When Shanti Dope (Sean Patrick Ramos) invites you to keep it real, he won’t be holding back. The Cavite-based rapper started creating songs in 2013 as a form of release, penning stream-of-consciousness verses that serve as his commentary on life and socio-political issues such as resisting forbidden desires (“Nadarang”) and the country’s war on drugs through the eyes of a street pusher (“Norem”). His sound, laden with slow-burning hip-hop beats and cuttingly honest lyricism, mirrors the chaos and struggles that permeate the country—a slice of Filipino life that’s rarely talked about.