By VIVIENNE WONG
alltherage@thestar.com.my

VIOLENCE and misogyny – that’s what most Malaysians think hip hop is about, according to rapper Jin Hackman.

It’s been decades since the local hip hop scene first burst to life, and still people think it’s all about gangs, explicit lyrics and, for the lack of a better word, prostitutes.

“To me, it’s the same with movies – you have your violent and misogynistic content in the movies too, because it’s entertainment,” said Hackman.

The truth is, the hip hop scene in Malaysia is not so much about beef and bling, and more about community and art. “It’s just a matter of digging deeper into hip hop and looking for the stuff that you like,” added Hackman.

And that’s why Hackman created hip hop collective Raising The Bar – to show people what Malaysian hip hop is all about.

Hip hop heroes: The team behind Raising the Bar: (from left) Jin Hackman, Mash, Mastermind, Mr. Dan, Dae and Al Caponey. Uno is not in this picture.

What Raising The Bar does is perform, organise events, curate performances for other events and whatever else it takes to boost the local scene.

And here’s the best part – they do it purely out of passion. All seven members of the team have full-time careers or businesses outside of Raising The Bar. They hardly make any money out of it.

Hackman started assembling the team in 2010, and the current line-up consists of familiar names on the scene – Mash, 27, Al Caponey, 31, Dae, 20, Mr. Dan, 28, DJ Mastermind, 31, and Uno, 26.

One of the main things they do is a monthly event – also called Raising The Bar – which is held at The Bee in Publika, Kuala Lumpur.

With the local hip hop scene still relatively small, but with a hard-core following, the team created the event as not only a platform for artistes to perform, but also a “family gathering” for the hip hop community, said Hackman.

But what makes Raising The Bar truly special is that any hip hop enthusiast – from established artistes like Joe Flizzow and Altimet to “bedroom rappers” – has a chance to be invited to perform. Hackman has even invited completely unknown rappers he heard on SoundCloud and YouTube.

In fact, Dae, a South Korean student studying in Malaysia, got involved in Raising The Bar when he just walked up to Hackman at one of their events (where he was manning a booth to sell another DJ’s CDs) and asked if he could get a slot. Now he’s their resident sound engineer, and he DJs as well.

Raising The Bar events are all about the five pillars of hip hop – MC-ing (rapping), DJ-ing, beatboxing, b-boying and graffiti. As much as possible, all five art forms are represented every time.

On top of that, the shows often have different themes. “We have a throwback to the 90s, which is an old school tribute, and we bring people in to cover their favourite tracks from that era. Once in a while, we’ll buy canvases for graffiti writers to spray on based on the theme.”

These days, Raising The Bar draws a crowd of around 300 every month. They’ve been invited to curate and provide acts for events like Urbanscapes 2013 and Future Music Festival Asia 2014, where the team themselves were scheduled to perform (the event was, of course, canceled).

Dae’s DJ group, Headshell Heroes, performing at a Stussy/Raising The Bar event. Dae (right) is one of many unknown hip hop acts discovered through Raising The Bar.

But none of it would have been possible without the late Alda Evan Tan, a musician and friend of the team who passed away two years ago.

It was Tan who proposed the idea for a hip hop night, which was initially supposed to be a one-off event. It was such a success that Hackman decided to keep it going. And just like that, local hip hop history was made.

Up next, Raising The Bar will be at Festival Belia Putrajaya on May 23 to 25 to host Back To Basics, a series of six hands-on workshops on rapping, DJ-ing, b-boying, graffiti, beatboxing and beat-making.

And next January, their annual Raising The Bar festival will be back. According to Hackman, they are trying to secure at least two international hip hop acts to perform alongside local artistes.

Grow, baby, grow
Although the community is still small, Hackman feels hip hop in Malaysia has nevertheless grown, and is more diverse now.

“The music videos look amazing nowadays, and the local acts have definitely improved over the years,” said Hackman. “Now it’s just a matter of educating people by exposing them to these acts because there are only a few radio and television stations that play local stuff.

“Ten years ago, the hip hop scene was all in English. Now there’s also Tamil, Bahasa Melayu and Chinese hip hop. You should listen to the Tamil rappers. They are really fast!”

In fact, Raising The Bar has inspired a Tamil equivalent, called Tamil Rhythm And Poetry (TRAP). It’s for emerging and established Tamil rappers to showcase their talent and passion for hip hop.

Mash, from Raising The Bar, said a lot of Malaysian Tamil hip hop artistes now are being flown over to India to record soundtracks for major movies.

But without proper exposure, Hackman worries that these talents might go to waste. The talent is there. All they need is a chance, like the one hip hop artiste W.A.R.I.S from Negri Sembilan got.

After his first performance, W.A.R.I.S was signed by DJ Fuzz to his label, Mixology Music Malaysia. His debut single, Rembau Most Wanted, went on to get three million views on YouTube.

“At the end of the day, there’s only so much we can do,” said Hackman. “We still need people with strong influence to help propel these young and talented guys into the limelight.”