MYMP

M.Y.M.P. (or MYMP, short for Make Your Mama Proud) is an acoustic band act from the Philippines, which consists of five members. Their career started when Raymond Ryan, a station manager of iFm watched one of their gigs, and met up with a producer to produce their 2003 debut album, Soulful Acoustic, which has since been certified Platinum. In 2005, M.Y.M.P. released their second album titled Beyond Acoustic and third album Versions through Ivory Music. The success of the two albums prompted the re-release of their second and third albums in a 2-disc set the same year. In 2006, they released their fourth album, New Horizon, and DVD of their concert in the Music Museum. In 2008, M.Y.M.P. released their last album on Ivory Music, titled Now, as the group signed a deal with Star Records.Jacques "Chin" Alcantara founded the band back in late 1996. It was Chin's elder brother, Julius, who gave the band its name --- a tribute to their departed mother. Chin's mother, Dr. Stella Lopez-Alcantara (a cardiologist), had died of complications from breast cancer when she was 17. Back when it was originally formed, Make Your Momma Proud was a four-man rock band, whose arsenal included Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and, as Alcantara adds, a little Mr. Big. He was still a student at Miriam College then, taking up Communication Arts, major in Advertising. “My mom played the piano but she didn’t get to see me play professionally—she did get to see me start out,” Alcantara said. In the year after his mother died, Alcantara took up the guitar and, in his words, “really got obsessed with it and that’s when I knew what I wanted to be, a musician.” Alcantara was enjoined by his father (an investment and a private development banker) to attend classical guitar tutoring, but stopped after a month. Alcantara taught himself how to play. The peak of M.Y.M.P.'s amateur days was when it won the 1996 national championship of the San Miguel Beer Battle of (rock) Bands. Before that, the group had won the NCR championship, best vocalist and best lead-guitarist awards.