SISTERS in SOUND

Aaliyah and Fatiha Bunyi of Morobeats on storytelling through music, authenticity, and their continuous pursuit for excellence in their craft. 

- ANGELA CASCO

AALIYAH BUN YI AND YOUNGER SISTER FATIHA WEREN’T ALWAYS INTERESTED IN HIP-HOP. “When we were young, we weren’t really intrigued yet as much as we are today,” Aaliyah says. “I think we always took the presence of hip-hop in our home for granted [because] it was always there.”

Today, the genre looks quite natural for the siblings. As part of the Zamboanga-based record label and music collective Morobeats, Aaliyah and Fatiha, known as the musical artists Miss A and Fateeha, respectively, are making waves inside and outside of the country. Having been raised by Morobeats founder DJ Medmessiah, hip-hop was just something that they grew up with. “[He] would just play [songs] every day,” Miss A recalls. “I even remember, he had a phase where he was just so addicted to vinyls. He would just buy stacks and stacks and stacks, and our house looked like a warehouse or a record store.”

Over the years, graffiti artists, break dancers, and DJs would often pay a visit to their home. “They were like our titos and titas who allowed us to understand what hip-hop is and made our love for it grow,” Fatiha says, adding that this sense of community is what inspired the duo to pursue music. At the age of 17 and 13, respectively, Aaliyah and Fatiha began dabbling in writing, recording, and performing.

The sisters started putting their skills to the test in the underground scene. “It was like a training ground for us. We were able to learn a lot of things along the way with performing, in writing, and just connecting with the audience,” Aaliyah says. But Fatiha admits that she eventually learned to be more honest and vulnerable through the experience, especially in her writing process, helping to shape them as artists.