“I wish we still had cassette players,” says hip-hop artist Fateeha. If there is a medium on which her new single “Kulet” could be played, this might just be it. Until the time comes when the cassette revival is no longer very niche, we can settle for hearing her song on major streaming services.
The problems that Fateeha describes in her new single have been around for a long time, and they continue to resonate. It wouldn’t be out of place for someone to hope that it plays on a medium connected with an earlier generation where corruption and poverty were very, very rampant. Fateeha says, however, that her song is meant to show how people like her have turned this sad state of affairs into “a vibe.” It reflects a lifelong concern of hers about how people get ahead in life with titles and money, she says.
Listen to "KULET" now! Click here.
With her collaborator DJ MADMESSIAH, Fateeha’s work highlights how hip-hop as a genre has been addressing the social issues of their time. Black American hip-hop’s concerns with urban poverty and policing have been well-documented, for example. Such a poetic medium has been embraced by other communities who have felt unheard and unseen in the decades after. In recent decades, for instance, Filipinos on both sides of the Pacific have taken to this genre, speaking about issues important to the community and the overall human experience.
Fateeha says that her exploration of the music of such rappers as Mos Def, now known as Yasiin Bey, helped inspire “Kulet” However, her breadth of musical interests includes the music of the early 1980s English rock band The Smiths and 1960s jazz. With these musical explorations stirring her creativity, we look forward to hearing from her again as an emerging voice in Philippine hip-hop.