Kiko

I woke up Friday morning with news of Filipino rapper and actor Francis ‘Kiko’ Magalona’s death that repeatedly came to me through email, facebook, multiply alerts and even ym messages. Until today, I was asked if I knew of Kiko’s untimely death…This somehow proves how much impact Kiko has among pinoys. Blogsearch that day (Yes, I checked) stretched to 100, with approximately 1,379,841 results in 71 seconds! Kiko died of Leukemia which he has battling with since the last quarter of last year. He kept a blog to document his ordeal, keep in touch with fans and inspire others who are undergoing the same condition. His last post was on January 14th about his 4th Chemo cycle, to which 3003 comments were posted (and is still adding up!)…

As a rapper,  he wrote his own songs with tracks that tackles mostly nationalism and respect to other in an upbeat hiphop pinoy rap…appealing not only to the youth that was our generation but adults as well. Until now, his ‘Mga kababayan‘ (My fellowmen), ‘Man from Manila’ and ‘Kaleidescope World’ are songs I can sing from memory.  Although I doubt if it really had so much effect on us listeners since I know and remember Kiko in one word, ‘cool.’  The way he dresses up and carries himself, the way he changes facial expressions, the way he sings, raps, and hosts…plain coolness.

I can’t clearly recall when were Kiko’s albums realeased, but I do remember that my older brother who was in highschool and is 4 years older than me bought all of them hence the reason I hear them almost everyday. A part of the song Mga kababayan that I remember most goes:

Respetuhin natin ang ating ina
Ilaw s’ya ng tahanan;
Bigyang galang ang ama
At ang payo n’ya ang susundan;
At sa magkakapatid,
Kelangan ay magmahalan –
Dapat lang na pag-usapan
Ang ‘di nauunawaan.

A call for changing back to being the respectful young pinoys we once were that Francis himself might have noticed or encountered…

In his blog, Kiko mentioned that he respects Rizal and what the hero did for the Philippines, no wonder nationalism is instilled in him and later on manifested in his works.

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Here’s a part of my most favorite FrancisM song, Kaleidoscope World:

Every color and every hue
Is represented by me and you
Take a slide in the slope
Take a look in the kaleidoscope
Spinnin’ round, make it twirl
In this kaleidoscope world…

(photo credit: IGMAtv)