It's not a surprise to find Andrew E. hollering up on the finer points of pop culture, Filipino or otherwise. It's in his rapper's interest to do meticulous research on just this sort of thing, nicking off bits and pieces from the psyche of youth and serving them up in soundbyte chunks in the in-your-face idiom of hiphop.

People who know Andrew know that this local boy takes his hiphop seriously, and is trying to find ways to legitimize the genre in a Filipino context. Since 1983, when he saw a black guy rapping in a gas station near Subic Bay, he has been fascinated with hiphop. "You'll really discover a lot about black culture when you listen to rap albums," he says. The much-maligned use of slang--particularly the subject-verb disagreement ("Give me a rap song that has an 's' ending the verb!")-- is a celebration of the rhythms of ghetto speech as well as defiance of the white man's crusty use of correct grammar. "The whole thing is really a process of loving one's culture," he adds. "Like that bit about 'never correcting my broken English.' We can identify with that."

On his third album, WHOLESOME, Andrew E. marries hiphop's conventions with his hilarious take on Filipino culture. Just like his alter ego, Andrew Ford Medina, the rapper on WHOLESOME trains his wit and powers of observation on everyday life. The sly rhymes, the social signposts, the knowing twitch on Pinoy culture all mix in a crazy quilt run riot in Andrew E.'s trademark "bastos" style (think "Binibirocha"). Whether it's women unlike any other ("Baņo Queen," "Malupit,"), self-important guys asking for their comeuppance--at the hands of Andrew E., of course-- ("You Don't Know Me," "Top of the World") or, um, pleasurable pursuits ("Rubber Dickie," "Fax Me"), Andrew E. draws from both personal and public experience to tell hugely entertaining stories littered with low, off-color humor and buffed up by heavy doses of rapper's braggadocio. Just like the best of today's hiphop, the tracks feature resung hitmakers: "Bano Queen" is sung to the tune of "Stand By Me,"; "Malupit," to "Whip It, Baby." Some songs have necessary musical references, based on mischievous wordplay -- "Fax Me," from "Touch Me In The Morning."

From the get-go, WHOLESOME is one long laugh track. The listener is rewarded with puns, wicked plot turns and never-fail one-liners. Even the rapper's intended objects of ridicule will find it hard not to chuckle. Andrew keeps his verses double-tongued enough to turn the tables on anyone who may take offense. 'Maggie," for example, is full of suggestive come-ons that come off as perfectly innocent: Maggie, akin na! ... kakainin ko na... ang iyong food! Maggie, akin na!...kakalikutin ko na...ang iyong kotse!

"I'm pretty proud of that song," says Andrew E. "Because I proved to myself that I can write a naughty song without saying anything naughty. Para mong pinagalaw ang utak nila sa wala."

Although he claims that "ito na ang pinakabastos na album ever," he dares anyone to find anything offensive about it. "I have yet to give a single centavo for every bastos word I used in the album," he declares.

"Hindi mo maaamoy yung bastos kasi naaaliw ka," he continues. "If you listen to the songs and nakatawa ka, I don't think you ever found anything offensive." And to anyone the least bit scandalized, Andrew E. has a ready answer (as usual): "I have two questions for them. First, anong sinabi ko? And, second, I'm not talking about you, I'm just telling something that may or may not have happened to me to you, as a way of storytelling."

A keen observer of his surroundings, Andrew E. can go on a night out and come home with three songs in his head, just from sitting at a bar and looking around. It comes as no surprise that a lot of the songs detail a map of sorts of Manila nightlife, name-checking almost all of the happening bars and hangouts in town.

Despite the commentary and the reportage, there's an underlying personal, quite angry, subtext to WHOLESOME. Not for anything is there a song titled "Top of the World," celebrating his recent successes (including this new album). He dedicates the song "to all his critics" and to all the people who ridiculed him or did wrong by him (listen to the album for more info). There's a lot of spite mixed in with the clowning in WHOLESOME. "This album is an answer to all the blank years when Andrew E. was so quiet," he says. "When people called me names and ridiculed me. This is my way of returning the favor."

Starting his showbiz career as a DJ in Euphoria disco in 1989, Andrew E. catapulted to fame in 1991 with the monster hit, "Humanap Ka Ng Pangit," a novelty song about taking the path of least resistance when it comes to choosing a partner for life. Rapping about the virtues of the plain looking and not exactly being matinee-idol material himself struck the public as funny and amusing, but it also opened Andrew E. to censure from certain quarters. It didn't help that the song also launched a successful movie career, with the rapper getting choice leading ladies in the 22 movies that followed his rise to stardom.

Another song, "Binibirocha," gave him infamy to spare. There was talk of his songs being banned from radio, and made Andrew E. even more a household name. "I think some people saw me as this guy who was not good-looking who seemed to get everything," he offers. "And it rubbed them the wrong way. They couldn't take it that they were better-looking and yet I got the girls."

Once he watched one of his movies incognito and had to endure the countless hoots from male viewers whenever a kissing scene came up. "I'm basically a nice guy, I can't just fight back. So now, I'm doing it through words. And even then, I'm not totally in their faces. I prefer to do it through comedy."

Success may be a lot sweeter this time. Apart from his Sony album, Andrew E. just has become the first Filipino artist to cut a record in Nihongo. This June 3, he released the mini-disc "Bakajanai" in Japan under the newly Formed Tobita Music World label, an independent outfit which is distributing the record in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, three major cities.

Prospects for a major hit in this highly inaccessible market are good, he says. Translated, "Bakajanai" means "Hindi Ako Gago," and apart from chronicling the misadventures of a tourist (he styles himself in Japan as Anduru E.) in Tokyo, the single is remarkable for the boldness of its title. "Japan is a very polite society. This is the very first song in Japan, which used the word, 'gago.' Hearing the word is enough to get their attention. More so when they listen to the story, which is about a tourist who wanted to go to the club district of Shinjuku but ended up in very wa-class Shimbashi. And yet he claims hindi siya gago."

And because rapping goes against the grain of traditional Japanese hospitality ("Even when they're angry, they're so formal," he observes.) and pop fare ("There, it's either all love songs o mga kanta ng mga walang pag-asa sa buhay"), he has a swell chance of carving a niche for himself. "Bakajanai" also will make it in Japan, Andrew E. adds, because he took care to sound Japanese. "Even if you're singing in Nihongo, the Japanese will know you're a foreigner by the way you sound, and will dismiss your record," he explains. Nihongo is a difficult language to master in terms of pronunciation and Andrew E. had to sweat it out in the studio trying to nail those wayward phonemes. "It took me 60 takes to get one two-syllable word right, at medyo napipika na nga ako. One of the technicians in the booth broke the tension by charting the takes and holding up the bond paper with his head bowed down, parang hiyang-hiya. You just had to laugh and take it easy after that."

Since 1997, Andrew E. had been making annual trips to perform in Japanese clubs. On his third stint April this year, he caught the fancy of Yukio Tobita, a Japanese businessman who was so delighted with his songs and performance style he set up a label just for the rapper. Andrew E.'s two-song mini-disc (the other cut is "Setagaya Girl," which he says is sort of like the Japanese equivalent of his hit "Alabang Girl") is distributed along the Osaka-Tokyo-Nagoya bullet-train commuter route, thus giving it major exposure in the Japanese market.

"During the Second World War, Japan invaded the Philippines. In 1999, a Filipino is invading Japan," Andrew E. declares in typical bluster. Who can blame him if he's feeling on top of the world?

--Andrew E. OnLinE!

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