Draft:Andy Gus

Biography
Andy Gus, aka Andy Gusmarro aka Cartier Coca; is a Singaporean recording artist and entrepreneur in the music, fashion and creative fields. who is based out of Bangkok, Thailand. He is influenced with multi genres of music, producing and creating with diverse styles and flow variations in a song or an album meticulously curated. His definition and passion for music expands beyond just hiphop music. He prides in expressing his feelings, thoughts and emotions on every sentence of his lyrics and pre and post music production; hence the results of diverse variations in rap flows and songs.

He is also a creative in his own rights in terms of being a recording artist, a music composer and producer, creative director for his own rebel luxury brand SOSA VS and creative consultant for staging and curating spaces.

Most well known for being the current Chief Executive Officer of & LaCoca Group Co. since 2016, a leading rebel luxury lifestyle brand which encompasses music, premium merchandise, custom and ready to wear jewelry, and athletes division which collaborates and sponsors athletes globally.

A seasoned multi faceted entrepreneur with various business portfolios in wide array of products and services from a luxury lifestyle brand, creative agency and services, real estate and agriculture.

Debut & Early Years: Rhythm & Poetry'99 (1999-2006)
Andy Gus debut his music career with 5 member group Lyrical Jestas on 6 June 1999, in Singapore via the Rhythm & Poetry 1999, first ever hiphop festival event showcased in Singapore. Then on for the next few years, he has performed and collaborated with many regional and international artistes. Among them were Freestyle from Arsonists (New York), Doyz (P-Squad, Jakarta) , Vandal (Toronto) , Koko (San Francisco), Masia One (Toronto) , Singapore's ObiWan, Terry Lee of Urban Xchange, F2 of Triple Noize , A-Squad and KGB, as well as Taty (Germany).

Golden Triangle Records: 2006-2008
Andy Gus founded Golden Triangle Records, a hiphop inspired music label based in Singapore in the year 2006 with a fellow local artist. This record label released a collaborative regional EP and their hit single Can I Tap That? which featured overseas rappers was significantly welcomed in the region. During this time, he collaborated with many overseas artistes including Freestyle from Arsonists], Doyz (P-Squad, Jakarta), Vandal (Toronto), Koko (San Francisco), MasiaOne (Toronto) and many others. However, Andy Gus left the record label in 2008 due to business management differences with his partner, and pursued another career journey away from music.

Return to Music: Late 2015
After almost 7 years of absence from the entertainment industry, Andy Gus returned in the journey of hiphop and entertainment in late 2015 during an event in Jakarta, when he was inspired by his son, Tyson, then 3 years old, reacting positively and dancing to the music that was being played that he was producing. Thats where he realized that music was always subtlely ever present for him. Coincidentally, during this inspiring period, he met Fat Joe at a live show premiere event “Summerdaze” in Singapore. There, he was inspired by his all time top 3 favorite artist Fat Joe and reignited his continued passion for hiphop music. Soon he started to return to the studios to jam and write songs weekly and finally decided to form a music label company to create new hit songs, distribute music and assist independent asian artistes to receive support for their music careers.

LaCoca Group Co.: 2016-Present
LaCoca Entertainment was formed in 2016 by Andy Gus with another rapper in Singapore and were creating the main identity of this label to align with positivity and love. The name of this label was a continued mission that wanted the audience to understand the philosophy that he believes to “not judge a book by its cover or name”. The underdog spirit always thrived in Andy’s faith to rise above expectations with positive results.

Since 2016, from singles collaborating with international artistes to the label debut album, “LaCoca: Keys to Kilos” in 2018, the label has been continuing to produce singles and albums. At one point of time, LaCoca was managing various artistes from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, which prompted a multi-city LaCoca show event in Singapore 2018.

It then changed its principal name from LaCoca Entertainment to LaCoca Group Co.

It is widely speculated that Andy Gus is currently working on his upcoming solo album in 2024.

Inspirations
Andy Gus since his growing up years, has always been inspired by music genre of rock and hiphop mainly. He was exposed to Guns & Roses, Metallica, Green Day, Peterpan, Jay Z, Snoop Dogg, Fat Joe, Big Pun, Kanye West, Pharell Williams and 50 Cent. However he lists these Top 3 favorite rappers below in no sequence: Jay Z, Fat Joe, 50 Cent.

Andy Gus first hiphop album that he bought in a cd format was “Nutty Professor OST Album” in 1996 which was then followed by Snoop Dog’s “Doggystyle” album. However he lists these Top 3 favorite hiphop albums below in no sequence: Jay Z (Black Album), 50 Cent (Get Rich or Die Tryin’), Kanye West (Donda).

SouthEast: August 2016
SouthEast (original version) was released on August 2016 and received overwhelming response and internationally acclaimed, it reached the streets of New York, USA. This song was inspired by the fact that SouthEast Asian hiphop industry was not getting its deserving acclamation and commercial coverage. This song has inspired other local artistes in Singapore to recapture their music career journey, and not being afraid to pursue their dream and passion especially in the socio-status conservative mindset in Singapore. This song was also proposed to be the theme song for the SEA Games 2017 in Malaysia.

SouthEast: Regional Versions
The overwhelming response to SouthEast led to the making of 4 other Southeast Asian versions of this song, including a collaboration with Indonesia's well-known rapper and entertainer, Saykoji.


 * SouthEast (Philippines) featuring Rydn & Franchizze (Southeast Cartel) 
 * SouthEast (Indonesia) featuring Saykoji 
 * SouthEast (Malaysia) featuring Balan Kashmir 
 * SouthEast (Vietnam) featuring Wowy 

Believed: December 2016
Andy Gus released his solo single Believed which he dedicated to his friends and family termed Day Ones who have been supportive of him. In one of the interviews, he cited that this song was majorly dedicated to his pillar of strength; his mother Mas and son Tyson A.A, in which the latter appeared in this music video Believed.

Say Whut!: February 2017
Andy Gus paired up with Ray Valentine and released this regional hit Say Whut! featuring Thailand artist, Miyabi. This song and music video is still one of the region's top received commercially released songs by the pair. This prompted for their Bangkok tour LaCoca City2City: Bangkok in September 2017.

Tonight's for You: 2017
Tonight's for You was the talk of the town when it was released as the song turned out to be a classic soulful, sexy R&B and hiphop jam.

Next Morning: 2017
Andy Gus soon released another solo single "Next Morning" featuring Dakotaa Jade from Thailand, in which this electro hiphop song was well played in the clubs regionally.

Lat Tali Lat (Andy Gus x Ray Valentine x Ashcobar): 2017
This song was a collaboration between both cities of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. In one of the interviews, this song was said to be inspired by the local folklore game of black or white palms (lat tali lat), when they spotted a huge mural of this game after lunch one day, just before this particular recording session. The single cover of this song was inspired by the legendary American West Coast music label Death Row Records in which the 3 artistes spotted the All-Black gear iconic cover.

Ms Jenner (Andy Gus): 2017
This sexy number was largely inspired by celebrity Kylie Jenner who many view as the perfect lady. The controversial and creative single cover was the highlight of the press as the single cover depicted the 2 artistes manufacturing 3 mannequins to generate the perfect "Ms Jenner".

LaCoca Keys to Kilos Album: August 2018
After 2 years since its return debut commercial single in 2016, LaCoca released their first compilation studio album Keys to Kilos on August 2018 which comprises of 18 tracks and featured 8 regional artistes from Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. This album was controversial with the album name relating to narcotics however it was clarified and explained in separate interviews that it was a metaphor and indeed a pop culture reference of musical keys to pushing weight in terms of their music work. This album leading hit singles were Champagne Badboy, SouthEast and Say Whut!. This album also featured guest vocal appearance by Andy Gus son, Tyson on the first track, What Chu' Wanna Be


 * Keys to Kilos: Intimate with Andy Gus (interview) 

Champagne Badboy: November 2018
With its success of the Keys To Kilos studio album, Champagne Badboy music video was released to highly acclaimed as it was inspired by motion picture mini-movie style with its high definition quality and high budget production.

All About You: February 2019
This hiphop and R&B song was a love number in which featured American artist Phoenyx Novelle from New York, which vocals led many fans requesting for another collaboration with this artist.

So Damn Fly: August 2019
Andy Gus showed versatility in adaptation to any musical genres in this rock-rap song So Damn Fly and also coincide with the well known fact that Andy Gus have always been a huge fan of rock too, with bands such as Coldplay, Noah (band), Peterpan, and Guns N' Roses.

Dimples On Ya Back: June 2020
This sexy song was the underrated term of the 2 sexy spots on a lady's back, hence the term "dimples on ya back". This was also initiated to encouraged awareness of these sexy spots to the general public on which many knew about, yet now spoken enough about. Unfortunately, this was the track coinciding with the Covid-19 global pandemic.

Summertime: May 2021
This song was initially set to be released in 2020, as the studio recordings was already completed. It features recording artist/pro skateboarder Eddie G from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. However due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, it was delayed accordingly as they were not able to shoot the planned music video for this song. Seeing that the pandemic would be a longer permanent fixture in the world's environment, Andy Gus decided to commercially release this song as a positive impact, putting a smile and reminder to the audience of positive and happier experiences during Summertime.

It's Time Now!: October 2022
With the global pandemic ending and the change in the global perspective of life, the song It's Time Now! was created to inspire and motivate with positivity to the audience who were still getting over the pandemic. It's Time Now! single and high budget Hollywood-esque music video was highly anticipated and went beyond its expectations; with the iconic helicopter scenes, actors and models, with the Hollywood-esque script and frames.

Supafly (Andy Gus ): September 2023
Following the success of It's Time Now!, Andy Gus released single Supafly featuring Thailand rapper Tigerboyz, who also spearheaded his own hiphop group OG Palangbai. This single and music video featured international models, lavish cars and an acclaimed studio set in Bangkok.

Phoenix (OG Palangbai ft. Andy Gus): October 2023
Thailand's hiphop group OG Palangbai continued the great collaboration and featured Andy Gus in this single release and music video Phoenix in late 2023.

From A Music Label To Luxury Lifestyle Brand
On 12 June 2020, LaCoca Group Co. expanded its operations from a music record label to an international lifestyle brand SOSA VS which values luxury products and services for its clients and audience. Currently, the LaCoca Group Co. is operating its departments of Music, Premium Merchandise, Luxury Leather, Custom and Ready to Wear Jewelry and Athletes Division.