UNLI MORE Is An All-Female Collective Turning Hip-Hop Venues Into Safe Spaces

In the hip-hop scene, coming across an all-female collective is rare. Usually, the most visible are the male rappers, DJs, and producers who talk tough, start beef, and make tracks. Not until UNLI MORE came to the scene with a mission. They are a female-led, multihyphenate collective of creatives, DJs, and singers. With the amount of talent, potential, and creativity involved, they might as well be a literal girl group, but one that exists beyond just the musical sense. Like what their name implies, they have more to offer than the usual “girlie pop” music performances and DJ sets. As co-founder Misha Salud puts it, “We’re serious about having fun.”

The core works like a small label and crew, most of which who rotate between roles such as event manager, artist liaison, operations lead, production manager, and the likes: Misha Salud, Jia Meneses, Gen Real, Mik Tabimina, Alexa Mascenon, and resident recording artist Nicole Anjela Castillo. Co‑founder Jessica “Jeka” Bayot, now based in Toronto, remains active with the group. Each member has their own personality, ranging from “Angelic Baddie” to “Whimsy Diva” to even “Sparkly Siren.” The girls would wear different hats whenever is convenient for them.

The group was founded in March 2024. However, the girls have already been friends for nearly a decade, meeting at hip-hop events and other hip-hop culture exhibitions, even as female organizers and creatives operating in organizations were few. Male organizers would normally book male-centered acts at a hip-hop show. When Salud, Meneses, Mascenon, Castillo met each other in 2017. That friendship timeline followed when the rest met Tabimina in 2019, and Real in the post pandemic, they recalled that women in the scene only went so far when they met more girls in the scene. They eventually found a way to combine resistance and fun energy in the same room.

“We were the only women in the scene; we would just naturally gravitate towards each other, and from there, we figured out [that] we have the same interests, same values,” Salud says. “We thought, why don’t we make a group or a collective that can put together all of our passions, our interests, our strengths, and our potential to make something bigger than who we are?”

“Whenever nasa events kami, especially us six, we have this ball of energy,” Real says. “And naisip namin na may potential ito and why not extend the energy to a bigger platform?”

Real says that UNLI MORE is a group that isn’t closed off, but rather they’d show their love for every one of their attendees on their platform. “The fun experience that we have as friends and as sisters, parang gusto namin siyang ipa-experience to others,” Real tells Rolling Stone Philippines.

Salud adds that UNLI MORE is a magnet that attracts aspiring female creatives, where they can make stuff in their safe space. 

The Shows: From Care Bears to Moshpit

Throughout 2024 and 2025, UNLI MORE produced hip-hop events called “I <3 RAP GAME” in nightlife venues ranging from Apotheka to Annex House in Poblacion, Makati. Normally, the girls would perform in venues they consider safe spaces, or at the very least, places that became havens for their creativity. One of their regular non-music events even involved coloring books and blinged out accessories, where the group would brand themselves as “Care Bears.” 

Their latest event last May 6 at Apotheka featured acts like Castillo, who emphasized that having a riotous act still fits the bill. Then there’s the chaotic, moshpit-inducing act OWFUCK alongside female emcee XYVRL and DJ Fierce Angel. Events like these prove that UNLI MORE has no boundaries when it comes to curation.

“Nakakatawa minsan ‘pag may events kami, you’d see everyone,” Salud says. “You’d see the girly pops, you’d see gangstas, you’d see the gays, and they’re all together in one room.”

Salud emphasizes the need for a collective like UNLI MORE. “[It’s important to] highlight women, the queer community, which is very much a minority sa male-dominated hip-hop space here.”

Through all of these overlaps with hip-hop groups, the collective enacted a sense of care while still knowing how to have fun. Meneses also cites instances where they were able to extend the help of community support, whether with other female creatives or with people who respect the space where their events are held.

“Even [for] men, safe space for them to be in their super babae or in their pinaka-feminine [selves],” Meneses says. “When we’re together, I can be less protective or less guarded. Kasi parang the energy itself is fun.”

Softness as Resistance: UNLI MORE’s Manifesto

While the group managed to overcome the hurdles of putting up shows,  the collective is still boxed into certain expectations and stereotypes. But as the group proves time and again, they will not be limited by those.

“Siguro ‘yong cutesy-cutesy lang ‘yong stereotype [na common]. We try to make the juxtaposition of being maangas and being cute, and professional.”

Tabimina believes that both things can coexist, “Hindi [porke’t] girl, pink ka lang.” Salud adds: “Marunong kaming mag-operate.” “I could be listening to pure local hip-hop and dress in the most cutesy way possible,” says Castillo.

UNLI MORE’s manifesto, which includes a roster of artists they like, usually ones that are very uncommon to see at a hip-hop show, took them only an entire day to create.

“When we were making our manifesto, we were saying, ‘Oh, how do we want people to see us or think of us?’” Salud says. “And then [eventually] it’s now ‘We want people to find us, to look for us.’”

The group has had conversations not just with their male friends but also with their own partners, who have been influenced by their energy: softness can become a weapon in a world facing its hardest times.

“‘Yung mga male friends namin, na-adapt nila ‘yung softness or they see, like, how best to treat women and the queer community,” Salud says. “Hindi kailangang puro lang angas… Pero pwedeng with respect and softie. Softness ang dating.”