In our multicultural Malaysian society, many people are polyglots but you’d still be hard-pressed to find a Tamilian who can rap in Mandarin. Ponmugilan Sekaran, better known by his stage name WoShiJay (which translates to ‘I’m a winner’) impressively raps in both Tamil and Mandarin.
In a TikTok video which has gone viral with 2.7M views as of the time of writing, Jay is seen rapping for a MyTown Shopping Centre Chinese New Year ad where he introduces himself as ‘blackchinaboy’ and refers to himself as a ‘dark-skinned boy rapping in Mandarin’.
In the addictive song ‘You Dunno Meh’ with singer Jasmine, the ‘pantangs’ or taboos of CNY are introduced such as not sweeping the floor, not wearing black-coloured clothing, and keeping the rice container full.
“I grew up with every culture close to my heart”, Jay raps. He also continued, “Luck knows no colour, what matters is how we prosper together.”
We honestly urge you to give the song a listen because the verses are lit!
Breaking Barriers
According to Utusan, Jay is fluent in Mandarin as he studied at a Chinese school from kindergarten until he was 15. The 35-year-old developed an interest in singing as his father is also a singer who performs Indian classical dances.
He first discovered his talent when his school teacher assigned him to read a poem and he used his creativity to rap it instead and managed to obtain full marks for it. Since then, he realised his potential to make it big in the local hip-hop industry.
The Selangor-born lad delved into the industry in 2009 by starting a group called Aathitiyanz with his brother and cousin. He also managed to collaborate with many other local artists because of his fluency in Mandarin. Besides the group, he is also a solo artist under the recording label Madrush Records.
Jay spoke of a memorable moment when he sang in Tamil in front of a Malay audience and they and along with him. He said that everyone can accept good quality music without considering language or the colour of their skin. He said that his contribution to the industry is to be a unique rapper who removes the barriers between languages.
In this video, watch Jay spit fire as he effortlessly transitions from rapping in Mandarin to Tamil.
@woshijay.attynz♬ original sound - woshijay.attynz
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