Filipino American rapper gets national attention

                     Ruby Ibarra featuring Bambu - Dance (The Movement)

HUFFINGTON POST posted an article titled "8 Asian entertainers making a name for themselves in the states."

While it is great that Asian Americans are getting some attention, the headline makes us sound like foreigners again. Win some, lose some.

Ruby Ibarra

Curiously, the article doesn't have a byline, but it reads like someone who is writing from outside of the U.S. 

One of the artists on the list is young rapper Ruby Ibarra, a Fililpino/American based in San Francisco. 

You won't see her singing "Dahil Sa Iyo" or dancing the tinkling, but you're more likely to find her in the alleys and avenues of San Francisco's SoMa or Daly City.

What I like about her work is that she places her heritage front and center in her work. She doesn't pussyfoot around. Her work shouts out: "I am Filipino and it is part of what makes ME." Listen closely to her work. Her lyrics of "The Movement," could have come out of the 1960s Asian/American movement on college campuses or from the People Power movement that toppled the Marcos regime.

Yeah! 

I have to admit, I don't closely follow rap, an art form born out of the pent-up anger bubbling in the African/American urban ghettoes of Watts, Oakland, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago and New York. I strongly disagree with a lot of the mysognist lyrics, but I appreciate the source of their anger and a lot of what they express about American society and race relations.

Ruby has taken the art form and added a Filipino twist, often switching to Tagalog, then back to English. She has quite a following in the Bay Area clubs but she may be on the verge of breaking through to the big time. Listen and watch more of her performances here or on Youtube. 

Can she be the voice of young Filipino Americans? She may be too edgy for the kids who are more worried about their grades or social life than making the world a better place. Let's just say she is "one" of the voices representing our youth, but what a voice -- talking about injustice, revolution and being brown -- with lots of attitude!

###