In the district of Malate, Manila, people can clock a rapper who shows up and can hold a crowd that’s already drunk, loud, and ready to heckle. When Thugsta started circulating in the Manila circuit, Malate knew who to champion from the get-go.
Thugsta’s name spread organically — first through word-of-mouth, then through his music videos. Two early standouts were the 2024 video drops “TOP SHOTTA” and “MANILA BOY,” both of which were sharp enough to communicate where he’s coming from and what he wants out of the attention. The tracks carry street rap bravado, keeping it live and direct. His cadence sits comfortably on the beat, and his voice stays recognizable across tracks: thin, gravely, and slightly nasal, with that tight Manila bite that cuts through the speakers.
His style borrows from West Coast nervous music and the G-funk swing like Nipsey Hussle, YG, and Drakeo The Ruler. The now recognizable “thugs” adlib is a chant his fans came up with as he strolls past the streets of Malate. In a city where the hip-hop ecosystem can be messy, where friendships turn transactional once the views start climbing, Thugsta knows how to set his sights far while paying homage to where he started.
“Galing ako sa iligal, e. Pag ganon talaga, from the scratch ka e,” Thugsta tells Rolling Stone Philippines about his early years of lawbreaking before entering the hip-hop scene. “Rags to riches. Hindi pa nga ako nag-rap, may nagpa-papicture na sa akin.”
Malate’s Very Own
A key release in that arc is “WHAT’S O’IN?,” which currently sits at 2.8 million views on YouTube. The music video captures Thugsta’s core image in one clean scene. He’s in front of a basketball court, hanging outside eskinitas, the cage behind him full of his people hanging back. It’s a familiar Manila picture, the kind you see everywhere in the city, but with a different energy.
This seriousness became more visible as he started showing up in Makati, particularly in Apotheka’s recurring hip-hop showcase UNLIMORE Presents: I <3 Rap Game, throughout 2024. By 2025, he aligned with CHEKE, an independent label and a powerhouse in artist and management infrastructure. This placed Thugsta in the middle of a wider music ecosystem that includes artists like Costa Cashman of O $IDE MAFIA, Fern., and kyleaux. What makes Thugsta easy to root for isn’t necessarily his aspirational backstory, but the honesty he drops when he stops performing tough for a moment.
“Kaya, normal lang makukuha ko ‘yong million [views] na yan.”” he says about his music. “Siguro ‘yong peace of mind na lang … Tsaka yong’ nabalik ko yung tiwala ng pamilya ko sa akin, yun ‘yong pinakapanalo ko. Bonus na yung pera.”
For 2026, Thugsta plans to release something close to an episodic sort of movie, which makes sense for someone who understands attention as a serialized process.
“Ma-execute ko na maganda ‘yong plano ko sa 2026,” he says. “Kasi meron akong plano na [may] akong ilalabas na EP. Pero series type shit. Series siya, aabangan mo talaga.”
Thugsta’s growth hasn’t come from one “big song” and it shouldn’t stay that way. It has come from showing up repeatedly, letting the scene respond on its own terms, and standing on business.
Rolling Stone Philippines November 2025 Issue, Now Available at SariSari Shopping
