From the islands of Fiji, David Whippy has turned his passion for poetry into a career as a rapper. Known by his fans as Whipz, Whippy is a psychology major from Fiji. Whippy said he grew up loving music but never planned to practice it as a career. “I always liked rap and hip hop because I always liked poetry. To me it is like poetry, but with a beat. I saw it as motivational, something that kept me going. On my mission, I used to get into poetry. Different missionaries cope in different ways. Sometimes it can be hard, so I wrote poetry to try to express my feelings and stay in touch with my emotions,” shared Whippy. After his mission in New Zealand, Whippy was contacted by a good friend he had in grade school who had traveled to New Zealand to pursue music. He told Whippy he wanted to start rapping in Fiji. “He asked me if I wanted to jump on a track with him...It was on the radio and we got interviews on TV. It went fast. Others from overseas wanted us to open for them. We did that for about three or four years,” Whippy explained. From there, Whippy rapped for TV advertisements, which he said were a lot better than bars or clubs because they are more family friendly. He came to be known as “Whipz” by his fans, but he began to notice a difference between his rapping style and that of his friend known as “Fly.” “The major difference between my friend and I was that he was into gangster rap. It’s more about profanity and degrading women, and I’m more into uplifting, motivational, maybe throw in a little scripture here, and there kind of rap...It was kind of like we rapped together, but there were two different elements on the same track, so we decided to go our separate ways,” said Whippy. The two artists have remained good friends and Fly is now in India recording music. As for Whippy, he said, “When I got married in 2010, I kind of stopped rapping publicly. Whenever I have free time, I’ll do a track at home and I’ll throw it up on my SoundCloud or one of my things I have online.” SoundCloud is an audio platform that enables artists to record, upload, and promote their original works. Whippy is passionate about writing his own lyrics. He explained, “It’s like when you go fishing, and you catch something and you eat it, it just tastes a little bit better.” Whippy continued, “Early on my inspiration was the scriptures. I try to write lyrics people can relate to and people can take something out of to hopefully do something better with their lives. I take things from my past experience, things that I’ve learned and things that I’ve done wrong, to try and be like a lighthouse for someone else, to give them direction.” “Music, particularly rap, is still small in Fiji and hopefully I can do something with it. Hopefully I can write some inspirational rap that is motivational that will help and be able to relate to people and not in the gangster, drive-by shooting kind of way, which a lot of rap seems to be related to now a days,” said Whippy. Whippy shared his advice for young musicians, “Don’t hide your talents. I’ve hid it for the last three years here. Don’t be like me. Come out of your shell because there are other people that might be in the same shoes as you. We all have talents and the Lord says don’t put in under a bushel, let it shine. Go with your heart.” “If you are writing your own lyrics, put your feelings and emotions into it because people recognize that and they can relate to it. You can tell when people like a song. It’s like they’ve heard the song before and it’s like you’re talking on the same level, you know? I can’t describe it… it’s almost spiritual. Just go with your heart,” he added.
Writer: Stephany France~Multimedia Journalist
