Children of the Sun, Music Video

I had the privelege of being on my friends' group Deep Foundation's recent album on a joint called Children of the Sun, a track both in homage to Golden Age rap posse cuts ("here we go yo! here we go yo!") and to the legacy of the Philippine struggle at home and abroad. The original song sampled is the legendary Filipino folksinger Heber Bartolome's Tayo'y mga Pinoy (We are Filipinos), a patriotic anthem from the late 1970's when opposition to the brutal Marcos regime was at its pinnacle. The song is dedicated to the memory of the late great Pinoy rap pioneer Francis M.

A few quick references explained in my verse:

• "Rise like Bulol..." - Bulol is the god of rice to the Ifugao people of the mountainous Cordilleras in Northern Luzon, Luis Francia in Eye of the Fish describes the great rice terraces as rising in obeisance to Bulol.
• "high like Apo..." - beautiful Mount Apo is the highest point in the Philippines, 9,692 feet.
• "oo, bayan ko" yes, my country.
• "My lola's tears fall and water this tree" lola, grandmother.
• "Pinatubo of our perils...", Mount Pinatubo, which erupted with disastrous effect in 1991, destroying some of my relatives' homes and livelihoods in Angeles City
  
• "lay siege to the Palace, see..." Malacañang Palace is the president's residence and was stormed by thousands of people in the 1986 "People's Power revolution" that deposed Marcos
• "DF, my kasamas..." DF, my comrades...
  

I haven't been performing nor working on music that much lately for a variety of reasons, and yes the sometimes inescapable draw of the hills among them. Chiefly though I tend to work in great spurts, ebbs and flows, in frenetic creative sessions at 3am...momentum seems to be everything. The vibrance and importance of this video really struck me and is giving rise to a current of ideas. Hopefully I can manifest the better ones into being. Be on the look out, it's high time to bring hip-hop to the heights!