Hip Hop music: Filipino-American Rapper Ez Mil scores big

Rapper Ez Mil releases new single with Eminem, signs major International record deal

Mildred German

Filipino-American rapper, Ez Mil, releases a new single entitled ‘Realest’ with Grammy-winning artist and producer Eminem. Since its release on August 3, 2023 on YouTube, it has amassed 1.2 million views in three days and counting. Since ‘Realest’ dropped, Ez Mil reportedly has 900-thousands plus listeners on Spotify.

The Philippine diaspora is again serving one good news after another in 2023 so far. Ez Mil’s record deal announcement came a few days after Filipinas made their first FIFA Women’s World Cup goal on July 25, 2023. A photograph of EZ Mil with Eminem and Dr. Dre taken just after signing the record deal also went viral. ‘Realest’ in collaboration with Eminem is part of Ez Mil’s next music project named “DU4LI7Y: REDUX” which will be released on August 11, 2023 and is one of the most anticipated album releases of our time.

IS EZ MIL THE BEST ASIAN RAPPER IN THE WORLD?

As Ez Mil announced on July 27, 2023 on social media that he has signed a deal with three major international record labels— Eminem’s Shady Records, Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope Records (the label both managing Eminem and Dr. Dre) at 25 years old, he is only the second rapper next to 50 Cent signed directly to all three labels. Is Ez Mil the best Asian rapper in the world?

In February this year, Ez Mil released the video for the single ‘Up Down’ on Virgin Music. ‘Up Down’ quickly picked up fans. Eminem heard Ez Mil’s music and brought it to Dr. Dre. Eminem reportedly said that he’s been hooked to Ez Mil’s music so they stayed in contact, signed him, which resulted in the collaboration and release of “Realest’. For their first meeting, Ez Mil drove from his home base Las Vegas, Nevada to Los Angeles, California where he met Dr. Dre and Eminem for the first time.

“We’ve never been out there signing a lot of artists, and one of the great things about how we built Shady is how selective we’ve been. And it’s even rarer that Dre and I sign something together— but I heard Ez’s music and was like, ‘This is really special,’ so I took it to Dre. We both agreed it would be a great fit and we wanted to work with him right on the spot,” Marshall Mathers, also known as Eminem, reportedly stated according to a PhilStar report. https://www.philstar.com/music/2023/07/27/2284204/controversial-pinoy-rapp er-ez-mil-signs-eminem-dr-dre

Meanwhile, Dr. Dre (real name Andre Romell Young), is an American rap superstar who rose to fame with the gangsta rap group N.W.A. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and was the president of Death Row Records.

“I’m really only interested in working on shit that sounds different from anything else going on out there, and only then if I feel I can really bring something to it. Em played me Ez and I had that feeling… that thing that happens when we both know we’ve found something special. And that was it… let’s get to work,” Dr. Dre stated.

PANALO! AN ARTIST’S PASSIONATE TAKE ON FILIPINO NATIONALISM

“Tayo ay Pilipino.

Kahit anong kulay ng balat isasapuso Mapa-tagalog bisaya o ilokano
Walang tatalo sa bagsik ng ating dugo” – Panalo (Trap Carinosa), Ez Mil

Two years since WISH Bus USA featured Ez Mil and his song, ‘Panalo!’, the 2021 performance video became a viral hit and has amassed 79 million views to date and counting. https://youtu.be/uJSbt6cPbmA

Ez Mil’s rap track ‘Panalo!’ is a catchy song, with catchy beats, patriotic lyrics in three languages—Ilokano, Tagalog, and English, and in the Pacquiao version, Cebuano lyrics were also included. ‘Panalo!’ has captured the earbuds of

many Filipinos in the Philippines and the diaspora, and also many non-Filipinos. It is also a song wherein through its lyrics the artist calls for unity regardless of skin color and to put aside negativity. Ez Mil has expressed in the song how he has been discriminated against in his homeland for his fair white skin and reiterates in the song he is not ‘Tisoy’, but ‘Pinoy’. (Tisoy is a term for mixed-race Filipinos, slang for Mestizo.)

Not only ‘Panalo!’ has become viral and phenomenal, Virgin Music also signed up Ez Mil in 2021 and released the Pacquaio version of ‘Panalo!’ (Manny Pacquaio is the famed Filipino boxing sensation, the only eight-division world champion in the history of boxing, and who has won twelve major world titles.)

Yet, Ez Mil’s patriotic ‘Panalo!’ success also faced criticism. The song reportedly included lyrics with historical inaccuracy referring to Lapu-Lapu being beheaded at the Battle of Mactan in 1521. Although the artist used ‘artistic license’, the mayor and city council of Lapu-Lapu City had wanted to declare Ez Mil as a persona non grata (but reportedly withdrew, and rather urged the rapper to revise his song’s lyrics instead). The Philippine government intervened in these controversies surrounding EZ Mil’s ‘Panalo!’ lyrics with the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) issuing a statement on February 10, 2021, correcting the controversial lyrics of the song that has sparked outrage among Cebuano citizens and netizens.

“Lapulapu was definitely not killed in the Battle of Mactan. The Battle was a victory of our ancestors led by him,” NHCP chair Rene Escalante stated at the time, according to the Cebu Daily News February 11, 2021 article. https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/363032/nhcp-corrects-ez-mils-controversial -panalo-lyrics#ixzz89g3bwN4V

As no one could really confirm how and where the national hero Lapu-Lapu died, and there too is a local legend referring to Lapu-Lapu has never died but was turned to stone and has since been guarding the seas of Mactan, Ez Mil’s music and usage of artistic license sparked controversies or ‘something to talk about’.

Yet despite controversies, Ez Mil has released a handful of songs from 2017 to 2022. He has performed at big venues such as the NBA LA Clippers vs Utah

Jazz Halftime in 2022, amongst other invitations. Recently, Ez Mil was invited to throw the ceremonial first pitch at the Los Angeles Dodgers game for Filipino Heritage Night on August 2, 2023. A fine hiphop dancer and singer, Ez Mil’s performances reach not only the Philippines, and the USA, but also as far as Saudi Arabia and Dubai, UAE where he also has fan bases. He also can sing covers of the Eminem song such as ‘Lose Yourself’ which video went viral. He has also been dubbed as ‘the Eminem of the Philippines’ for his vocal athleticism, original beats, dexterous raps, and for being one of the quickest rappers of this generation.

EZ MIL: AN OLONGAPO CITY NATIVE, SON OF A ROCKSTAR MUSICIAN

Ezekiel Miller Sapiera, famously known as Ez Mil, was born on July 27, 1998 in Olongapo City in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. His father, Paul Sapiera, is a musician, lead guitar, and lead vocalist of RockStar, a rock band which rose to fame in the 90s for hit songs “Mahal Pa Rin Kita” and “Parting Time”. His mother, Hazel Miller, is reportedly active too in the music industry as a musician as well. Both parents influenced Ez Mil with music.

Ez Mil was born in Olongapo City, Philippines. Also known as ‘Gapo’, a three-hours trip northwest of Manila, it is historically known as a U.S. Navy naval facility in the Philippines. In the past, the World Bank profiled Olongapo as a ‘highly urbanized city’ and as the first chartered city in its province of Zambales. Due to urbanization, high tourism, and U.S. military presence in Olongapo City, the city was reputed as a ‘sin city’ in the 1960s and the 1970s. Its past economic remnants are still traced to date as Olongapo naval bases again spark relevance to the current West Philippine Sea crisis (a crisis wherein imperialist countries China and the U.S., along with multinational ships are in Philippine waters and territories looking to resolve the resources and territorial crisis diplomatically, or at-war.)

Ez Mil completed high school in the Philippines. He then relocated to Baguio from Olongapo City to pursue a career in Architecture. He studied Architecture at Saint Louis University in Baguio before moving to the United States. He resided in Seattle, and California, and currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has one sibling named Raynn, who he collaborates on projects with. Ez Mil is also taking Film seriously, even filming his music videos as a start.

In 2021, Ez Mil received The Outstanding Filipinos of America Award. He posted on his October 13, 2021 social media with the Philippine flag emoji,

“I will always be honored to be representing our country all over the world. To God Be The Glory!”

Mil also received a Wish 107.5 Music Award in the Wishclusive Hip-Hop

Performance of the Year category in 2022.

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