I'll be frank and say that when I first came across Tosh many years ago, I didn't actually like him as much. He was...a over the top and swore quite a bit, so I never liked watching his videos. His points were funny, but I always came away with the feeling that I needed to clean out my ears.
However, he's one of the few cases that I would say being in showbiz and realizing that a lot of kids look up to him has made him take a step back and reassess the public image he displays. Not many people do that. Some get famous and any sense of modesty or humility just goes out the window and they become someone whose name I cringe at.
That said, I respect Tosh very much for the way he's cleaned up his image and I thank him for his hard work and dedication to his craft. It is truly enjoyable to see him now.
His rap and dance skills were on point even before he made it big with "Ah Boys To Men" (movie series in Singapore, directed by Jack Neo). His Mandarin Chinese is also steadily improving (a normal thing for a Singaporean because we essentially have to be bilingual), which is encouraging for me as well (because my Chinese skills are pitiful). His acting is also amazing and I LOVE HIM in ABTM so much. I have no favorite scenes from those movies, but anything with Tosh was instantly something I liked.
I would say that my absolute FAVORITE thing about Tosh is the way he blends Chinese and English, SEAMLESSLY (in my opinion), into very modern style songs, preserving some of the traditional aspects of the Chinese song, but doing it in a "Tosh" style. Whenever I'm looking to amp up the rap aspect of a more traditional style song, I always pop over to Tosh's channel to listen to some of his songs. The one we're about to read about is at the top of the list. For those of you who have heard me put English rap into Chinese songs, know that Tosh was what had initially inspired me in that direction.
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Tosh Rock - What More Can I Say is everything that I'd imagine someone who goes from YouTube to BIG-TIME YouTuber goes through. There HAS to be something in them that wonders whether losing their ordinary life was worth what they're getting now. Tosh has stated in an interview on his channel (makes me laugh EVERY TIME) that unless you really have a passion for this type of thing...you'll burn out. Real fast. There are several industries that sift out who's just there for the fame and who's there because they like it within the first couple of years and entertainment is definitely one of them.
My favorite parts of this song were:
- the music behind the rap (the strings....agh <3)
- the raw truth in what he's sharing through the lyrics
- the line about giving money to his parents (so Chinese, it just hits me on a personal level)
- the rhyme scheme of...the whole thing, really
- the shots with him in the leather jacket in the street (he just looks so cool)
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I'm especially excited to share that Tosh has given me permission to do a flute cover for
张智扬 - 放映爱 Official MV [My Love Sinema 电影主题曲]
Look forward to it!! Not gonna share it too much here so that it'll show up in its own #MusicMonday, but this is still too good to leave out ;)
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Are there other artists from Singapore that you know of that I should check out?
Comment below so that I can support more of the artists from my home country!
What more can I say, but SUBSCRIBE IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY! Hahaha XD
Cheers~
Ariel
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