The adventures of Quickie

Once upon a time there was a boy named Juan Michael Vincent Tupaz, who spent part of his growing up years with his family in San Francisco, US of A. His main activity was walking several miles to and from school. It was a long walk but he enjoyed it very much as he ran and skipped and leapt over fences.

It was during one of these walks that he saw a cassette tape somebody probably threw away lying on the street. Curious, he picked it up. It was an album by somebody called Run DMC. Still more curious, he played it when he got home. Lo and behold, it was an album by one of the greatest rap groups of all time. It was love at first cut for Juan Michael Vincent and suddenly he knew what he wanted to be when he grew up – a rapper.

Now, the dream of becoming a rapper is not at all like wanting to be a doctor or lawyer or CEO of a large corporation. Take note too that this epiphany happened way back in the late ’80s. Rap then had already become a phenomenon in the US but was still not a viable option for Pinoy artists who saw it as a truly American music form. I do not think his decision made his mother, Linda Tupaz and stepfather Matt Ranillo III happy, but he had made his decision.

From that time on, the boy spent most of his spare time writing songs of all sorts. And luck was with him when rap acquired a Filipino identity with the popularity of Francis M and Andrew E. But, as he soon found out, getting there will not be easy and he would have to spend a lot of sweat and tears and maybe even blood.

A couple of independent recordings as a soloist and with a group failed to do the trick for Quickie as Juan Michael Vincent had decided to call himself because the word sounds cute and naughty. But he never gave up, continued writing and recording until he had put together a demo of what he considered his best work. Then he started to make the rounds of the record companies.

Sony was quick. Andrew E. was then recording for the label and they didn’t see the need to take on another rapper. BMG was interested but didn’t think his work would be able to get any airplay because of his suggestive lyrics. The people at BMG claimed to be religious and did not want to have anything to do with his kind of rap. Alpha never called back. Neither did Concord.

A glimmer of hope came from OctoArts and it was there that Quickie spent the next seven months hanging out with the A&R people and fine-tuning his work. Then one day, the bad news came. There had been a change in management and the new people were no longer interested in Quickie. He was never signed to a contract so he was left out in the cold.

Despondent, he decided to try one more time. He would go to Universal. The address he had said Caloocan. He was in Cubao. It seemed so far and he was so tired he just didn’t feel like going anymore. But he was only a few blocks away from Viva Records, which he had consciously avoided before because it had several rap acts already under contract.

So he went to Viva, left his demo tape thinking nothing was going to come out of it. But he was called back a couple of weeks later and offered a contract. His first album titled XXX-tra Service with the single Bitin si Honey and 11 other tracks was recently released. And just his luck, its arrival in the market coincided with the new rap music explosion. Quickie is now a star.

P.S. He did get several callbacks from the other record companies after rap music again topped the hit charts and word got out that he was with Viva.

Meanwhile Rap Attack at the Malls, Viva Records’ massive market onslaught into the field of rap music continues with shows featuring Salbakuta of S2PID LUV fame plus other leading rap acts like EHP, Razzamanazz, Kruzzada and Quickie at Ever Gotesco Commonwealth on Saturday, June 22; Robinsons Novaliches on Saturday June 29; and Robinsons Imus on Sunday, June 30.