Living up to its name, Widescope Entertainment continues to expand its scope of exciting musical talents barely a year since it was launched.
The latest addition to its increasingly diverse roster of artists is the hip-hop group Bongclinks. Composed of Manjean Faldas, Shin Boo Ponferrada, Mark Justin Rodrigo and Ken Magalong. All four rappers are committed to produce tracks that introduce esports and gaming culture to the world of rap and hip-hop.
In revealing their origins, the group said Bongclinks started inside a discord server named ‘Bootawnation’.
“A local indie rapper Mark Justin just discovered that esports shout casters Manjean Faldas and Shin Boo Ponferrada, who also write poems, love to do rap antics while commentating on games; they also write poems,” Ken aka K88 Beats recalled.
Together with Ken, Mark invited Manjean and Shin to collaborate on a song about gaming. The ensemble all had fun working on their first song, “Last Game,” that since then, they decided to continue making songs referencing esports and gaming mixed with hip-hop culture.
As for the group’s name, they previously called themselves in various names like Tricks, Bobby, Doi and more. They eventually started calling themselves Dong which eventually evolved to Dongkik until somebody just yelled out “Yow Bongclinks!”
“We all loved the sound of it. Plus, it also sounds like Bone Clinks, a character from Dota2, mixed with Bong Thugs and Harmony, so we decided to keep the name.” the group further shared.
Influenced by local and foreign hip-hop icons like Loonie, Gloc 9, CLR, Eminem, Tupac, and Chance the Rapper; Bongclinks has recently released Basta Rhymes, its debut EP for Widescope. Featuring the riveting title track written by Shin Boo, Manjean and Mark Justin as well as equally compelling originals like “Last Game,” “Simp” and “Toxic,” the EP was recorded at G Code Studios and produced by Ken Magalong with beats by K88 Beats.
Bongclinks is also at the forefront of the ongoing cypher rap trend. According to the group. Cypher Rap is a gathering where rappers usually spit (rap) one by one without breaking or interrupting the beat and tempo. Bongclinks created a concept with the Tagalog word “Basta,” which means “This will do.” With “Basta Rhymes,” Bongclinks blended random lyrics and incorporated them into the song which tackles both gaming and rap.
Now that they are making quite an impact with their debut release, Bongclinks hopes to leave a bigger mark for the rest of 2021. Even with a busy schedule from their participation in esports tournaments and a tight pandemic, Bongclinks plans to make more songs and be able to continue contributing to Philippines’ flourishing rap scene.
“It doesn’t matter if our song are hits or not, the important thing is we hope to be able to communicate effectively with our audience. Huge shoutouts to our Partners In Rhymes, for helping us to get here,” the group concluded.
Bongclinks’ Basta Rhymes is released by Widescope Entertainment and is now available on all major streaming platforms.
To Stream and Download: https://orcd.co/bongclinks-ep