MusicDrop: JerFlow's "Kasinungalingan" And How It Beats The Naysayers

After a long absence, MusicDrop is back once again: this time featuring a very unique song. The track, titled "Kasinungalingan" ("Lie") is a track by the indie VTuber JerFlow incorporating a trilingual bop of English, Japanese, and Tagalog verses on top of a hard-hitting dark hip-hop instrumental, all done by himself.

NewsDrop recently spoke with JerFlow to understand the "diss track" theme of this new track, his local and global inspirations, and fully understand the creative process of this track, which serves as the first step to his planned album to be released this year.

Putting A Creative Spin on Diss Tracks

Q: For those who are listening to this track for the first time, would you say that this is a more creative and general way of creating a diss track against the naysayers? Why do you think so?

JerFlow: I wouldn’t think it’s that creative, but it’s definitely a more general approach of making this kind of track. It leaves out the inevitable drama that comes with directly naming or referencing specific people in the track, and contrary to the song in question, I stay out of drama as much as I possibly can.

Q: Tell us more how you discovered diss tracks, and what do you think makes diss tracks interesting?

JerFlow: I discovered diss tracks mostly from YouTube. I find diss tracks interesting because people have found some of the most creative ways of dissing their oppositions. My main consumption for this particular subgenre of rap comes from “Softwilly Music” on YouTube. They’re a collective of content creators that occasionally make rap, but for a group whose main content is not even rap, some of the best wordplay and flow I’ve heard came from their rap songs.

Musical Inspirations

Q: A bit of a segue: we're curious to know if, at one point, you got into rap battles like FlipTop?

JerFlow: I was a casual observer of the FlipTop scene in the Philippines when I was still living there, and my only exposure to rap battles here in the west is being a mixer for Pace.exe’s “VIRTUAL VERSES” series, which is a recurring rap battle event specifically for VTubers. I had plans of joining, and I was even invited to it, but I would rather just stay in my lane and make cool music.

Q: Who would you say are your main musical inspirations for this track and why?

JerFlow: My main musical inspiration for this track is definitely KNTMNL, a Filipino rapper who raps in the same 3 languages that I used: Tagalog, English, and Japanese. The way he blends those three languages seamlessly is nothing short of incredible. I do have a variety of rap inspirations in these respective languages

• Tagalog: Shanti Dope, PABLO from SB19, Ez Mil
• English: Eminem, NF, Joyner Lucas, Logic
• Japanese: Takayan, BAD HOP, Miyachi

The Creative Process

Q: Could you tell us sort of a brief explanation and/or storytelling behind the song's overall message?

JerFlow: “Kasinungalingan” doesn’t have a narrative to it, but there is a theme of “people lying about you behind your back” which is never a fun thing to experience for those who’ve gone through it. Most content creators have and will go through it at some point in their career.

I’ve gone through it in my personal life even before I was a VTuber/VSinger, and most of the people who have talked behind my back were the people I thought of as “friends” back in the day. I wouldn’t wish this treatment upon anyone, not even my worst enemies.

Q: Is there a reason why "Kasinungalingan" uses three languages to effectively deliver the message?

JerFlow: I’ve only ever written songs in English. This is not a bad thing, but as a bilingual person, I’ve been wanting to write a song in Tagalog too.

“Kasinungalingan” is an experimental song in which I started bringing Tagalog into songwriting to see how well I can write in my native tongue. I also wanted to see how well I can blend it with my English songwriting.

The actual linguistic breakdown of the song is actually closer to 45% English, 45% Tagalog, and the very little Japanese I know making up the rest of the 10%.

The Message

Q: If there is one word that best describes 'Kasinungalingan', what would it be and why?

JerFlow: Liberating. People mostly know me as a vocalist and a cover artist, but rapping and especially producing "Kasinungalingan" gave me a different outlet for self expression. It allowed me to be more confident in myself, and explore how much more I can do with my voice. It allowed me to explore a new world of multilingual lyric writing. It allowed me to vent about experiences with people without the repercussions of naming names. It’s liberating.

Q: What's the one message you'd want fans to learn from this song?

JerFlow: Be unapologetically you, even when people are talking behind your back. Keep pushing forward and reaching for the top, even when people try to drag you down.

We thank JerFlow for his invaluable time in entertaining our questions. "Kasinungalingan" is currently out 0n his official YouTube channel, as well as on Spotify. To keep up-to-date with JerFlow's content, he is active on X (Twitter) and on TikTok.

Featured Image: Art by Anis Purilang