid er all the battle leagues in the world. Talk about the talent level here in the Philippines, and how we compare internat ionally. As with everything, the Philippines has potential and has the talent to make it. As for whether we reach the mark, in most things, I think we still fal l a bit short. There are a lot of sick cats no doubt, like, in both English and Filipino and even in Bisaya. But I think a lot is lost in translation in the sen se that they get hooked up to the wrong hiphop from the West. America sends us w hoever their mainstream artist is, and that 's what the people listen to. At the s ame time there's a different demographic that doesn 't even get exposed to that. But what they're exposed to is a bunch of groups that took their own direction in hip hop and didn 't bother to know where it came from, and knowing where it 's gone. If you know where something came from, where it 's gone, and where it can go, only th en can you really come up with your own hiphop persona or whatever, your own mus ic, your own stance, your own ideology, whatever. Because little do you know tha t you could be saying the same shit that this guy already said, that a hundred g uys have already said. And in a sense, there 's nothing wrong with that, but you've got to advance things, of course. You can 't get stuck with the same concept. What do you look at when judging a battle? Quality of punch lines, basically. You ca n break it down in any which way you want. There 's delivery, there's flow, there's rh yme scheme, cadence, timing, swag. All that shit. Where do you want to take Flip top going forward? Basically, right now, we just want to gain exposure for every one else, and whatever we make from this, it 's just going back to the projects an yways. If some day like we have enough money to actually fly over some good hiph op acts from the States, and sponsor the event, then why not, right? At the same time, we'll have the sick cats here performing. We 'll have workshops so like peopl e will exchange ideas and shit. Basically, anything that 's hiphop-related, but st

ill done sort of like guerilla style. www.fhm.com.ph/entertainment/interviews/article/3376