Saturday July 29, 2006

Banker identifies with rapper and his works

MY COLLECTION
By BAVANI M
Photos by SAM THAM

bavanim@thestar.com.my

Loh finds strength and inspiration in Tupac Shakur's work.

THE inspiring lyrics from the song Pain performed by the late gangster rapper Tupac Shakur caught Victor Loh's attention.

Loh a banker in his 30s found the deep underlying message and meaning of the song inspiring and stimulating when he first heard the song at age 17.

“I was in college and at that point of time I could relate to a lot of things that he (Tupac) was saying as they were deep and made a lot sense to me,'' he said.

Another of Tupac's song called Dear Mama which Loh found to be equally inspiring got him seeking more of Tupac's works.

Tupac Shakur, better known as 2Pac, was a highly acclaimed musician, rapper, poet and actor. He was murdered 10 years ago at the age of 25.

“It was not easy sourcing them (music) here,'' said Loh at a recent interview at his Petaling Jaya home.

“At that point of time, Tupac was in trouble and was incarcerated in the United States and over here in Malaysia there were hardly any of his works in the market.''

Then Loh had the good fortune to pursue his studies in Canada in 1996 and it was there that he managed to pick up a lot of the Tupac's works.

One of the CD's from Loh's collection.

“In September 1996, he was shot and that led to his demise.

“I was shocked and had harboured a hope to watch him perform one day,'' he said.

Loh and a couple of his university friends got together to pay tribute to the dead rapper by playing his songs for almost a month.

“One of my friends even shaved his head bald as a tribute to the rapper,'' said Loh.

He added that after the tragedy, Tupac's works started to flood the market and that's when he started picking up everything related to the dead rapper.

“Many people have the wrong impression about him. He is known for his fair share of controversies but deep down he is an interesting character if one were to look beyond stereotype,'' said Loh.

“He was not a violent person and does not condone violence.

“You can either listen to his music and pick out the good stuff and learn from them,'' he said, adding that it was easy to understand that despite all the bad publicity he was still such a prevailing influence and inspiration to many.

“Personally I became a fan because Tupac's music touched a chord.

More books on Tupac Shakur.

“Raised by a single mum, I was able to relate to the struggles that he rapped about in songs like Dear Mama and Unconditional Love,'' he said.

To date, Loh has a collection of over 80 of Tupac's CD's, books, magazines and poetry collection and T-shirts related to the rapper.

“I consider everything I have as priceless as they're still hard to get even now though you can pick a couple of things from ebay,'' he said.

“But more important I think that most of us need to look deeper into things before we pass judgment or make a sweeping remark,'' added Loh.

News

Saturday July 29, 2006

Banker identifies with rapper and his works

MY COLLECTIONBy BAVANI MPhotos by SAM THAM

MY COLLECTION
By BAVANI M
Photos by SAM THAM