Buat Relax Je Lah
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I trended again on twitter. but probably for all the wrong reasons. Which resulted in numerous blogs and people in the media who wanted to interview me today. (all of which ive decided not to entertain simply because i believe the whole situation was ridiculous to begin with). Because of this whole ‘drama’ so many people just got to know me and made some crazy assumptions. So the following blog is really a no-holds-barred brief about my life and how i truly started. If u know me and how i started u dont have to read it… if you dont, read on….
Here’s the thing, i’ve been doing this since i was 16. My close friends know this, my family, my cousins, and people in the music industry know it. Even my so called ‘rivals’ Joe Flizzow and his Kartel know how deep my roots go. This blog would probably get personal but i feel this is the only way people will get to know me for ME.
Right off the bat, i wasn’t born rich. My family isnt rich. My dad is a government servant, a diplomat, so i was blessed with being able to travel the World at an early age. We were with the Malaysian embassy, its a job, so we traveled and woke up every morning with the Malaysian flag hanging on our roof in countries like Algeria, Jordan, and France. Like any traditional Malay family, religion was important wherever we were but so was my academics. Fast forward to the last few months in high school, my love for music resulted in my parents and i having numerous fights and arguments to the point in which i graduated without anyone being around. I did the IB Diploma, had good grades, but i did it just to make my parents happy. Since no one showed up to my graduation because i told them i didnt want a scholarship and i wanted to do music, i realized it was the time to take a leap of faith.
By that time, my dad was posted to Venezuela and i could have gotten a scholarship to study in the States. but i didnt. i ran away. stole RM300 from my dad and moved in with DJ Nas-T (who was in the hit tv series Kami and numerous TV shows) in Subang for about 2 weeks. Eventually i had to earn a living and worked at Rehan Stat as a phone customer service guy. 9 hours a day just calling people. pay was crap. RM700 per month and by this time i had moved into a flat/apartment called SD Court in Kota Damansara.
My house-mate was Dimas the keyboardist/producer from the band HUJAN. At that time HUJAN was at their infancy stage. we were all hustlin trying to get by and by this time i was under the wings of Cat Farish of Ruffedge and we were all trying to make music and perform. Unfortunately the reality of the Malaysian music industry kicks in and i realized this was not going to be easy. Dimas eventually left SD Court and i had to move in next door with a very humble Indian couple who rented me a room for RM100 per month.
I joined a few competitions, won & lost, and from some money i saved, i registered my first company Koncept Studio Enterprise for RM75 at the SSM and began operating a small studio at the back of my friend’s sister’s wedding shop in Taman Tun. from there i made abit of money from recording artists, or aspiring artists, did voice-overs, and corporate jingles.
Fast forward a year later, by the time i was 21 years old, i had my 1st hit single and buzz off “Dem Girls” and “Fantasy Girls”. my company grew with the help of some businessmen i met through meetings, and my love for business tagged along. Caprice Productions Sdn. Bhd. was born and i moved out to Kelana Jaya. i fell in love with doing business and in the course of 2 years, i secured 2 contracts that allowed me to float / survived to the point where i decided to quit college (Kolej Damansara Utama) after 3 semesters.
i just love doing business. i love making music. i love shooting and editing videos. i took a leap of faith after high school, call me crazy, but i truly and sincerely believe in every single thing i do simply because of passion and faith. i hope that one day all of this struggle, hustle, and work will pay off so i could make my parents happy and change our lives around.
I rap and make music based on my experience, my environment, and surroundings. Actually, my first single was based on my struggle at that time but that song never took off or became a hit. So i decided to rap about the next thing i was very familiar with: girls. And you can call it poyo or whatever you want but i was dating ALOT of girls at that time and started off wayyyy to early for my age. ( and i dont want to name-drop your favorite female celebrities but i did date alot to the point where i got in and out of trouble). i admit when i was younger i was quite arrogant, girls come and go, and i may have hurt a few with unstable relationships. but now i realized it was unstable only because the rest of my life was unstable. unstable business. unstable financial. unstable me. But rapping about girls, love, women, relationship was a format that worked. and when something in business works, what do you do? u just keep doing it. and if you look at the top 10 charts of any country or even the U.S, 7/10 of the songs would be about love, women, girls, relationships, etc.
Fast forward to now. the current. my music grew, my following grew, my fan-base grew, my business grew, syukur alhamdulillah for all of the above. But it came with struggle and sacrifices. However, one thing i realized was that as i grew, so did the controversies, so did the beef, so did the problems, so did the drama. i cant stop people from talking about me. i cant stop people from making assumptions. i know and understand how it looks. “oOoHh mamat ni poyo, speaking speaking lebih, ramai awek dalam video clip dia. confirm anak orang kaya” and i think that is the catalyst of why some just get annoyed to the point that would attack me online or offline.
And the infamous line “Prince Of Damansara”. i dont understand why so many could get butthurt or terase over a fictional position. it was a line used in my song “Thinking of You” and the story behind the song is based off the book/movie Prince of Persia how a commoner from the streets ended up falling in love with a royalty. And thats how it really was. i fell in love with someone who was well off, lived in Ampang, had everything in the World but she was very much a common person like myself. And at that time until now i still consider myself a commoner just hustlin trying to get by with a bigger dream.
And it sucks when people judge you off one song like “Thinking of You” or “CHIKARO” or “Fantasy Girls”… those are merely chapters in my life. snapshots of times. good times. fun times. cray-havoc-banyak-aweks times. So you happen to stumble on chapter 15. “CHIKARO” with an infectious beat, alotta women, and im rapping how a girl got me hypnotized yada yada. But why dont you go back to chapter 1 “Losing Faith” or chapter 8. “Tuhan Tolonglah with Rahim Maarof or chapter 18. Andainya Aku Pergi with Alleycats how i rap about my struggles in life, losing a friend to a car accident. but you dont. you just see one snapshot of my life. i dont care if you call it poyo. im sorry if it comes across as poyo. this poyo just happen to go on alot of dates and ended up rapping about it. but i also rapped about my struggles, about 2 friends who i used to rap with, had a similar dream, who passed away in a car accident. its just that you didnt choose to see these other chapters. or it didnt become such a hit. or a radio station didnt want to pick it up because they felt it will no do well in the market. “sorry ah Caprice the single is too sad/dark”
But that is life. people can pass a judgement on one snapshot of your life and from there make all kinds of assumptions. i dont blame you. i dont ask you to sympathize with me, i just want you to understand me.
For good or bad, my music has attracted the attention of people from all walks of life. from fellow rappers, to music directors, to respected royalty figures.
To the haters, i cant stop you from hating. but i hope you understand that this is me. im doing what i love and i love what i do. i put my 100% in everything i touch and its off my own blood and sweat. my roots go deep and my struggle only me and Allah truly know and discuss. As for Joe Flizzow and his Kartel, ive lost all respect for them for the childish way they handled the situation. he could have reached out to me, or defused the situation. i viewed joe flizzow as a bigger brother in hip-hop regardless of all the drama and beef. he knows it. i reached out to him all the time when his boys do stupid things or say stupid things. every time things almost got out of hand, we always had a conversation. a diplomatic conversation. and things get defused. but this time around, i finally saw his true colors. im disappointed but i figured that is how it has always been. my fault for being such an optimistic person.
To the people that support me, you have no idea how much it means to me. I’ve counted my blessings more than my losses and you’ve been instrumental in every step of the way.
To the people that just got to know me (especially after that twitter drama), i’m sorry i couldnt entertain all the questions about me but i hope this blog post will clear some things out.
I’m gonna continue pursuing my dreams, doing what i love, and i encourage others out there to do the same regardless of how tough it gets. i’ve been through all kinds of struggle and drama, and two nights ago was by far the craziest simply because of the people involved.
I do this for me, i do it for my family, and i do it for my fans. In troubled and confusing times, aku redha je… i believe in this life or the next, the truth will eventually come. Insyallah.
Salam.
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We trended again. my music video CHIKARO was played at the end of one of the highest rated show on Malaysian tv and soon after, my name became a trend on twitter. I still find it awesome how through music we could bring people from different age groups, ethnicity, and backgrounds together. thats why i love what i do.
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EPIC. look at the two in the middle and replay this video over and over again.
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PURPOSE- today something clicked inside of me that’s been on my mind for the past year and a half. Purpose.
For the past 4 years of my life, i didnt quite know why i was doing things the way i i did. i just do without ever thinking twice. sometimes that yielded good results, other times it landed me in trouble. i didnt know what the bigger picture was at that time. I did things simply because i believed in it. Whether it be the songs i’ve released, the videos i’ve shot, the businesses i set up, the businesses i lost, the charities, the shows, the artists i tried to build up, or the deals i’ve closed or lost. i just did what i wanted to do. i was motivated by something else. It wasn’t the fame. it obviously wasn’t the money (although my dreams are too big and my bills are insane so i gotta hustle 3-4 times as hard). But today it hit me.
I realized i genuinely wanted to help the youth. somehow. someday. i felt like it was gonna be in my face eventually. Today someone offered me to lead a long-term project without putting any money on the table. no offer, no numbers, just driven by a vision. and it was a vision i realized we shared since the day i decided i was going to skip college, hustle, and build my own path.
You can find money any day if you wanted to. you can clock in at 9am and clock out at 6pm.
A vision can only be built by people who are willing to temporarily ignore money, personal wants, and make sacrifices based on something they do not know, but believe in. i never studied music. i sure as hell dont have a degree in business. i was never trained or coached. i just experienced. good or bad i believe sometimes you have to be thrown in the deep end of the pool to find your way up. coz then you can tell people how deep it is.
From there you find a purpose.
and when you have a purpose, you build value. and value is something people will pay for not right now. not back then. but later.
Salam.
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heading down to Seremban for a meeting & later catch my nenek. no matter how far you go, where the World takes you, at the end of the day, the roots is where the heart is.
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MY THOUGHTS ON THE CANCELLATION OF ERYKAH BADU’S concert
I tweeted it earlier, but i thought id just elaborate it further from how i see it. i would blame The Star newspaper for publishing the picture of Erykah Badu with the ‘Tattoo’ with the word Allah. I mean why point it out? The media controls what the public sees, so if they never published that photo, then no one will even know about it, no one will even care.
And lets be honest. Majority Malaysians dont even know who Erykah Badu is.go knock on your neighbor’s door and see if they knew who Erykah Badu was prior to The Star newspaper publication. Instead of highlighting something controversial, The Star should have published about the awards she won, the lives she touched, her movement. win the people over. hype the concert. the art.
In the end, you educate the public on good music and an artist who i consider a big icon in music. At the same time, it means good business for the event organizers and promoters. its a win-win. But no… they chose to take one small picture to define her and highlight that prior to her concert.
So when they do that, OFCOURSE its going to create an uproar. OFCOURSE it’s going to be controversial. If my nenek sees that someone with a TATTOO of ALLAH is coming down to Malaysia, OFCOURSE she will be against it. majority mass Muslim Malaysians will be against it simply because of the controversial picture.
and OFCOURSE political parties will jump on this. this is like an open picnic field day for parties like PAS! (Think of how many concerts they tried to stop). and if this concert had gone ahead after that controversial tattoo picture, OFCOURSE these politicians will go back to their areas and preach of how messed up and unholy our government is. BUT ONLY BECAUSE the Star had highlighted the picture. prior to the publication, NOONE knew about the tattoo. not even ME!
But that picture isnt what defines the artist. but because The Star highlighted that point, it became the majority’s FIRST IMPRESSION.
The unfortunate reality is, the people who appreciate music & art are a minority in this country.
I dont blame the Minister for making that decision. i blamed the media who DECIDED for some shit reason to highlight that picture. THE MEDIA killed it for the small minority who wanted to appreciate the concert for the majority who didnt even know about her to begin with.
The minister will obviously be pressured by grassroot Malays/Muslims and the masses to take actions. We are but a minority who understands music, the art, and who participate in buying music. the majority doesnt. We have over 28MILLION people in Malaysia, less then 10% participate in the buying of music. do the math and go figure.
But how can we ever cultivate a healthy music & arts industry if we never educate? thats the problem. you gotta teach from the ground up and cultivate. but you decide to scare people.
and for the majority who just found out about Erykah Badu, like my nenek, my ustaz, my mom, or my neighbor, they completely agree with the cancellation. its sad but its true. but only because some smart ass in the media decided to highlight one picture. they will never know the music or appreciate a real artist like Erykah Badu.
Salam.
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myself, Whats Up Entertainment, the crew, the ladies, so check out the official music video to my latest single #CHIKARO only at www.youtube.com/capricetv
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the first song i recorded after school (2007)
Arwa Shafeeq was friend, a brother, and we shared the same dreams. i swear he had the whole Eminem vibe on a lock. We hung out alot shortly after high school and when i started my first studio, we would jam till late. this was the first song we did… at that time, this was deep.
RIP you will always be remembered. Al-fatihah.
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THE BUSINESS- the first shot at running my own business way back in 2006/2007. i was just 18 but being away from home and later finding out having a big break in my music wasn’t going to be easy, i registered Koncept Studios Enterprise for RM75 at the SSM and began running a small studio alongside my good friend / producer Rafikoncept.
At that time this room was at the back of his sister’s wedding / bridal shop in Taman Tun. This was shortly after Astro’s Blast Off i began engineering sessions for upcoming artists, singers, high school & college students. I manage to buy half of the equipment (including the cut-out cheap soundproofing) from the money i won in Blast Off as well as ALL of my savings. crazy leap but i also needed to find a way to record everyday without spending anymore money! So i was able to record whenever i wanted when there was no clients.
This was on the same row as Pasar Raya Taman Tun, CIMB Bank, and right above Star Enterprise. The landlord was a real pain i would be late on paying the rent (RM800) on months when business was bad.
Most of the money i made went on dates, movies, McDs, McFlurries. lol. bad business decision. best dating decision. O.U was my playground since it was nearby i didnt have a car or a bike so i’d tell the girls i met on friendster to meet me there straight. Malu doh tak boleh ambik ke ape.
This was probably the only picture of this studio i had. it wasn’t fancy hence the lack of pictures lol…
