Noel Cabangon, Gloc-9 receive Platinum Record Awards

Platinum Singer-Songwriter Noel Cabangon and OPM Rap Genius Gloc-9 are undeniably two of the biggest OPM acts of today.

Last Sunday, May 4, during “ASAP 19,” Universal Records Managing Director Kathleen Dy-Go awarded Noel Cabangon with three record awards – Double Platinum for “Byahe,” Platinum for “Tuloy Ang Byahe,” Gold for “Acoustic Noel,” his latest release.

MUSIC LYF: Gloc-9’s Myx Music Awards bodes well for mainstream Pinoy music

Gloc-9 won four major awards in the Myx Music Awards 2014 (MMA2014), the most for any artist who was nominated.

But what is more important about this win, is not so much the fact that Gloc-9 won in four out of six categories that he was nominated in, nor that he won four times more than any other artist.

It is that Gloc-9 won it for a song like “Magda.”

The idea of Magdalena is not new. The legend that is Freddie Aguilar introduced us to “Magdalena” in the early 1980’s, a folk song about the plight of a girl who was misunderstood because of the work she was forced into doing. In the Aguilar song, Magdalena is seen as “sawimpalad,” living a wretched life, where her story is one of choicelessness.

MUSIC LYF: Gloc-9 has outdone himself in Liham at Lihim

Last year, Gloc-9 scored big when he released his single Sirena (featuring Ebe Dancel) became a phenomenal hit and a critics’ favorite. Sirena, which tackles the life of gays in a different and inspiring light, also became the favorite collaboration song among the biggest live concert artists like Regine Velasquez, Ogie Alcasid, Noel Cabangon, among others.

The album Mga Kuwento Ng Makata, which scored a Gold Record award for its outstanding sales, also included the hits Bakit Hindi (with Billy Crawford), Hindi Mo Nadinig (with Jay Durias), among others. The said album was named Album of the Year in the recently-concluded Star Awards for Music.

MUSIC LYF: Gloc-9 rises with “Magda” from Liham at Lihim

We might say that Pinoy rap is going through a revival. What we must know is how different Gloc-9's kind of rap remains, regardless.

At the heart of Gloc-9's icon is the fact of his creativity. This is a rapper who dares writes songs from nation, trailing an eye on the things we fail to see, listening to words no one else hears.  

If the first single off his new album Liham at Lihim is any indication, then Gloc-9 has again raised the bar for songwriting in general, Pinoy rap in particular.

A collaboration with rock icon Rico Blanco, “Magda” is Gloc-9's storytelling at its best. For one thing, he doesn't take on the persona of Magda; instead he speaks as Ernesto, telling the story of Magda – the little of it that he knows. For another, Magda's story doesn't unfold easily, where many things are left unsaid, and much of what is truth happens in a letter. This is also why Gloc-9 thinks “Magda” the best choice for a carrier single, given the CD's title.

But Magda's complexity, as Liham at Lihim suggests, is borne of the fact that she is trapped in what she does, and we cannot understand why. Gloc-9 doesn't insist that we understand it, but through Ernesto we are being made to see the sadness in this situation, the nostalgia for the past, the longing for better.