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Shuffled! is a weekly column appearing every Thursday here on BPRLive. Each week, we welcome someone from the APA community to share some thoughts about the music they listen to. Check out the Shuffled! archive for past articles.

Today’s Shuffler: EyeASage

EyeASage is a Pinay emcee born in Angeles City, Philippines, and raised in San Francisco. Her love affair with the spotlight began as a young Hip-Hop dancer in the early 90s, armed with a Salt N Pepa cassette tape and a recurring role as the youngest b-girl in the crew. As she grew older and the path of Hip-Hop took a more aggressive turn into Gangster Rap, she struggled to continue her love of music and still find a place for a young woman to be herself.

It wasn’t until she entered San Francisco State as a journalism undergrad that she began to appreciate Hip Hop again as an active participant, giving up the choreographed dance routines for a microphone and a chance to make up for lost time. She began learning about her culture through ethnic studies classes, organizing with the League of Filipino Students, and reclaiming her identity through her writing. While organizing, she met Irene Faye Duller aka Shorty Rocwell of the 8th Wonder crew, and along with fellow organizers Valerie Francisco (Sho Shock), Natasha Pineda (Sola), and Liezel Rivera (Zelstarrr), they formed the Rhapsodistas in 2004.

Growing weary of Hip-Hop’s direction, she decided to fill the void and make music that balanced her city upbringing with social commentary. She’s been featured on the Native Guns Stray Bullets Vol.2 Mixtape, Bambu’s I Scream Bars for the Children, and Roscoe Umali’s I Love My DJs street album. Her first mixtape, Married to the Hustle, was released on February 14, 2008, and she is now working on her solo debut album, Rocky Rivera, to be released in 2009. You can hear her music on and on her Myspace Music Page at www.myspace.com/eyeasagemuzikpage.

Now for the shuffle…

“Sensual Seduction”
Snoop Dogg
Yes! This was my ringtone for a while. Forget about Kanye, this jawn got the ball rolling on the whole Auto-Tune movement that T-Pain revived. I love how Snoop can do no wrong at this point in his career. West Coast Baby!

“Seven Months”
Bambu
How can I not love this song? It’s about me and my son =) I have a lot of Bambu’s music on my iPod, obviously, but this song was written when he and I first found out that I was with child. While I was going through the emotional rollercoaster that was my pregnancy, this song reminded me how important it was to have a partner that understood our struggle in the community and wanted to make it a better place. Plus, there are not that many songs that chronicled what a father goes through when he first finds out that he’s expecting a baby. It’s beautifully written, emotional, and Kahlil knows that it’s a song for him because he’s been hearing the melody since he was in utero.

“L.E.S. Artistes”
Santogold
Thank G-O-D for Santogold and M.I.A. They brought back music with innovation and spawned a whole slew of copycats while they were at it. It’s so amazing to see these powerful women of color selling out venues, breaking the mold, and transcending the limitations most artists face when marketing their music. Their talent is undeniable. This song is great because its making fun of all those pretentious people in the hipster haven of the LES in NY, but what’s ironic is that I hear Urban Outfitters bumping this shit hard! So not only is she talking shit, but she’s so good at it that the people she’s talking shit about are the ones that are buying her album. Gotta love it.

“Caked & Screwed”
EyeASage
Well, look what we have here…my new remix. How convenient. I wrote and recorded this a couple of weeks ago because I am a huge T-Pain fan and the instrumental was off the hook. I wanted to write it from a woman’s perspective – how she can have her own thing going on, fall in love, have a baby and it changes everything. It’s definitely meant to be tongue-in-cheek, not self-referencing or serious. It’s funny! My cousin and I got this whole movement going on called the “Love Hater Movement” that urges people to “cupcake responsibly” and put yourself first before your relationship. So many people think that love is the bottom line, and it’s so counterproductive for humanity! In order to have a solid family foundation, each partner needs to establish their own identity and ambitions separately. Then and only then will they be able to appreciate each other and not use their relationship as cheap therapy only to mess up the next generation. Trust me, I got whole philosophies based around this shit!

“Wake Up”
Pacific Division
I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Like, Mibbs, and BeYoung through a story I was writing and I am a believer in their music. They are bringing back Hip-Hop and the West Coast in a way that needs to be seen by the rest of the world. There’s a certain earnest, lighthearted feeling I get when I’m listening and I’m optimistic about the music coming from them and their contemporaries such as B.O.B., Blu and Kid Cudi. It makes me proud of Hip-Hop again. I think they’re going to be huge, and knowing them personally, they’re good guys, which makes their music even better.

Last 5 posts by shuffled

• Shuffled! North Star of the BROWNSTAR Revolution - December 10th, 2009
• Shuffled! Pen Khek Chear - November 25th, 2009
• Shuffled! Maanav Thakore - November 19th, 2009
• Shuffled! Jerry Ma - August 13th, 2009
• Shuffled! Tanzila Ahmed - August 6th, 2009

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