Hikarimoji : Past & Present

Chapter 1 : Hiphop

I have always been a typography lover, even since in my childhood days. I had several sketch books for typography. Back then, I love to sketch logos of famous brand names such as NIKE, ADIDAS, PUMA, etc. Not just copying them, but I redesign it, mash it, mix and create something new with it. More like crossovers of brands. I only love typos, I didn't sketch human figures, cartoon characters or anyhing else. I tried, but it didn't look very good back then haha! so I just concentrated on typo's and logos until I turned 16 when I found Hiphop + Graffiti. That was on 1997, hiphop influenced took me by storm. An alim kampung boy like me whom only listen to mainstream radio got hooked to Rap back then with local group like KRU, 4U2C and Nico.
Until 1997, I got accepted to a technical boarding school in Seremban N9. One of my best buddy, Eddie back in Batu Pahat further his O level studies in one of the respected school in Brickfields KL. One weekend around Feb or March 1997 , I can't really recall, Eddie invited me to stay at his place at PJ and I say what the hell. Seremban to KL just an hour trip by train. So, I packed and went off. I'm pretty excited cos that will be the first time I went to KL by myself! Arrived at Templar Park, Eddie picked me up. He drove a Suzuki Vitara (that was super coolness back then). He got Wu-Tang Razor Sharp Sticker at the spare tyre case cover on the back of his jeep. HAHA! how cool is that???? **but I don't know nothing about Wu back then. As I enter the jeep, I heard one song that changed my life, It was "Bone Thugs N Harmony's  - Tha Crossroads". I said to myself, ooooo this is something new. BTNH release East 1999 eternal on 1995, so it wasn't new laa.. but for me its new la because first time heard of it maaaaaa.... hahahha.. Eddie introduced me to his CD's (T_T) lotsa 'em .. back then I got hooked with BTNH and Cypress Hill. Thats when Hiphop sparks my life.
The journey when smoothly when 1997 I discovered Project AK and 1998 Poetic Ammo released their album, and it went heavy rotation on my walkman aside Butterfingers Butterworthpushful (I'm a Butter fan also! hahahah). After my SPM , I got to further my studies at ITM Shah Alam with my homeboi Asri, Aidy & Mamal. There I met Rashdan of Northsyde. It was Asri the first to bought Too Phat's Whuttadilly CD , I only afford to buy the cassette cos I don't have a CD Walkman back then. Rashdan sold me DJ Altimet's Mixtape and Teh Tarik Crew's Are We Rap Stars Now EP. For me it was the golden age of Malaysia hiphop back then. Everyone is just starting of, and everything is fresh, hiphop underground scene is developing. Cats are excited about it. Back then , we can count peeps wearing oversized baggy jeans and shirt with Nike or Jordan Kicks with MLB fitty cap. haha! good old days.
MiRC is the hottest social network back then. It's was many MC's training and battle ground when KEYSTYLING is spawned from Freestyle battle + Internet. Altimet is the reason I wannabe an MC , I started of joining my homebois MiRC channel #emcee and polish my lyrics writing there. Entered a rap comp in 2000, stuttered and lost. But I made many friends since.
I chilled with my homebois a lot, Asri, Aidy, Mamal, Wawan and Cjay when I was studying at Sunway. We love to dream to be rapstars , rocking stage and we have our own street slang and stuff haha. One day, Asri came out an idea to form a rapband an it is called PSB CREW (P______ Sendirian Berhad) << go figure what P stands for HAHAHAHHA,  and we all was like.. okay, but how in the hell we are going to get a slot in a hiphop gig? 2-3 weeks after that day , Mamal called me and said that his faculties is holding a talentime night and asked us whether we up for it or not. I said what the hell, we practised everyday what? ** By practising means , Asri drove a Kanchil , when we went hanging out somewhere, Asri will pick us and drove us to the destinantion. Along the way, we will rap+sing our hearts out. I ,Asri and Cjay will seperately take a rap verse, while Wawan, Mamal and Aidy will take the chorus and RnB part. I named his car Phat (Fat) Mobile. Sometimes I called it "Vocal Booth".
Okay, back to the story, we agreed to take enter the talentime, and we chose " I need a girl pt.2 - P. diddy" and "Always on time - Ja Rule & Ashanti". For the Ashanti part, we had Asri's friend Lyn to sing for us. She was our first female member of PSB. At the talentime we are the only group that perfoms hiphop songs! others a re like love ballads songs and old school Malay rock songs. We was like .. Oh Shitt.. what the heck. Haha.. at first the crowd smirked at us, they made the "what? what? what?" face but you know what, we get on stage and rock it. The crowd start to hype and they started waving and bumping thru the beats.. HAHA! even the organizer committee was amazed by our showmanship.
We didn't get to the finals due to the lack of honesty and sincerity of the judges. Most of the finalist are arboks and friends of the judges. We were devastated + sad and so pissed off. when the results were announced, the crowd started looking at us and they said, Why PSB didn't get to the finlas? It was a quite drive back home in the Phat Mobile. We crashed at Asri's place. Right after sesi ngumpat the Talentime judges, Asri's phone rang and guess what? The organizers appologised with the doubtful results and ask us to close the Talentime right after Reefa's performance. We say WTF?.......REEFA? ..............THE REEFA? hahahahha we did the fat woman dance and said HELL YES! hahahahaha. At the Talentime's Finals, we met Reefa & Floor Fever Crew. There I met Abone and Boojae. Reefa told us that he was amazed with our showmanship and told us to keep going cos we have pottentials. At the talentime also, a Hiphop gig organiser at Penang approached us and offered us our first ever appearance in the underground Hiphop world. There we performed with big names like Ruffedge and MOB. and PSB has been rocking underground joints around KL until 2005 =).

stay tuned for Chapter 2 : Graffiti