AFTER making waves in the Filipino hip hop music scene, Davao's pride Delinquent Society is pumping up with their latest album, WE R ALL DELINQUENTS, their follow-up to 2018’s Detour.
The 10-track album, released on July 30, 2021, includes pre-LP release singles “Real Me” and “CtrlAltDelete,” with features from BLKD, Lil Shyne, and Kahel.
SunStar Davao spoke to the group on how it's like to release their latest effort amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
With the current pandemic restrictions, promoting their latest effort won't be the usual. Instead, the group thought of the old-school way of promoting their album in a more cryptic yet creative manner.
For the past week, a mural painting of the guys of what would be the group's album cover for WE R ALL DELINQUENTS was painted along Ponciano Street.
"We wanted to do the old school way of a public service announcement. With the use of that piece, it served a double purpose; a reminder for some people especially the fans of our upcoming album and it can also be an introduction for people who still don't know about Delinquent Society," Audible Lecter aka Aud shared.
Aud, Ulysses “Uly” Agura in real life, said they took heart in preparing their sophomore album for almost a year, three years since they released Detour.
"We haven't released a full project for three years but we [have] made a lot of songs since Detour. Some have been released but there are also some that we kept for this album and most of it was made around last year before Covid," Aud said.
For Fusr (Moses Navidad), all the tracks were made of "trial and error."
While for album cover, Fusr said, "Aesthetically speaking, it's Banksy meets Obey's Andre the Giant Has A Posse artwork. Mostly, it's inspired from 'Where is The Love' by Black Eyed Peas."
With the latest material, Mellow Marc (Marc Pag-ong) said WE R ALL DELINQUENTS is "sonically better" and vocal performance is an improvement from the last one.
Aud also said overall production and beat selection is way better.
"We tackled a lot of topics on this one and mostly the lyrics are based on our experiences and where we've been since we released our first album. People that we've met, places that we've been and our observations based on those experiences," Aud said.
Admittedly, the pandemic had been a tough one for the group, since musical tours and promotion are highly restricted. But for Contemplate (Lois Tuanquin), they were lucky to be able to prepare their second album before the lockdowns happened.
"This pandemic changed the whole landscape and I think we prepared just enough before it happened. That's why it wasn't so hard for us to adjust. We've shot a lot of music videos in advance and made a lot of music so by the time Covid struck, it was just a matter of editing and mixing and also scheduling.
Artistry-wise, the group agreed they did what they've always done, and it was to turn the negative situation into a positive one through their music.
Aside from successfully releasing their latest effort, the group's music video "Muddy Waters" was nominated for Music Video of the year for the R&B and Hip-hop category of the Myx Music Awards 2021.
Being shortlisted by Myx, they said, is already a huge milestone for their careers and they're very thankful for that.
"This nomination is really unexpected and it's a big win already for us as a group, the people behind that music video, Unlabeled Collective and for Murphy Caballero who is also part of our collective," Aud said.
With this, there is no stopping Delinquent Society anytime soon.
"Expect a lot of visuals, especially music videos for the songs on the album. We will continue to push the envelope and do more things that we think will inspire a lot of artists from our city and all over the world," Aud said.
WE R ALL DELINQUENTS is available on streaming sites.