Rap artiste Joe Flizzow is ecstatic that he has finally fulfilled his promise to his mother — return to London as a performer. ZAHARAH OTHMAN writes.

JOE Flizzow aka Johan Ishak looks up to the roof of the Covent Garden market and sees all of the 25 years he had left behind. It has been a long time since he inadvertently let slip balloons from his hands which rose to the roof of the market but recently, back in London that saw some of his growing up years, he remembers how he made a promise to his mother. And now he’s proud that he has kept his word.

In the early 1980s, Joe’s father Ishak Nengah was a broadcaster with the Malay Service of the BBC. Mother Aishah Ali (then also a journalist) walked with him through the Covent Garden market almost daily while waiting for the Malay Service to come off the air.

“I remember that,” Joe says. “She used to buy me balloons which sometimes slipped from my hand to float to the roof. I remember that about the Covent Garden market; its roof seemed so high to me as a little child.”

Back in Malaysia at the end of his father’s BBC stint, it was hard for him to forget Covent Garden and his London years in Finchley Central. London felt so far away yet so near, but prescience made him make a bold promise to his Ma.
“I have always told my mother that one day, I shall return to London as a performer, not as a tourist.” says Joe.

On March 11, he arrived in Stansted airport on the inaugural low-cost, long haul KL-London AirAsia X flight.

Joe was one of three performers at the post-arrival celebrations that evening on the 29th floor of the skyscraping Millbank Tower that overlooked the neighbouring Houses of Parliament and the London Eye. The others were singing sensation Noryn Aziz and local group The Saturday.

Thus, Joe had fulfilled his promise to his mother and more. He also made his brother Iman the DJ of his London show, making not just one “performer” in the family but two.

In Malaysia, Iman, a law student at UiTM, plays that role from time to time.

From the Millbank Tower he stepped into another landmark place of his growing up years, the iconic Bush House headquarters of the BBC World Service where he sat for an interview with the Indonesian Service. (He has a massive following in Indonesia).

“Just recently,” he says, “I was invited as guest performer at the Cipinang Jail in Jakarta.”

The measure of Joe’s success at home and elsewhere is shown when, at very short notice and with a sudden change of venue, he was able to rope in a credible number of students to hear him talk at Malaysia Hall. There, he also met fellow Malaysian rapper David Tee, who has just been called to the bar after reading law at Cardiff University.

Tee, down specially from Cardiff for this meeting, started his singing career as Joe’s fan. “I remember my first rap album, Whutadilly (Too Phat’s debut album), which I bought at Carrefour in Malaysia when I was in Form One. That got me into rapping,” says Tee as they both appeared before an appreciative audience.

What do two rappers, one about to launch his career in the legal profession, have to say to Malaysian students in Britain, all with their own bookish problems at university? “It is important to follow your career and see it through,” says Joe.

For him, he says, he is diversifying into other fields, such as movies and stretching into other genres.

“One should have a well-balanced diet of studies, sports and music to get good academic results. We are going to schools in the smaller states to bring this message. It is something we are passionate about,” says Tee.

Twenty five years ago, I remember Joe as a five-year-old, who used to belt out the teasing pop Malay number, Gadis Melayu (siapa bilang gadis Melayu tak menawan...). But these days, he’s more comfortable rapping and is very good at it too!

“What is great about coming back to London is that I started singing here. My mum used to make me sing for our guests at home and I remember receiving a microphone as a present,” says Joe.

He adds: “We are a musical family. My uncle has a large and diverse collection of CDs. One day I picked up a Tone Loc CD and I was curious. That was what started me rapping.

“I was also listening to songs by Ice-T, which I don’t think was suitable for a nine or 10-year old child,” he adds with a grin.

He remembers that his first interview, following success, was quite disappointing. “I could not put across what I wanted to say, but it was my journalist father who sat me down and taught me a valuable lesson on how to deal with press interviews.

“I was taught to take control and put across clearly what I wanted to say,” says Joe, adding that in some countries like Hong Kong, the artistes are groomed and trained in etiquette, speech and how to give interviews.”

- Zaharah Othman is a Malaysian writer living in London