Twenty years ago, Hooligan was among Malta’s best-known names.
“After concerts, fans would crowd around my car trying to get a picture or an autograph. It was so crazy that our cars would often get damaged,” the man behind the moniker, Johnston Farrugia, reminisces.
Known by many as Hooligan, Farrugia exploded to stardom in the early noughties with Malta’s first popular rap album in Maltese: Oriġinali Bħali.
“Not many people thought rapping in Maltese would catch on and few people believed in me,” he said.
Farrugia thinks the album was so successful because Maltese language rap was something new and original.
“There were rappers in Malta but they sang in English,” he said.
Hooligan released his debut album in February 2003 but his singles had already made such an impact that the Paceville venue holding the launch was too small to host all the people who turned up.
“I ended up going outside after the performance and rapping with no microphone. I wanted to perform for everyone who had come for the concert but couldn’t get inside.”
After another performance at the Farsons Beer Festival, Farrugia could not leave as fans had surrounded the backstage area.
“They came backstage, threw away the barriers and I had to lock myself in a container and wait for the police to escort me out,” he recalled.
“At least, I had beer flowing for the 20 minutes I waited.”
Despite the chaos, Farrugia is grateful for that time.
“Without fans, you are nothing. What can you do without them? Sing in the shower by yourself?”
Hooligan’s name really took off after a guest performance in the Malta Eurovision Contest when he sang the album’s title track: Oriġinali Bħali.
Without fans, you are nothing
“After that, I started receiving non-stop calls from music shops to give them more CDs... they were selling like pastizzi,” Farrugia, who was 23 when the album came out, said.
He said many thousands were officially sold but many pirated copies were also traded.
“I used to get so many calls from the police station after they found pirated copies at village markets (monti),” Farrugia said.
The album Oriġinali Bħali was among the most sold of 2003 and was number one in the music charts sourced by Exotique music store. Photo: YouTubeThe album was among the most sold of 2003 and was number one in the music charts sourced by Exotique music store.
“When I started, some artists used to laugh at the idea of rapping in Maltese but now they are doing exactly that,” Farrugia said.
Twenty-one years later, there is a strong community of Maltese language rappers, with artists like Kapitlu 13, Owen Leuellen and Il-Lapes among others, he said.
Farrugia still performs but, if you go to see him, there will be one song you won’t hear. Oriġinali Bħali is the one song that he no longer performs.
The lyrics about his bleached hair and baggy clothes no longer ring true.
“I put everything that made me who I was into that song,” Farrugia said, but the track no longer describes who he is today.