Rapper Kay One: At home in Virac

Recording artist Kenneth Glöckler a.k.a. Kay One

VIRAC, CATANDUANES—Germany’s top rapper, Kay One, is rediscovering his maternal roots in Virac, Catanduanes.

“This is home,” says the 27-year-old European rap star, Filipino-German Kenneth Glöckler in real life, who is vacationing with his family in the Bicol region and getting his fill of the wind and surf.

Kay One, who released his debut album “Kenneth allein zu Haus” last year and was featured with the popular Berlins Most Wanted, even credits his song-writing talent to his grandfather Benito Bagadiong who was a local poet and writer. “I can compose a song in an hour,” says Kay One in an interview at the sprawling residential compound of his aunt, Tess Bagadiong-Herrmann. He has composed all the songs he has sung, with one of them (Style un das Geld) picking up over 22 million hits on Youtube.

Kenneth, whose mom is former Department of Tourism public relations officer Anne Bagadiong, grew up in Ravensburg in southern Germany, near the borders with Austria and Switzerland. He says he began rapping at age 13 with his older brother and a pal in the woods.

Royal Rumble champion

He started joining hip hop and rap contests, convincing his dad to drive him around and even sleeping in the van at times. When he won the Royal Rumble freestyle competition in Stuttgart at age 16 in 2001, his path to stardom was set. He signed his first contract at age 17 with Royal Bunker that required him to produce songs and do concerts.

He had dropped out of school after the 9th grade after failing his accountancy course. He had long decided that accounting was not for him, and began concentrating on his fledgling music career.

“Of course my mom was angry, with that typical Filipina temperament,” Kenneth recalls.

His mom confirms the story: “It was a fight because I wanted him to enter a boarding school. But Kenneth insisted. He said he would rather give me a platinum CD than a diploma.”

Pursue your dreams

“You will make me very happy,” he had told his mom, “if you allow me to pursue my dream.”

He remembered that when he and his classmates were once asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, he immediately told the teacher he wanted to be rapper. The teacher tried to dissuade him, telling him he would not even become a garbage collector. He returned to that school seven years later, with the teachers telling him they always believed in him. Kay One was not entirely mollified but the story makes him smile.

He now lives alone in an apartment in Berlin. He goes on tour three times a year, including one that takes him around various European cities.

Kay One’s biggest audience was at the Brandenburg Gate together with other entertainers before 200,000 fans. His concerts regularly pull in a crowd of about 100,000. He sang the theme song for the German football team in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Streetfight in Manila

FAMILY TIME (L-R): Stepdad Oliver Brodnowsky, Governor Joseph Cua, Kay One, mom Anne Bagadiong, and elder brother Leigh. FERNAN GIANAN

Kay One arrived in the Philippines on Aug. 12.

His elder brother, Leigh, came along for the Virac visit while the youngest of the three boys, Oliver Jr., stayed behind to get ready for college in September.

He’s already had some pretty memorable experiences. Two days after he arrived, he retells, he fought off two holdup men near a five-star Makati hotel where he was staying.

As the story goes, he was taking a walk past 11 p.m. outside the Dusit Thani Hotel when a man came up to him and asked him if he wanted a girl. When he said “No,” the man continued to follow him and was joined by another man.

One of the men, he retells, tried to reach into his pocket. He turned around and punched the man in the jaw, sending him down. The other guy pulled out a switchblade. The big Fil-German decked him with a punch to the left eye.

With both of the men down, Kay One entered a nearby convenience store from where he watched the two thugs get up and run. He says he didn’t bother to report the incident to the police, who 15 hours earlier had sent out four patrol cars to look for him (on the request of his mom) after he failed to return to the hotel after a party on Gov. Chavit Singson’s yacht on Manila Bay.

Girls and music

Relaxing in seaside Virac, friends there rib  the good looking six-footer to find himself a Filipino girlfriend.

He obliges the banter, saying he would love to marry a Filipino girl. “I would prefer that my future wife would be able to talk with and relate to my mom,” Kenneth says, adding that he wants to settle within three years, even next year if he finds the right girl.

However, he admits having girlfriends in Germany. He attracted gossip when he was linked to a top actress and some contestants on Germany’s Next Top Model.

But music is really on his mind. “Filipinos can be the best in the world, they have the best voices,” he says, citing apl.de.ap, Bruno Mars, Nicole Scherzinger and Pharell Williams of the Neptunes.

On starting out, he shares that he made the Style music video for only 800 euros. “I got this camera guy with a good camera, a Canon D5, and then we borrowed cars from friends, and girls from the club,” adding that professionals would have done the same thing for 50,000 to 100,000 euros.

He advises local musicians to put fun into their work.

“For a song to be hit, there’s got be fun. If it doesn’t have fun, then it’s not gonna be a hit.”

To local artists, he shares: “Stay focused. Believe in your dream. Don’t trust anybody; do what you want to do.”