我们所熟悉的名人和闻人，不全都是来自大城市。在以推动本土文化、历史和人物为主的My hometown网站里，受欢迎的明星中，也许也是马来西亚娱乐界最知名人物，就是来自麻坡小镇的黄明志。在有关网站里，有专题文章探讨其艺人生涯起伏和取得的杰出成就，他是饶舌歌手、作词人、电影制片人、演员等。
黄明志不只是一名非常爱国的社会评论者，也是政治嘲讽作家，音乐家和艺人，也勇敢和坚定地捍卫我国社会的多元文化和种族和谐。
黄明志来自音乐世家。但他的出生地和家乡麻坡，对他带来怎样的影响？这个问题的答案，可以在他的音乐作品中找到，在他崛起过程中，他的家乡和身份，起著关键作用。
首先，让我们先谈麻坡。
来自大城市或其他州的马来西亚人，对麻坡及其多元种族和多元文化历史熟悉的不多。麻坡也称为香妃城（Bandar Maharani），是柔州第二大城市。其历史甚至可以追溯到马六甲苏丹王朝成立之前。14世纪的历史记录表明，麻坡在马六甲还没出现之前，麻坡及周边地区，都是属于满者伯夷（Madjapahit）王朝的一部分。
15岁首次创作歌曲
在马六甲被葡萄牙攻占后，苏丹玛末（Sultan Mahmud）及其继承人也曾逃亡到麻坡。此后，麻坡和柔州的历史，见证了大量涌入的移民包括华人、爪哇人、印度人、武吉斯人和其他族群。在有远见卓识的统治者领导下，这些族群共同经历了稳定，强大和繁荣的发展。对麻坡独特历史感兴趣的人，可以参考维基百科上的资料。
如今，麻坡已不仅仅是一个吸引人的历史城镇，最近还被评为东盟最干净的旅游城市，并拥有可夸耀的地方美食，优质的咖啡，历史建筑和风景如画的河畔，更有充满活力的地方社区。
麻坡也是马来文化形式的发源地，这包括传统的杂宾舞（Zapin），柔佛传统音乐遗产Ghazal和爪哇式骑马舞（Kuda Kepang），这些本土多元的文化，加上亚洲和国际不同音乐风格的影响，都展现在黄明志的视频和音乐中。
在黄明志的影片中，至少有两部是以麻坡为题材的。黄明志的音乐生涯，可说开始于他还在中化中学念书时。根据本区域领先的娱乐媒体Bandwagon Asia报导：
黄明志15岁首次尝试创作歌曲，很快的他发现其原创歌曲能给周围的人带来欢乐。虽然这些原创歌曲之前没人听过，但他的同学很快就会哼唱，并且经常和他在学校一起吟唱。受此激励，黄明志继续创作。到中学毕业时，他已经累积了几百首创作。
跨界演艺导演领域
他的转折点，在于他将音乐视频上传到YouTube。从开始以故乡的《麻坡的华语》嘲讽式对文化霸权的抗议，到《我爱我的国家》里，对国歌的讽刺，不只引起政客，主要来自执政党的猛烈抨击，也让他的事业随之腾飞。
自第一次引起轰动后，黄明志成为家喻户晓的名字，尤其是在城市的年轻人中。
黄明志的杰出之处不仅在于他的饶舌歌和作曲。他还可在坚持其艺术独特、完整性，并在反主流精英和意识形态的意愿下，成功地跨界到演艺，导演和其他相关类型的娱乐和音乐领域。
他也从未忘记自己来自的小镇。为了庆祝成名曲十周年纪念，他在2017年5月20日于麻坡，发布了《麻坡的华语10周年纪念版》音乐短片，并把麻坡的Wetex，8th avenue等拍摄进去。有关短片一炮打响，一个月内在YouTube上就获得了超过一百万的浏览量。
黄明志的粉丝不仅是马来西亚人，反之有来自世界各地，因为他跨越了不同的语言，文化和音乐之界限。
在2017年，黄明志与王力宏合唱的《漂向北方》引起了一阵轰动，迄今为止，单在YouTube上浏览量就达到了令人难以置信的1亿6800万，同时有16万则评论。
另一首热门歌曲Tokyo Bon（东京盆踊），整首合唱曲充满著日式英文。在有关音乐视频，拍摄了日本重要的地标，以大力推广日本旅游业，并在中国甚至亚洲风靡一时，在YouTube有1100万次的浏览，而各种社交媒体平台上浏览量更超过1亿。
同时，他的最新爱情歌曲《不小心》邀请了日本AV女优三上悠亚合拍音乐视频，在今年6月27日发布时，仅11小时就获得了惊人的100万次浏览，并在一周内获得了近500万次浏览。
谁也不知道，黄明志的“个人音乐产业”下一步动作是什么。但是我们可以确定的是，马来西亚和其他地区数以百万计的黄明志粉丝，正期待其最新的作品！
《黄明志：小镇的大明星》（Namewee: Small Town; Big Star）原文：
Not all our personalities and celebs come from the big towns. My hometown’s favourite star personality - perhaps the biggest name in Malaysia’s entertainment world - comes from a small town, Muar. In its feature article on him, my hometown.com.my explores the life, ups and downs and remarkable achievements of Wee Weng Chee aka Namewee - rapper, singer, songwriter, film maker, actor and more.
Fiercely patriotic social commentator, political satirist, musician and entertainment artist, Namewee is also the most daring and consistent defender of our cultural diversity and racial harmony.
Namewee’s Muar youth days
Namewee comes from a musical family. But how has his birthplace and hometown, Muar, influenced him? The answer to this question can be found in his musical works which point to his hometown roots and identity playing a key role in his emergence as a personality and artist.
Let’s start with the town itself.
Few Malaysians from the big towns or from other states are familiar with Muar and its multiracial and multicultural history. Also known as Bandar Maharani, the royal city of Muar is the second largest urban center in Johor state. It has a history which stretches back even before the beginning of the Malacca sultanate. Historical records from the 14th century indicate that Muar and its surrounding area was a part of the Majapahit empire prior to the founding of Malacca. It was also where Sultan Mahmud and his heir fled, following the successful Portuguese conquest of Malacca. Thereafter Muar’s and the state’s history has been marked by an influx of immigrants including Chinese, Javanese, Indians, Bugis and other racial groups. All have shared a steady, eventful and prosperous development under its far sighted rulers. Readers interested in the town’s unique history can refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muar_(town)
Today Muar is more than an attractive historic town.It was recently voted the cleanest tourist city in the Asean region and boasts fine local food, good coffee, heritage buildings, a picturesque esplanade by the river, and a vibrant local community.
It is also the birthplace of Malay cultural forms including traditional Zapin dances, Ghazal which is part of Johor’s traditional musical heritage and the Javanese Kuda Kepang, a traditional horse dance - all part of the diverse local, Asian and international musical influences that are showcased in Namewee’s videos and music.
Muar has featured in several at least 2 of Namewee’s videos. His musical career can be said to have started while he was still in secondary school at Chung Hwa High School. According to Bandwagon Asia, a leader in entertainment news and events in our region:
When 15-year-old Wee Meng Chee first tried his hand at song writing, he quickly noticed that his original songs brought joy to the people around him. Although nobody had heard these original songs before, his classmates quickly learned them, and often sang along with him in school. Motivated by this, Wee kept on writing. By the end of secondary school, he had accumulated a few hundred songs.
His big break took place when he uploaded his music video on youtube. Beginning with the hometown based Muar's Mandarin with its biting references which have been interpreted as a protest against cultural hegemony, his career really took off with his song, Negarakuku, a satirical take of the national anthem which earned him the wrath of politicians, mostly from the ruling party.
Namewee Today
Since this initial furore, Namewee has become a household name especially among the young urban generation.
What is remarkable about Namewee is not only his rapper singing and composer activism. He has also successfully branched out into acting, directing and other related genres of entertainment and music without compromising on his principles of artistic independence and integrity and willingness to sing out against dominant elites and ideologies.
He has also never forgotten his small town roots. To commemorate the 10th anniversary since he started uploading his songs on YouTube, Namewee released a music video titled Muar Mandarin 2017 Official MV, featuring various places including the Wetex, 8th avenue, etc., in his birthplace Muar on 20 May 2017. The video became an instant hit, reaching more than one million views on YouTube in one month.
Namewee’s fans are not only Malaysians but from all round the world as he embraces different languages, cultures and music.
In 2017 his duet. Stranger in the North, with Chinese American singer songwriter, Wang Leehom on youtube had a sensational reception and to date has chalked an incredible 168 million views and 160,000 comments on the youtube recording alone.
Another hit ‘Tokyo Bon 2020’, features an entire chorus of “Japanglish” or English words pronounced in a Japanese accent. The music video, which features significant landmarks in Japan to promote tourism, went viral in China and Asia and has received 11 million views on YouTube and over 100 million views across various social media platforms.
Meanwhile his latest love song I Shot You with Japanese AV star Yua Mikami released on 27 June had a staggering one million views in only 11 hours and garnered close to 5 million views in a week.
What this one man music industry will do next is anybody’s guess. But we can be sure that millions of his fans in Malaysia and around the region will tune in to listen and view the moment the video is out!
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