30 years ago in 1995, alternative-rock band the Eraserheads released two albums: Ultramagneticpop! and Circus, both the pinnacle of ‘90s Pinoy rock. The Ely Buendia-led band were at the height of their careers as torchbearers. They knew street talk as much as other bands did. However, there exists an outlier living on the other side of the scene.
Francis Magalona has three albums under his belt. As one of the earlier pioneers of hip-hop in the Philippines at the time, Magalona was in the know despite being in the showbiz spotlight all throughout his career. Albeit being from different genres, the Master Rapper and the Eraserheads joined forces in 1995 to create the track “Superproxy” for the latter’s third studio album, Cutterpillow, which would then define the Original Pilipino Music scene in the coming decades.
The two — plus Hardware Syndrome — rerecorded the same song 10 years later for the first Eraserheads tribute album, renaming it “Superproxy 2K6,” accompanied by a music video, where Buendia appears with Magalona and his kids. Buendia, in the first episode of Rolling Stone Philippines’ YouTube series, “Greatest Hits,” fondly remembers how he and Magalona were introduced.
Buendia revealed that the late Magalona, was one of the first supporters of Eraserheads. “I met him because he wanted me to sign his CD of Ultramagneticpop!,” Buendia recalled.
It was a no-brainer for the Eraserheads to collaborate with Magalona, said Buendia, owing to the band’s collaborative nature. Francis M. is technically the second artist to be a guest on a track alongside the band, the first one being actress Carmina Villaroel, who the band collaborated with on the song “Wating” for Ishmael Bernal’s 1994 film of the same name..
However, Magalona became the first official guest of a musician in Cutterpillow back in 1995. “I think Superproxy was written for him,” Buendia told Rolling Stone Philippines. “‘Superproxy,’ as you know, is about the internet and computers replacing humans,” Buendia explained. “He was a big part of that. He was so into that, he was actually the one who introduced the EHeads to the internet.” He continued, “The cover of Cutterpillow was the first image he downloaded on the internet” — a photo of a jellyfish underwater. “And we were so impressed by that, [na we said], ‘Wow, we have to put that on the cover.’”
You can watch the full video on Rolling Stone Philippines’ “Greatest Hits” exclusively on our YouTube Channel.
