BY now you might have heard the “Half Tikopia” song as it dominates the airwaves, especially on Paoa FM.
The artist behind this song is the 24-year-old Phillip Lauka of North Choiseul and North Malaita descent.
Known as ‘Black M’, music for Phillip is just a hobby.
“I listen to music every day, and I learn a lot from the different types of music,” he said.
“I live and breathe music, and I can’t go a day without it. I expressed a lot of my feelings about life and love through music,” Philip added.
Black M is a singer and producer who’s been working tirelessly to assist other musicians in their music.
“I started recording at Tinge with Desmond, of Dee Deatz Production studios, from then on, I just keeping getting new ideas to write and produce songs day after day.”
With the release of ‘Half Tikopia’, Black M’s popularity has reached new heights with fans storming his Facebook page.
“Tio Half Tikopia is a song I wrote for a friend, Fred, who recently broke up with a girl who’s part Tikopia.
“The song is in the Roviana dialect and pidgin English.
“I’d like to thank Rojay of Jabz Production Studios who is also featured in the single, who really helped me put the song together.”
Black M’s favourite local talent to date is Chris Young, and his favourite International star is Austin Mahone.
Despite recording a few songs already, his path wasn’t that smooth.
“People like to talk, and I ‘ve received so much negativity from people especially people from home who teased me and told me I couldn’t do it. I just laughed and continued on to do what I love,” he said.
“Also funding is a big challenge in my music career, but I managed to scrape through to record my songs.”
Black M hopes to become a professional music producer in a few years’ time and to continue and improve his skills in music.
“I’d like to thank Desmond of Dee Deatz, Rojay of Jabz Production and Rodney Kwanz, people who always got my back.”
