apl.de.ap urges cabalen to follow their dreams

Before Allan Lindo became apl.de.ap of the hip-hop juggernaut Black Eyed Peas, he was out in the hot sun farming camote and sugar cane to help his family. Fast forward more than a decade later, and he’s standing on the podium of his former high school at Sapang Bato, an hour’s drive from Angeles City. “I myself used to run around Sapang Bato," recalled the rapper in a heartfelt speech last Aug. 16. “But God gave me the opportunity to pursue my dream. That’s why it’s really important for me to give back to my cabalen. You should follow your own dreams and never give up."

With the help of Hewlett-Packard and the Ayala Foundation, he’s filling up one room with desktop computers for a tech lab and providing wi-fi for the entire school. “I want the Sapang Bato kids to be just like other kids who have computers out there. Gamitin n’yo yang mabuti," he encouraged. A couple of hours earlier he was at the Holy Angels University, where he spent a year in college, donating a top-of-the-line recording studio and checking up on the 15 musically-inclined students under his scholarship program. He's enabling the students to pursue their interest, with lessons in their instruments of choice or in mastering the mixing deck as a sound engineer. Pampanga’s native son has returned bearing the twin gifts of music and technology. The success story of apl.de.ap is the stuff of legend in OPM circles. Afflicted with nystagmus, or involuntary movement of the eyes, apl was initially flown to the US by the Pearl S. Buck Foundation for treatment. As the disease progressed, his sponsor eventually adopted him, enabling him to stay in California. At his new high school in Los Angeles he would meet William Adams (who would later be known as will.i.am). Their friendship laid the groundwork for what would eventually become the Grammy-winning Black Eyed Peas. apl is the eldest of Cristina Pineda’s six children. His father, a US airman stationed at Clark Air Base, abandoned his mother shortly after he was born. Growing up, life was a struggle as he eked out a living in Pampanga’s fields, but apl found his salvation in music. He listened to Stevie Wonder and A Tribe Called Quest along with folk rock supergroup Asin. He was also fascinated with breakdancing and hip-hop, to the extent that he would make the hour-long jeepney ride from Sapang Bato to Angeles City just to see the dance crews battle it out on the curb. All these experiences would later provide the gritty material for his work with the Black Eyed Peas as a composer, rapper, singer, and occasional drummer. Up close, the first thing you notice is that apl’s head shakes involuntarily, as if he’s nodding to music only he can hear. This is actually the untreatable remnant of his nystagmus; while he has surmounted this handicap it still makes him extremely short-sighted, rendering him legally blind under US law. Black Eyed Peas will be back in Manila for the Asian leg of their overseas tour in October, but before that, apl reveals that he’ll soon be working on his solo album. “It’s going to be a mix of stuff. Right now I am influenced by a lot of dance music, electronica and old school hip-hop. I want to do a lot more with it and maybe sample some more folk songs." Perhaps the most inspiring moment of the day was when, in Pinoy fashion, the Sapang Bato high school administrators asked apl to perform a short number with the school band. He obliged with an impromptu version of “The Apl Song." The music echoed in the corridors where he used to walk as a student, the spontaneity and context of it surely enough to make his cabalen believe in miracles. – YA/HS, GMA News