'Popolo' honors singer's heritage loud and proud

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

He's been on the fringe of island entertainment, earlier performing bass with a group called Studi-yo. Now, with the release of "The Lolo Popolo," an extended CD single that features a tune he wrote 12 years ago, he's poised for his moment of glory.

Maybe.

"I played the song at a Martin Luther King Day celebration at Kapi'olani Park this year, and when it ended, the people applauded," he said. "I tried it again at another event at Kualoa Ranch. Same thing. Cheers. The punch line gets a lot of applause."

The song repeatedly mentions popolo, the Hawaiian word for an edible black berry, which, in contemporary usage, refers to black people. And so far, Hutchi Boy-E, 47, said that he has not been criticized or received objections from the likes of the NAACP, which normally monitors these matters. The term, depending on usage and tone, holds the potential to be explosive.

"Hey, I'm black. The song is all about my experiences of being black, all about the funny things I encountered when I first came to Hawai'i," Hutchi Boy-E said. "It's all done in the spirit of fun, with good intentions. It's not like the 'n' word."

The novelty song deals with his encounters with manapua, the popular pork-filled Chinese bun, and references folks in Waikiki trying to get tanned like African Americans.

"The folks who've heard my song can't stop laughing," he said. "The people are singing the melody — and the punch line."

A radio disc jockey agrees.

"We're the only ones playing it," said Lanai, program director of KDNN-FM 98.5 Island Rhythms and half of the Augie and Lanai morning drive team. "Everybody likes it; we haven't had any (bad) reaction. Hutchi is black, so it's OK for him to use the term."

Hutchi Boy-E surely had an "in," however, since he previously played bass for Lanai and Augie when they were known as The Three Local Boys.

Hutchi Boy-E first did the song publicly at his wife's Christmas party two years ago at the Marine Corps base in Kane'ohe. He most recently performed the song internationally, in gigs in Diego Garcia (the island in the Indian Ocean used as a military base by U.S. and allied troops), Singapore and Japan.

"Everybody laughed," he said of the mixed crowd of all ethnicities. "Nobody was offended."

Should he receive criticism, Hutchi Boy-E said that the sensitive term "is not negative, not a put-down of black people. It's simple terminology given to determine us; the haoles are the white people, the visitors to the Islands; the popolo, named after a useful black berry for healing and applying it to humans, is a good thing, not a bad thing."

"Lolo Popolo" is not a condemnation or put-down of African Americans, he said. "I suppose some can get upset; it's all in attitude and tone." His take definitely is light-hearted.

If nothing else, Hutchi Boy-E hopes the song will have some educational relevance, "to teach people that popolo is not a racial slur. I want to change the red flag to a green flag; this is a polite way for Hawaiians to call us."

Hutchi Boy-E's legal name is R.L. Hutchins; he is proprietor of Skrap Yard Records, which formerly was a recording studio and now functions as a label. In recent years, Hutchi Boy-E has produced recordings by AZ and Jungle Juice.

He is working on his first full-tilt CD, "Almost Hawaiian," but first wants to do a video for "Lolo Popolo."

"I want to film it while surfing off Waikiki," he said. "Hey, I'm not lolo; I tried the North Shore before; too dangerous."