Grizzle Grind 2nd Anniversary

Grizzle Grind's rap workshop 

After registration, as I was on the way to find the News Letter Room, I saw Shigga Shay right before my eyes! His squatting down looking at some speaker-like thing, I didn't really saw what it was. The first thing that came into my mind was, "IT'S SHIGGA!! HIS JUST OVER THERE BUT I CAN'T TAKE PHOTO WITH HIM, THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT TIMING!"

Meekly, I went into the room and the first word that came into my head was, "SHIT!". It was all guys and they were all well donned, majority hip hop style. I was there like ok I am just in my slippers, t-shirt and jeans. DAMN PAISEH!! I was thinking so this workshop only guys interested but heng after that got a few girls came in.

Before they came, just as I stepped in and took a seat (beside a angmoh woo), they were half way through doing self-introduction. The one before me, introduced himself something like "...I am a stage singer..."  then I was like "woah siao liao all got huge background one, then I am like a nobody there". So with a few seconds to think before my turn, I quickly rehearsed a few sentences of what I am going to say. My goes like, " Hi my name is Kellin, I have no rap background. I find rapping quite interesting and cool so I came here." I guess my introduction was sort of like that.

Charles (when he introduced his name I was like "Wa Charles~~ it have a certain aura and impact when his name was said, quite a unique pronunciation and he got this ang moh slang) was the one doing the talking at the start and Lineath (his name also quite unique, I didn't heard of such a name before. He's involve in the producing of music) later on, they are from the Grizzle Grind crew. The both of them were in charge for the Rap Workshop. We were seating in a circle arrangement. Occasionally, some of the other crew members would come in and join in at the back, where they were listening too. There were two of them that took photos and videos of us in the middle of the workshop.

I kept fidgeting in my seat especially my fingers. Like when you're nervous you would kept scratching your nails or touching your stuffs like hand phone case. Even the slightest movement, I felt like I was being watched under so many pairs of eagle eyes. AND I was the only one wearing slippers and the rest were in covered shoes. The workshop was rather short as it came to an end at around 3 plus from 2pm, I wanted to hear more from them. In their discussion, they were saying all sorts of weird terms or artists' names which I knew none of them so I was rather lost and confused.

I had more respect for the crew after today's workshop as it was not easy work to simply rap, rapping looks enjoyable but behind the scene it is actually tons of hard work, years of experience and efforts to it. Initially, I just thought that GGC was just a bunch of boys singing/rapping but it was more than that. They know their thing and put in hard work to all of their work. Most importantly, you could see the enthusiasm in them.

During the session, Lineath: "Any questions?". Me, looks into his eyes and used my mind to transmit the message that I have something to ask and open my mouth slightly. I rehearsed my question in my head too LOL cause I thought I did screw up my sentence if I did not repeat it in my head. My question was "For freestyle rapping, how do the lyrics just flow out from your head?" Lineath: "I am not really good at freestyle rapping but we have a pro at freestyle rapper here! (points to another guy)" which was Fakkah a comedian and he was asked to demo LOL. After that, they when into going in a clock wise direction where each person shows their rapping skills with songs they had written before or anything they want to rap. I guess you could already thought of what's on my mind, "Siao liao". As usual, Charles was the first to start off. Half way through his rapping I felt slight tears welling in my eyes (luckily never tears come out, how embarrassing it would be) as I got to experience a rap live in front of my very eyes from real rappers. I was in a room with many great rappers and I get to hear raps from them personally with my own ears, what an honour!! The groove and swagness of rapping that I always got the feels for them.

Lineath let us hear some of his random rap recordings that was in his phone. Woo not everyone can hear the raw recordings! Lineath: " Don't laugh ah!" One of the message they want to give us was just start by writing down the lyrics whenever you thought of one. Rapping includes, lyrics writing, production of the piece and performing it live is another completely different stuff. There are many different styles of rapping, it takes time for us to find out what kind of rapper we are. Like Charles, he focuses more on the lyrics with simple beats while Lineath and Shigga Shay does music that are more hyped. Some take a longer time to think of the bars, I am not exactly sure what bars involved. That's why I was confused even if they used simple music terms.

Here comes my turn, I just tried three sentences but not smoothly as I forgotten my lyrics that I came out with randomly in the past. I was afraid to share as I am 0% standard of a rapper. I like it but I don't have much real knowledge of what rapping is so I was afraid to rap in front of so many people. But I still did it cause I know I would regret not showing anything to them. Even though how paiseh I was feeling with not even half of the sentence said as everyone was listening intently to it. I even said shit halfway through. The attention was diverted to Fakkah when he sort of continued my song, it sounds not bad even though I can't really catch the lyrics.

As I was standing up and turning to leave for the door I gave him a slight smile as he returned a smile too (he was standing somewhere behind me), followed by "Why you so shy??". I told him I felt out of place as everyone was like... (don't need to finish the sentence, we kind of know what it means). After that he asked if I was going later on at night for GGC 2nd Anniversary celebration which I replied with a no as I came alone. I actually had some questions for him on our way out but the time seem rushed so didn't managed to ask. I had questions like "What do you mean by practicing? (He answered my earlier on question during the discussion. When Lineath asked if that answered my question, I just said yes as I don't really get it.) How do you practice your freestyle rapping?" and "How you guys do those hand gestures/arm movements when you guys rap?". After just merely saying that I am not going, I should have add on saying, "All the best for later!" I just said, "Thank You! Bye!". At least I get the chance to talk to him and see other crew members live!

Overall, it was a great experience to witness rappers rapping as I always find it really dope when people does so!

Charles ENERO

Lineath