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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 4, 2016.

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THE Raising The Bar Festival (RTB) is Malaysia’s foremost and only hip hop festival, and in its inaugural edition last year, the one-day event brought in a respectable 2,000-strong crowd. Not a bad result for a home-grown and grass roots event by two young people who decided they wanted to give the local hip hop scene a more prominent platform. 

“Jin just woke up one day and said, ‘Hey let’s do a festival’,” says co-organiser Adriana Saleh, referring to her partner Tang Eu-Jin. “People into the hip hop scene were really hungry for it I think,” she says of how ready everyone was to come together. 

Sitting at a local café, the engaged young couple has an unassuming air about them. In fact, 28-year old Tang, better known as independent rapper Jin Hackman, speaks in a distinctively down-to-earth manner quite unlike the “swagger” reputation that comes with this music genre. Tang leaves that attitude for his freestyle rap battles, some of which can be viewed on YouTube.

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But they are dead serious and unwaveringly passionate about raising the profile of the Malaysian hip hop scene. “We decided to do it, because nobody else was doing it,” points out Adriana, who also raps under the stage name Al Caponey. 

“Before Raising The Bar, there were some hip hop-centric events that championed independent and underground hip hop. But they slowed down after a couple of years, and there was never a big scale festival,” says Tang. 

RTB started as a one-off gig around 2008 when Tang was asked by a friend to organise a hip hop show for a venue’s open slot. The response was so good that it snowballed into a monthly event, eventually becoming a full-fledged festival in 2013. 

“In the initial stages, we were just having fun with it and liked seeing like-minded people come together to enjoy live music,” recalls Tang. He realised the significance of the platform later, when both established and up-and-coming acts were keen to showcase their original material.  “There is a severe lack of avenue for that here,” he adds. 

The RTB founder says that there are more rappers and original local hip hop music than ever today, but they mostly remain under the surface due to lack of mainstream coverage. Thanks to digital advancement, local independent acts are getting increasingly accessible and inclusive. 

He acknowledges that for a period from the late 90s to early 2000s, Malaysian hip hop music came to the forefront of mainstream music with acts like Poetic Ammo and Too Phat. “It’s not that it went away, but the novelty wore off,” he explains, “So we need to keep doing new things.”

There’s also an underlying reluctance among the artistes to “sell out” by going mainstream, and the duo pinpoints that, along with lack of funds and support, to why the abundance of talents in Malaysia do not translate to success. 

“I also think people feel intimidated by it, because it is a lifestyle as well, and they think you must dress a certain way or walk a certain way to participate, but that’s not how it is anymore,” says Tang of how the culture has evolved. 

While the festival brought together the hip hop ‘fam’ (family) and community, the duo were encouraged to see new faces at the first festival. “I hope with this second one we’ll see more unfamiliar faces,” says Adriana. “It’s going to be bigger and better, and more organised.”

“We had no idea what we were doing before, but we are way more prepared now,” laughs Tang. The duo has roped in a small team, and aims to grow the annual festival to become the go-to hip hop event in the region over the next five years. 

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Running for 12 hours on three stages at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (klPac), RTB Festival 2016 features a more streamlined line-up, with several more prominent international acts, including hugely popular South Korean underground rapper Okasian, Parisian hip hop beatmaker Onra, and Heems from New York, to name a few.  

“But our focus is still on local acts. One of the stages is the Scratching Post, where the DJs will play, and we try to balance out all the acts between the other two stages,” describes Tang. “It will also be a strong visual experience, especially on the main stage. We are also doing projection mapping with 3D effects along the DJ deck.” 

A flea market will also be open to the public, with food vendors, a mobile barber shop and even a graffiti section for those who want to try it out. 


Raising The Bar Festival 2016 will be held on Jan 9 from 12pm to 12am. Tickets are available at www.ticketpro.com.my for RM88, or RM150 for 2 and RM360 for 5 person. To find out more, visit www.facebook.com/RTBMY. 

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