Welcome to Lion City, where we grew up HDB
Party in River Valley, with all of my karang gunis
If these words seem foreign to you, you need to spend a bit more time here. ShiGGa Shay’s newly released Lion City Kia, a single off his album of the same name, is an ode to Singapore and its quirks.
Cynics might scoff at our obsession with multi-culturalism – you gotta have four races in an ad, am I right? – but it is undoubtedly one of the things that make Singapore, Singapore. In the video, this multiracial tribute works perfectly; alongside Hokkien phrases by ShiGGa are Malay verses by rapper Akeem; ShiGGa’s buddy LINEATH from Grizzle Grind Crew also threw in some sick verses in both English and Tamil. Not one word seems out of place.
Directed by ShiGGa himself, the video is shot primarily in Dakota Crescent, a housing estate due for demolition. In it we see a couple of familiar faces – everyone’s favourite DJ Rozz, actress/comedian Patricia Mok, and Sam Willow singer Benjamin Kheng are just some of them. Lion City Kia is peppered with local references like Woodlands, Taufik Batisah, and phrases like “talk cock” and “shoutout to my ah bengs, matrep, and anjiks”.
These makes the song a catchy number, a top one at that – Lion City Kia is currently at the top of the iTunes Hip-Hop charts in Singapore. It’s is as patriotic as it gets. Next to Home by Tanya Chua of course.