Get To Know Indonesian Hip Hop Music History Through This Dance Mix Ft. Iwa Okay, Black Skin, NEO & More

From Iwa Okay and Jogja Hiphop Foundation (JHF) to Rich Brian and RAMENGVRL, hip hop in Indonesia has, like its Southeast Asian neighbors, showcases numerous storytelling, typically centered in native tradition and expressed by means of its varied regional languages similar to Javanese, Betawi, and Sundanese.

Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir famous in his Representing Islam: Hip-Hop of the September 11 Generation guide that the Indonesian Jogja Hiphop Foundation (JHF), “believes that traditional Javanese wayang kulit (shadow puppet theatre) and gamelan music form solid bases for hip-hop to build on.”

Cinere, a city in South Jakarta, was the primary hub of the native rap scene, house to Guest Music Productions, a manufacturing home based in 1989 (which finally rebranded to Guest Music label in 1998). In the Nineteen Nineties, they collaborated with Musica Studios to provide seminal Indonesian rap albums, together with pioneering and best-selling rapper Iwa-Okay’s Kuingin Kembali (translation: I Want to Go Back) from 1993, Topeng from 1994, Kramotak! from 1996, and 1998’s Mesin Imajinasi (translation: Imagination Machine), in addition to rap compilation albums.

While at its core, Indonesian hip hop shares the tenets of self-expression and societal commentary with its American counterpart, author Nico Colombant famous in a 1997 article “Iwa-K and his Cinere Posse” for Indonesian Observer that the early Indonesian hip hop tackles themes divert from intercourse and violence however, not less than for Iwa Okay, “talks about love, social situations, and sports.”

Kamaludeen additional posited in his guide that JHF, “focuses their lyrics on the internal problems of their country. They emphasize social issues and rap about poverty and youth. A number of their songs have become anthems to fight corruption” and together with one other group Jahanam (Destruction) has countered state censure of rap by “position[ing] themselves as custodians of their ethnic culture and heritage.”

Artist supervisor Masaru Riupassa mentioned, “A lot of people think that rap is talking about violence and sex, but rap is just talk and you can basically talk about anything you want… The problem isn’t getting the good tunes on tape, it’s making sure they sell. As for our image, we’re not gangsters, but we won’t back down from saying what’s wrong with everyday society.”

Many outstanding figures in the course of the Nineteen Nineties, together with former president B.J. Habibie criticized rap, saying (by way of information journal Gatra), “The younger generation shouldn’t want to be enslaved by an aspect of foreign culture [with] which isn’t even liked in its own country. It’s not even appropriate over there, much less in Indonesia. It’s not suitable. . . . I don’t agree with it because it’s of no use whatsoever, especially for the young generation.” He went additional and described it to Kompas as crude and alien to Indonesian tradition and values.

In his 2005 article, Rap in Indonesian Youth Music of the Nineteen Nineties: “Globalization,” “Outlaw Genres,” and Social Protest, creator and professor Michael Bodden argued that whereas the importation of and “powerful attraction” to hip hop—a world industrial tradition—threatens to erase the draw to “rich variety of traditional musical forms” from Indonesian youth, it’s a much more complicated.

He wrote, “It is a story in which particular aspects of global commercial culture, although certainly displacing elements of previous traditions, may also be seized upon and deployed in specifically local struggles. These genres serve as weapons of social protest and/or as expressions of a desire to create a new social space or even identity that flaunts its difference from or rejection of the kinds of social identities and behavior authorized by an authoritarian government and the dominant social groups in society.”

In this video dance-directed by Felix Huang and choreographed by Semmy Blank and Vicky Mahreza, we go down reminiscence lane with simply six iconic tracks from Indonesia’s vibrant hip hop tradition.

Tracklist (combine by Leztey):