Joe Flizzow's '16 BARIS' Is Inspiring Malaysian Youths To Showcase Their Talents
The hashtag #16Baris has close to three million social media reach!
By Jia Vern Tham — 30 Jan 2018, 12:32 PM
Joe Flizzow's new show is doing more than just showcasing Southeast Asian talents. Since the premiere of '16 BARIS', aspiring rappers have been posting videos of themselves online in hopes of getting invited to the show.
There's been almost 1,000 Instagram posts alone with the hashtag #16baris, and close to 1,200 tweets just from the last seven days!
The posts consist of videos from aspiring rappers, as well as netizens who support and share their efforts across both platforms.
'16 BARIS' is a collaboration between Kartel Records and Rocketfuel Entertainment, aiming to showcase up-and-coming talents from Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia
The cypher show, hosted by Joe Flizzow, invites both established and aspiring rappers to freestyle in 16 bars at Flizzow's very own barber shop.
Cypher shows are informal gatherings of rappers or beatboxers in order to jam musically together.
To date, the show has seen well-known names such as Aman RA, Airliftz, and in the latest episode, Altimet.
Since the show began, many have taken it to social media to showcase their talents using #16baris. One of them is Melissa, whose video garnered over 100,000 views in less than two days!
Melissa, who goes by @kungfuhades on Twitter and Instagram, has been dabbling in poetry in the past five years. She only picked up rhythm from her boyfriend later on, and learnt to combine both to form her passion for rap.
When #16baris started trending, her best friend encouraged her to post her video on social media. She never expected her video on Twitter to receive over 100,000 views in two days.
"I'm happy that through #16baris, people appreciate my art and poetry," Melissa said in an interview with SAYS.
"Never ever did it cross my mind that the Malaysian society would appreciate my smallest form of art," she added.
The movement is also inspiring young rappers like Prash to pursue their dreams as well as to push through their personal boundaries
Prash started writing poems since he was 16 years old without intending to make it a big thing for himself. When #16baris started trending, he saw it as an opportunity to put content out there and never expected the responses he received from it.
Speaking to SAYS, Prash said, “The trend is inspiring rappers to write and put out their renditions of 16 baris... they're more confident posting videos of themselves seeing other rappers doing it as well,".
Prash also said that #16baris would definitely push young rappers and singers to break their personal boundaries.
"For a newbie like me, it takes a lot of guts to post something like this," he added.
Prash's video now has close to 11,000 views on Twitter!
For Ash, who has been rapping since he was kid, #16baris boosted his confidence to return to a passion he’d abandoned two years ago
Ash has been rapping since he was a kid, but stopped two years ago due to studies and lack of inspiration. On top of that, hip hop wasn't as popular as it is now in the local scene. However, with the emergence of #16baris, Ash said that it made him think about rapping again.
"I'm pretty sure it also made a lot of people to either start to write and rap, or even start a career out of it," he told SAYS.
"Because of #16baris, a lot of my mutual friends are rapping now," he added.
Ash's video has over 7,500 views on Twitter!
There are only eight episodes left on Season One of '16 BARIS', which will be released weekly on the #16baris YouTube channel
This feature is part of the new #saysplaylist series, providing your playlist with a breath of fresh Malaysian air.
If you have any Malaysian bands, singers or songs that you think we should feature, let us know in the comments below!