Cultural Product Analysis

Fliptop

Hiphop, Streetdance, and now Fliptop. Fliptop is when two competing parties battle using clever lines and insults. The most clever and humorous insults win. The winner does not get any prize, he or she only gets fame and “bragging rights”.

Fliptop is a relatively new concept here in the Philippines. It was brought over by 22-year-old Aric Yuson aka. Anygma. He is the son of the very popular writer, Alfred Yuson. From the get go, he has always been interested in battle raps in the U.S. He brought the concept here, because he aims to progress the art of emceeing, and to educate the people on the culture of hiphop.

Fliptop started gaining popularity in 2010, when youtube videos of Filipino men insulting each other with rhymes using either Filipino or English surfaced. The rhymes were so amusing and clever that it amazed crowds and viewers. Some video’s got so popular that they reached more than 10 million views. There is no solid institution for Fliptop. Currently, it is still mobile. Anygma, the founder, and with his friends collaborate and organizes Fliptop events.

I choose Fliptop, because first, it is timely. Fliptop has only risen to stardom in 2010 and it continues to grow until today. Second, with its use of social media, it has received over 10 million views in Youtube. It did not get endorsers or get a time slot on national television to get its famous. It used social media and the power of gossip or word of mouth. Third, I am very interested on how it is so raw, because the battle rappers do not have any written down rhymes to rap. They think on their feet. And, its this amazement that attracted me to right about. To analyze Fliptop, I will be using Post-modernism and Post Cultural theories to dissect the product.

For post-modernism, one characteristic of Fliptop that I found is that there is no grand narrative. A battle wrapper can say anything to his challenger as long as it is insulting, has a main idea, and is funny. Also, each battle rapper has a different style of attacking his opponent. Second, Fliptop is very subjective even though there are rules. This is because judges who are also battle rappers and who are part of battle rap groups are chosen to choose who the winner is. It is only up to the judges to decide when party has given the most amusing and insulting lines. There is no handbook or written criteria of what a battle rapper should say to win. Third, Fliptop creates its own definition. Fliptop cannot be classified as Pinoy hip hop or Balagtasan or Jeje. Fliptop creates its own niche along side these categories and it continues to develop its own. It is not Pinoy Hiphop, because it does not aim to create music. It is similar to Balagtasan, but it has no grand narrative. And, it is not Jeje, because in many ways it is a mix of both those who are deeply influenced by the American Culture, and those who have the “ghetto” experiences that can rap. And lastly, Fliptop challenges Filipino culture, because “the Filipino is known to be non-confrontational” according to Anygma. The mix of the passive Filipino and the aggressive Fliptop, makes the Filipino to aspire to express themselves in a non-violent manner.

In contrast to the last postmodern idea, it pushes the shy and conservative Filipino to speak about their differences in order to create a string of words that are humorous, and intelligent. It is not the custom of Filipinos insult other people face to face. We are considered one of the happiest countries even in times of despair and disaster. We also make fun of our politicians rather than insult them. This is a theory from the French Cultural Studies, specifically the Carnival by Bahktin, wherein parody is used to undermine the hegemony. Fliptop uses the theory of Bakhtin where it uses amusing insults to make the insult more acceptable, because for Fliptop, the more humorous that more insulting. 

For post colonial, Fliptop is definitely a western idea, masked by the oriental language. As said by the founder, the battle rap in America inspired him so he brought the concept here. He merged the Filipino culture with battle rapping and created fliptop that uses both English and Filipino language. Fliptop is the hybridization of two cultures.

For a Fliptop video, I will analyze the content of the words said in the battle of Anygma and Dirtbag Dan. Anygma is the founder of Fliptop, while Dirtbag Dan is the president of Grindtime, the original battle rap league where Fliptop was copied from. In this event, it is Anygma’s first rap battle. Anygma started his one minute with references from economic class, and the disparity between the economies of Filipinos and Americans. Dirtbag Dan answered with references with pop culture, such as Manny Pacquiao and boxing. He also dropped racist comments. Anygma’s second round was in the theme of socio-economic and political with references from nurses, corruption, and history. Dan answered with homosexual and again pop culture remarks, with references from Cebu prisoners, and Shabu users. Anygma then started with religious and historical metaphors. And in his third minute, he expresses what he thinks about the Filipino society. This is the penultimate where he uses Fliptop to raise awareness on the depressing Filipino Society. Dirtbag Dan answered with very “shallow” insults that only attacks Anygma. He does not try the same strategy as Anygma, because he is not in his environment.

Fliptop made a huge impact via social networking websites, like facebook, and youtube. But, it is still not as popular as those in daytime television. Because of the type of people that organize and are avid fans of Fliptop, it cannot be considered as a mass cultural product just yet. Even thought there are a lot of groups that rap in and outside of Manila, some of them can’t cut through the language barrier, and the tryouts that some of the organizers conduct.

On the other hand, after seeing the battle of Anygma, the founder Fliptop, and, Dirtibag Dan, the head of GrindTime, it made me see Fliptop in a whole new light. Anygma, in his first battle rap, exposed his truths and reality through insulting is counter part, which is an American. He indicated culture, corruption, and our government to express how he strongly hated Dirtbag Dan. On the other hand, Dirtbag Dan didn’t play it in Anygma’s level. Dam kept it light and amusing, because for him that was the only point of the battle. Anygma’s very insightful and realistic raps placed him on a different platform than Dan.

Anygma’s battle rap with Dirtbag Dan, ignited a spark of anger in me towards the Americans, because he indicated a lot of issues concerning U.S. and the Philippines today. Anygma’s rap showed true battle rap credibility, as well as true nationalism.

  

Overall, the Fliptop culture still needs to expand to achieve its goal of education. It cannot be compared to the strong culture of Jejemon or conyo, because it didn’t originate from a group of people with in the country. Its only footing here is the hiphop and rap inkling of the people. In addition, the organizers themselves are hindering the growth, due to tryouts and the use of language. Even though, battle rappers use Tagalog as the language of rap, the organizers and the viewer themselves do not use this language. This makes those who are interested, but cannot converse, shy out of the competition. Truly, Fliptio still has a long way to go to achieve the Jejemon status it aims for.

Lectures: Laguna Folk Culture and Politics of Festivals

Laguna is one of the nearest provinces in Manila. It is the province where our national hero was born and raised in. And, there are a lot of hot springs in Laguna. For the most part, these are the few things that I know about the province.

To start the whole field trip, we first went to Colegio San Juan De Letran in Calamba to hear Ms. Rica Palis talk about the popular culture and folk culture of Laguna. She shared that Laguna is filled of culture and arts, but the people’s connection to it is declining. She shared that there are many factors that contribute; a few of them are globalization, political interference, and economic demands. First, globalization is slowly creeping in and influencing the population to adhere to different points of view and styles. Western has become more hip, while Laguna’s culture is turning into old news. The lack of government support has also lessened cultures stability. The funds for culture and arts have been shifted to fiesta’s that are too extravagant and has lost the true meaning of the town. Economic demands are shown by the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) wherein they stress that each town have one commodity different from the other town in the country.  These factors continue to loosen the connection of the people to their culture.

I actually admire Ms Palis for recognizing these problems, and doing her best to stop its continuation at the grassroots level.

The other lecture we had on our trip was by Dr. Levita Duhaylungsod on the politics of festivals. According to her, the government imposed that each town would have one fiesta celebrating either their patron or promoting the commodity they are really good at. According to her, this does not contribute to enriching the culture and arts of the town, but promotes economic gains are more of a reason to celebrate than giving thanks. Her example was the three towns we visited: Liliw Lusiana, and Lucban. The town of Liliw, which is known for slippers or tsinelas created a festival celebrating and promoting their identifying commodity. Lucban, a town rich in commodities such as longanisa and agricultural products, have been celebrating San Isidro for centuries, but due to the demand of the government they changed the name to Pahiyas. While in Luisianna, a town that has neither a commodity to celebrate or a fiesta to promote, created its own fiesta to adhere to the wishes of the government. They saw that Pandan was a good commodity, so they created the Pandan Festival to celebrate it. Looking at the three examples, the town of Luisiana was the town most affected, because it had no culture of ever producing Pandan products and having a Pandan festival. Ms. Duhaylungsod stresses that economic gains are the producers of culture in our society today. It is sad that the demands of the people matter more than hundreds of years of tradition.

After visiting the towns and understanding the lectures of Ms. Palis and Dr. Duhaylungsod, I was depressed at how our culture is changing not for the better. By basing our culture on the economy, we will be producing children that believes based on money. I believe that there must be reform and more people like our two lecturers who sees these problems.

Liliw, Luisiana, and Lucban

Our field trip also required us to observe different towns in Laguna and Quezon. Provincial towns are very different from the bustling cities. Towns are quieter, laid back, and more community based than cities. They have Plazas as their community center. They have lone standing shops and the market to buy and sell products. They also have their church as their center of religion and spirituality. Towns also have a smaller population than cities.

The first town we stopped by was Liliw, Laguna, the tsinelas town. This town is really small. They have small roads, and quaint houses that was converted into stores. The people present were tourists from other towns with the agenda to buy shoes. Vendors were also present in inviting buyers to come into their store. Shoes are not the only commodity being sold, Kesong Puti, belts, wallets, knives, and many more are being produced. The small but bustling town also had restaurants to cater to the travelers.

Most of the people, like us, were busy looking around and buying shoes. The vendors, on the other hand, were busy haggling with their customers for the prices. Other mobile vendors follow tourists and to present their products. Over all, the town is a market place due to the commodities being sold.

The main forms of leisure found in Liliw are shopping, eating, and bonding with friends. I didn’t really see a plaza where people can just sit or children can just play. Most of the children played on the streets.

Very different from Liliw, Luisiana, Laguna is a bigger town. When we arrived, the first thing I saw was the big plaza that was being repainted. They have big road, but there wasn’t that much cars. It wasn’t as bustling at Liliw. Luisiana was a very quiet town. In the plaza, we noticed different types of people enjoying the sun. There were teenage boys and girls who were practicing their skate boards. Children from ages 5-10 were playing with each other, climbing the statues around the plaza, while, old men and women were sitting around the park benches soaking the fresh air and the sun.

Other than these activities, people were also inside the cultural products store buying commodities only found in Luisiana. Vendors were also selling goods that came from other towns. We, also, heard karaoke in the building beside the plaza during the midday. This means that people like to have fun and entertain themselves during siesta time.

Lucban is the most energetic out of the three. It was also much more advanced because they have establishments like our inn, restaurants, and goods stores. Their streets were also filled with cars, busses, jeeps, and tricycles. Different types of people are present, walking around the town. Children were playing at the Jose Rizal Plaza, teenagers were busy talking to their friends or manning their parents’ stores, and the adults were busy running errands for their families. During our stay, we also watched a wedding inside their church. There were also tourists that we saw going around and taking pictures. Most of their activities revolved around either earning or entertaining themselves.

The main form of entertainment were eating out, talking to friends or chatting with family members, and drinking. Similar to Luisiana, we heard karaoke all around. This means that people like to socialize and interact.

The three towns had very different characteristics, ambiance, and people. All of these defined the type of establishments that would exists.

Community Aerobics Culture

Gym is an essential part of my day. I believe that going to the gym is healthy living. Inside, other than using weight to gain muscle, group exercise like Zumba, street dance, and Pilates, are offered. These exercises do not only make you lose weight but makes you light and happy after. It promotes holistic living.

In our fieldtrip, we were tasked to observe an Aerobics class outside the gym. Community aerobics is when people in one area come together to perform dance like exercises. These are headed by either volunteers or paid instructors. The two community aerobics that we were tasked to observe was the Aerobics inside the mall, SM Calamba and aerobics in a university, UPLB.

The Community Aerobics inside the mall started at 7 pm in the evening, but by 6 pm we already saw women from late 30s to 70s in their aerobics clothes walking around and chatting. The composition of the Aerobics Class was mostly women with some gay men. Mostly, the women are from ages 40 and above, but there were some from 16-25, maybe because their mothers dragged them along. Most of the people are from high middle class to lower middle class.

The participants didn’t look super excited, but they weren’t apathetic as well. They followed the instructor with vigor, but some due to old age had a hard time. Surprisingly, none of them sat down early because they were tired.  The people watching were amused. They didn’t express that much emotion in their faces, but they were really interested in watching. The people who were watching were a mix of men, women, and children passing by.

The songs the instructor used where mostly fast dance songs from the late 80s until today. This is to cater to the participants so that they know the beat of the song. She used fast paces western dance and aerobic type of movements.

The community aerobics in the UPLB campus, on the other hand, is very different from the one in the mall. First of all, it has a different time. Campus Aerobics started at 6am in the morning. When we arrived in the school, I was surprised that there were a lot of people who got up so early for their morning work out. It made me feel out of place because I disliked waking up early.

The people in the UPLB aerobics felt like a true community. Men, women and maybe LGBTs from different social backgrounds, such as students, and middle to low income families go to the campus to work out. They looked like people who live very near the campus too. The ages of the people range from 16 to late 50s.

The participants looked very excited and ready to work out, some still looked sleepy, while other are unsure if they want to join. In the hall, you can’t really see the people who are not joining, because if you go in you already choose to join. Some do peak inside the hall and see what type of exercise is being done. They look very interested, but quite shy to join, so they just jog alone or do a different exercise.

The major difference of the aerobics inside the mall and the campus was the content of the exercise. In the campus, different instructors taught different types of exercises. They offered western to eastern styles of work out using songs that match. It was very enriching to see that people still integrate these styles, because we are almost overshadowed by the west.

Overall, the different community aerobics we watched gave us an overview the different types of people who live in Laguna. Some adhere to the western style, while other still stay true to the orient.

Community Aerobics Culture

Gym is an essential part of my day. I believe that going to the gym is healthy living. Inside, other than using weight to gain muscle, group exercise like Zumba, street dance, and Pilates, are offered. These exercises do not only make you lose weight but makes you light and happy after. It promotes holistic living.

In our fieldtrip, we were tasked to observe an Aerobics class outside the gym. Community aerobics is when people in one area come together to perform dance like exercises. These are headed by either volunteers or paid instructors. The two community aerobics that we were tasked to observe was the Aerobics inside the mall, SM Calamba and aerobics in a university, UPLB.

The Community Aerobics inside the mall started at 7 pm in the evening, but by 6 pm we already saw women from late 30s to 70s in their aerobics clothes walking around and chatting. The composition of the Aerobics Class was mostly women with some gay men. Mostly, the women are from ages 40 and above, but there were some from 16-25, maybe because their mothers dragged them along. Most of the people are from high middle class to lower middle class.

The participants didn’t look super excited, but they weren’t apathetic as well. They followed the instructor with vigor, but some due to old age had a hard time. Surprisingly, none of them sat down early because they were tired.  The people watching were amused. They didn’t express that much emotion in their faces, but they were really interested in watching. The people who were watching were a mix of men, women, and children passing by.

The songs the instructor used where mostly fast dance songs from the late 80s until today. This is to cater to the participants so that they know the beat of the song. She used fast paces western dance and aerobic type of movements.

The community aerobics in the UPLB campus, on the other hand, is very different from the one in the mall. First of all, it has a different time. Campus Aerobics started at 6am in the morning. When we arrived in the school, I was surprised that there were a lot of people who got up so early for their morning work out. It made me feel out of place because I disliked waking up early.

The people in the UPLB aerobics felt like a true community. Men, women and maybe LGBTs from different social backgrounds, such as students, and middle to low income families go to the campus to work out. They looked like people who live very near the campus too. The ages of the people range from 16 to late 50s.

The participants looked very excited and ready to work out, some still looked sleepy, while other are unsure if they want to join. In the hall, you can’t really see the people who are not joining, because if you go in you already choose to join. Some do peak inside the hall and see what type of exercise is being done. They look very interested, but quite shy to join, so they just jog alone or do a different exercise.

The major difference of the aerobics inside the mall and the campus was the content of the exercise. In the campus, different instructors taught different types of exercises. They offered western to eastern styles of work out using songs that match. It was very enriching to see that people still integrate these styles, because we are almost overshadowed by the west.

Overall, the different community aerobics we watched gave us an overview the different types of people who live in Laguna. Some adhere to the western style, while other still stay true to the orient.