Encore: Oakland Rapper Guap on His Black and Filipino Roots

12/30/23 • 30 min

This week we're revisiting a story from our series Mixed: Stories of Mixed-Race Californians. It originally aired in March 2023.

Even if he’s not always recognized as part of the Asian American community, Oakland-born rapper Guap is fiercely proud of his Filipino roots. On the last track of his 2021 album, 1176, he tells an origin story spanning decades and continents. His grandfather, a Black merchant marine stationed in Subic Bay in the Philippines, ripped the pocket of his uniform. He knew he'd be in big trouble if he didn't fix it, so he found a young Filipina seamstress to repair the pocket — and fell in love. When his time in Subic Bay came to an end, the two married and moved to a one-story house in West Oakland, where they would eventually raise their grandchild Guap, the first-born child of their youngest daughter.

Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos spoke to Guap about growing up Black and Filipino, the cultural impact his lola had on him, and how his mixed identity shows up in his music.

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This week we're revisiting a story from our series Mixed: Stories of Mixed-Race Californians. It originally aired in March 2023.

Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos spoke to Guap about growing up Black and Filipino, the cultural impact his lola had on him, and how his mixed identity shows up in his music.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Previous Episode

Encore: The Little Known Wartime History of Japanese Americans Living in Japan

This week we’re sharing a story from August 2023. It’s the little known history of Japanese Americans who were living in Japan during World War II.

Reporter Kori Suzuki found out that his own grandmother, who he’d always thought was born in Japan, is a Kibei Nisei, a second generation American who returned after living through World War II in Japan. He explores his grandmother’s memories and discovers new aspects of himself along the way.

This story was originally produced by our friends at Code Switch.

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Next Episode

A Pandemic Pivot Helped These Californians Launch Successful Food Businesses

This week we're featuring stories from our ongoing series Flavor Profile, featuring folks who started successful food businesses during the pandemic.

Gas Station Filipino Dessert Shop Is Among NorCal’s Most Delicious Secrets

Inside a nondescript National gas station off the 205 in Tracy, is Ellis Creamery. Marie Rabut and her husband Khristian got the idea to open the shop in 2020 as a way to supplement their income after Khristian lost his tech job in San Jose. Tired of long commutes for work, they wanted to stay local and saw the shop as an opportunity to bring Filipino flavors to their community. KQED's Katrina Schwartz went to find out how they're adding their own unique spin to traditional Filipino desserts.

How SF's Rize Up Sourdough Puts Black Bakers on the Map

Like many others, San Francisco's Azikiwee Anderson took up making sourdough during the pandemic. Once he mastered the basics, he started experimenting with ingredients no one had ever put into sourdough: gojuchang, paella and ube. Those flavors transformed his hobby into a successful business that wholesales to bakeries and restaurants across the Bay Area. All this success has made Azikiwee rethink how the food industry brings equity into the workplace, and how to elevate cultural appreciation, not appropriation, through ingredients. KQED's Adhiti Bandlamudi tells us how Anderson wants to give a chance to more Black and Brown bakers, because of his own experience feeling like an outsider as a Black man interested in commercial baking.

This Spicy, Crunchy Chili Topping Is the Essence of Balinese Flavors

Celene and Tara Cerrara had successful careers, one a doula and the other a make-up artist, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Then, they both lost their jobs and moved home where they rediscovered a passion for cooking their native Balinese food. They started a successful pop up, Bungkus Bagus, and are now transitioning towards packaged products. Clare Wiley brings us their story from Glendale.

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