Iwa K Brings Back The 90s Flavor in 25th Anniversary Concert

The godfather of Indonesian rap, Iwa K, recently celebrated his 25th career anniversary with a concert at The Pallas in South Jakarta.

The concert on Wednesday was more than just a celebration for Iwa and his fans.

First of all, the title of the concert, “Batman Kasarung”, is also Iwa’s nickname among his colleagues, a moniker he earned because of the relentless energy he has shown working on his music late into the night like the DC Comic superhero.

Second, the concert marked Iwa’s official return to performing in public after a six-month period of rehabilitation for marijuana use.

The concert officially started an hour after fans entered the venue with an enthusiastic performance of “Nombok Dong” (Dunk It), an ode to Indonesia’s basketball scene from Iwa’s 1996 album Kramotak (Braincramp).

Appropriately, Iwa entered the room to perform “Nombok Donk” dressed in a white boxer’s hoodie, which he took off to reveal a green basketball jersey bearing the Boston Celtics logo layered over a black T-shirt to a raucous round of applause and cheers from his fans.

With a 20-song set list that included harder hitting beats such as “Manusia Malam” (Man of the Night), “Tikus Got” (Sewer Rat) as well as surefire crowd favorites like the carefree melodic tune “Bebas” (Free), the three-hour concert was an unapologetic love letter to the 90s, a generation that prides itself on its edgy non-conformist attitude.

Case in point, the slogan of the concert was #IndonesianWithAttitude and the show itself was accompanied with interludes between songs filled with navel-gazing messages.

Before a performance of a song called “Topeng” (Mask), for example, Iwa reminded the audience to leave their figurative masks at the door and never be afraid of being different.

“This song is about my frustration with other people being fakers. Why bother being somebody else? Don’t be afraid to be different!” Iwa boomed into the microphone as the crowd erupted in cheers.

Iwa followed up “Topeng” with “Kramotak!”, a timelessly relevant song that takes shots at society’s problematic viewpoint of “if you don’t agree with me then you are wrong”.

Iwa’s blend of 90s beats with hard-hitting as well as easy-listening tunes were the bread and butter of the many older audience members who grew up in the era.

The concert brought more nostalgic 90s vibes by featuring other artists who were also big in the era, such as NEO, Sweet Martabak and Eno from the NTRL music group.

NEO brought out their 1999-hit song “Borju” (Bourgeois), a satirical hip-hop anthem that carries a similar message to South Korean sensation Psy’s “Gangnam Style” about a segment of society living in the lap of luxury, with a wallet full of credit cards and house in an elite neighborhood complete with a backyard swimming pool, while Sweet Martabak dazzled the crowd with “Ti Di Dit”, an ode to the heyday of pagers in a time before capacitive touchscreens and megapixel cameras.

Iwa not only featured fellow 90s artists during the concert but also collaborated with several younger rappers that followed in his footsteps in the 2000s. One was Saykoji, the stage name of Ignatius Rosoinaya Penyami, who took to the stage to perform his 2009 hit “Online”, a song satirizing the nation’s obsession with always being online and connected.

Then there was RamenGvrl, a 25-year old female rapper who took the stage together with Iwa to perform the latter’s 1994 song “Chillin’”.

Not all members of the 90s generation in the audience, however, were into the concert despite the fact that the majority of the performers were big Indonesian artists and groups from that decade. It seemed that some members of the audience have had their groovy energy drained away following their maturity and by working in the corporate world.

While the crowd near the stage enthusiastically sang along to the lyrics and danced to the beat, others behind them seemed unenthusiastic and were glued to their brightly lit phone screens amid the multicolored laser lights.

The venue itself was appropriate for the concert, with The Pallas offering a more intimate setting for those seeking respite from the fast-paced life of Jakarta to transport themselves momentarily back into the 90s.

Despite the lack of energy from some members of the crowd, the concert was a fun romp down memory lane and Iwa certainly did not disappoint his core fans.

Courtesy : The Jakarta Post

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