MANILA, Philippines?In 1990, I was 14 and listening to a lot of American pop and rap. But at that age, when my generation needed a home-grown musical idol to look up to, there was FrancisM.

If memory serves, he was singing and dancing on ?That?s Entertainment,? acting in ?Bagets 2,? and rapping the Top 10 song countdown on ?Loveli-Ness? before he became the country?s Master Rapper.

When his biggest break came with his debut album ?Yo!? and the monster hit ?Mga Kababayan,? it seemed like the most natural progression for someone who apparently had something new and different to say.

Symbol of Pinoy pride

To me and my 17-year-old brother, as well as the many friends who were touched by FrancisM?s music, we now mourn?and cry the tears normally shed for loved ones.

He didn?t only make batik the coolest thing we could wear, he also became a symbol of Pinoy pride.

We loved him for being such, in the way that we love the larger symbols of nationhood: The Philippine flag, the color of our skin, the values and principles of our elders. FrancisM spoke of all of these, with a striking lyrical gift that began with ?Mga Kababayan.?

In that song, he appeared to be more political and rebellious than most artists of his generation.

More daring

He became more daring after that. He dealt with drug abuse (?Mga Praning?) squarely in the eye, and brilliantly so, with an interesting narrative.

He rapped about peace and human rights (?Ito Ang Gusto Ko!?), the dynamics of Philippine elections (?Halalan?), and even revised a ?70s folk classic (Tayo?y Mga Pinoy).

It is difficult to forget Edsa Dos, and how, on the first day, it was his song ?Magna Cum Nakaw? that rang true for all of us who were angry that the second envelope wasn?t opened, but who were also dismayed to discover the truth that politics wasn?t about change.

When FrancisM joined ?Eat ... Bulaga!? it was clear that he had matured and become more confident, though still fun-loving: Fooling around with the cast; dressing up in drag during special presentations; assuming his wife?s household chores in a reality-show challenge.

Here too, the public saw him as a family man, and as a gallant fighter of an ailment that would take his life, doing a final performance with good friend Ely Buendia, in a most touching scene and reminder?that while life is volatile and fleeting, it can also be empowered in the face of something we can?t control.

Modern-day hero

And so now that FrancisM is gone, I am being reminded, too, of what life was like with his music in my head.

It?s difficult not to cry, not just because I have loved this man who was really a stranger, but because this stranger has given so much of himself through his songs.

In that sense I also can?t help but mourn for the country, for having lost FrancisM as a modern-day hero who had the guts and sense of purpose?traits that have become so rare especially among the current crop of musical artists.