Check out this article from Filipinas Magazine about five young men based in New York who are really making it happen.

Deep foundation get in touch with their Filipino roots in “The First Draft,” their debut album. Members of the hip-hop group, Deep Foundation, stood beneath the elevated tracks of the Number 7 train in Queens on a recent Saturday afternoon. Temperatures hovered around freezing, but five heads—covered by stiff-brimmed baseball caps—formed a circle and leaned toward the pavement. “Yeah, I’m coming from the motherland, hot like PI summer, man,” rapped 23-year-old Ryan Abugan, known as Hydroponikz. “My swagger be New York but my blood was brewed in Q.C.!” The lines are from the group’s debut album, “The First Draft.” Deep Foundation, or DF, whose core members are all Filipino from New York and New Jersey, released the album late last year and has spent the first part of 2009 on a tour of West Coast cities.

A series of videos featuring the album’s music have also just been released. For the group that was founded in 2001, the breakout album serves a dual purpose. “It represents the foundation of hip-hop that we believe in and our Filipino roots,” said Mark Malacapay, 26, known as Ill Poetik. Malacapay, whose family is from Bacolod, moved to New York from the Philippines at age 10. The album brings together a range of voices from the Filipino community. It features appearances by emcees Kiwi, from L.A. and the San Francisco Bay Area; Nomi, originally from Minnesota; and Ashley Robles of San Diego, who adds a much-needed female voice to two of the tracks. Her energetic singing carries the album to a close with the final line, “I’ll never forget where I came from.” The album also reaches across generations. “Children of the Sun (Remix),” the longest track on the album at close to eight minutes, samples the singing of Heber Bartolome from his 1978 song “Tayo’y Mga Pinoy.” For members of DF, the Tagalog song’s insistence on Filipino pride and respect in the face of what was a massive wave of commercial imports at the time, spoke to their own sense of resistance and identity. Ill Poetik emailed Bartolome asking for permission to use the sample in the new hip-hop song. “We are carrying the torch of what you’re doing for a new generation,” he remembers writing to the Philippine-based artist and singer. Not only did Bartolome agree to collaborate, but the correspondence led to a visit to the artist’s Quezon City home in January of this year. The musicians, from different generations and opposite sides of the ocean, talked about art and music for hours. One of those who joined Ill Poetik on the trip was DF member, CJ Guiang, 27, the only member of the group born in the U.S. “It was a true honor to meet this guy and to continue what he was doing,” said CJ. “To have his song in our music was an honor.” Much of the song explores the experience of Filipino immigrants to America. One verse raps: We’re nurses and doctors and engineers / working hard for the dollars and sweatin’ tears / But never fear just cause I’m living here / the pride for my people will never disappear / But the track doesn’t just call for cultural pride. It also pushes the conversation forward about what being Filipino in America means for a new generation. “My verse is a little like a critique of the culture,” said CJ, whose rap includes the lines: They only show light skin people on the TV screen / that’s why so many wish their skin was so white in their dreams / we avoid the sun and even use lightening cream / insecurely taking this obsession to the extreme / “I was breaking it down and saying, Wake up, we don’t have to be like this,” said CJ. “We can just be proud of who we are.” Loving Hip-Hop Deep Foundation came together through a love of hip-hop. In the 1990s, East Coast artists such as A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z inspired the young emcees, many of whom had immigrated to the city from the Philippines at young ages. “I grew up listening to Queens artists,” said Ill Poetik, pointing to the DF track “Late At Night” as a homage to that era. “It captures that early ’90s feel, like sitting on your stoop, thinking about things.” For Hydroponikz, the track is his fa-vorite on the album. “We all wanted to address what’s going on in the world and how we felt about it,” he said. The track has a breezy, reflective groove to it, with each emcee rapping about regret, hope and current events, such as the 2006 shooting of Queens resident, Sean Bell, by undercover police. A chorus hums: If you could see what I could see / you’d agree things aren’t what they often seem / If you could feel what I could feel / you would know why the world feels wrong to me / Yet, despite the influence of mainstream hip-hop acts, members of Deep Foundation also recognize early Filipino artists, such as DJ Q-Bert, as influences. Watching Filipinos excel as DJs and producers encouraged the young members, then still in high school. “It made you think that, wow, you could do this,” said Ill Poetik. Doing it meant forging a new vision, both as New Yorkers and as Filipinos. The path wasn’t always easy for the group. “I’m a New Yorker, I have that attitude, but I still carry those Filipino values with me,” said Ill Poetik. DF member Rosendo Pili, 24, known as Mugshot, said his family had a big influence on his progression as an artist. “It’s a unique perspective,” he said. “For me, my parents are very traditional, so they want to instill certain values on me.” But Mugshot, who composed and sang the hooks on a number of the album’s songs, adds that by growing up in Queens, his friends include people from all over the world. “I have influences from a melting pot,” he said. These diverse forces have found their way into his singing on the album. He cites the music of Al Green, for instance, as an early influence. In a music form where Asians are rarely seen on stage, however, Deep Foundation met resistance in the hip-hop community when they first started out. “I think people look at you a little skeptically, especially when they’re not used to seeing Filipino artists,” said Mugshot. But the criticism also came from an unexpected place: other Filipinos. “We’ve gotten a lot of comments from other Filipinos that we’re not Filipino enough or we’re trying to be black or we’re wannabes,” said Ill Poetik. “It’s just part of that colonial mentality.” The group addresses the issue head-on in the song, “Understand.” A lot of critics want to limit this as just another gimmick, the song opens. Then: If you ain’t listening then you’re probably missing what the message is. “The theme of this song is the misconception of being Asians,” said Mugshot. “This song is to say that this isn’t a gimmick, this is something that we’re really dedicated to.” Filipino Roots Although a love of hip-hop sustains the group, the experience of being Filipino has been a thread through the years. Even before the group officially formed, it had its origins in 1998, when Ill Poetik met Leiland Oquendo, 26, known as Proseed. Both of their mothers had been in the same nursing program in the Philippines. Michael Capito, a 24-year-old b-boy known as Suitkace, joined Deep Foun-dation to bring a critical element of hip-hop to the group: dancing. “I came to them because I came as a b-boy,” said Suitkace. “But they helped me identify myself as a Filipino.” When CJ, who lives in New Jersey, was attending school in the Bronx, there were very few Filipinos in the entire school. He often found himself struggling to explain his background to his classmates. That changed when he met other members in Deep Foundation. “When I found Filipinos in the ‘90s, I was excited,” he said. In addition to sharing a love of hip-hop, they shared another thing in common, traditional Filipino food. “They had the same thing in the fridge!” Nevertheless, Deep Foundation aims for a universal appeal. Much of their music hits on common themes of love, family and growing up in an urban setting. So far, it has struck a chord with fans. A growing number of Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike are attending live shows. “I love it when non-Filipinos come up to us and say ‘Yo, I’m not Filipino but I love that song,’” said CJ. That comes as no surprise to Mugshot. “The whole album really speaks about struggle and trying to get success,” he said, noting that the project has been seven years in the making. The time has finally come for Deep Foundation to bring its music to a broader audience, added Ill Poetik. “For us, this is just the beginning of what we want to do,” he said.