My album review for “Bukas Uulan ng mga Bara” was originally published on the FlipTop website back on April 24, 2019, but the site went down for a few years; once it was revived, it was reuploaded on the site on November 17, 2021. A lot of my opinions about the album are exactly the same as it was back then, so you might as well read the old review here in the FlipTop website. Let me just do a quick retrospective here to make it worth your while clicking on this article.
I was late to the hip-hop train given there wasn’t really any strong hip-hop presence in my neighborhood as a child, so I never got to hear much of it aside from mainstream breakthroughs like Salbakuta and Andrew E.; all of that to say that I never grew up hearing Kemikal Ali or BB Clan. It was only in the 2010s that I heard about him from friends and idols who absolutely revered him for the legend and pioneer that he is; basically the first to incorporate mutisyllabic rhyming in the hip-hop scene before Loonie and Ron Henley perfected it in the 2000s. And there was a certain subtlety to how he did it; he wasn’t quite the flashy rhyme exhibitionist that the Stick Figgas were, but the way he structured and worded his lyrics made them naturally rhythmic, and he had a vast vocabulary full of now-uncommon words and old references, using them string together rhymes that were uniquely his own. And the stories he told made the funny absurdities of Filipino life seem so cinematic, no wonder he made Filipino action movies the theme of his album. I became a lifelong fan after watching his BUNMB album release live; I was so passionately enamored by newfound fandom that when Anygma hit me up to ask if I was down to write said album review, I immediately said yes, and the rest was history.
To this day, this album is a fan favourite among Uprising’s hallowed halls of dope releases, with the final track “Bolo Brigade” becoming one of the most iconic posse tracks in Pinoy hip-hop. To me, the true value of BUNMB is that it’s the most impressive display of an old head from the 90s showing that he can still adapt to the modern hip-hop boombap and trap sound while still keeping the core of his classic style intact. This is the hip-hop equivalent of George Foreman becoming the world heavyweight champion of boxing at age 45. More than just a celebration of a successful union between old school and new school, this album is also a celebration of Kemikal Ali’s life story as an emcee; of how he rekindled his flames after nearly being smothered by the harsh realities of life, and how he came out blazing once given another chance. The track “OTW Na” hits different once you understand where and who it’s coming from.
Nowadays, Kemikal Ali can be found performing at gigs, memeing online, and still enjoying the culture he helped build. He’s also working on his new album under Uprising, which I’ve heard snippets of from their gigs. Look forward to that, because there’s always new things we can still learn from old masters.
Rayneman's Terms 