not his livelihood at all.
The 42-year-old from Cavite is mainly an astute businessman who was launched a few days ago as the latest talent recruit of Blvck Entertainment (the strange-looking word is pronounced as “black), whose launching single is boldly titled “Rap Lord.”
The title refers to Boss Toyo himself. Even the venerable late rapper Francis Magalona seemed to have never thought of calling himself that.
Boss Toyo’s real name is Jayson Luzadas. He is an adopted son who said he ran away from his adoptive parents when he was in Grade 6 upon discovering he was not their biological son. He reunited with them when he had become a wealthy businessman in his 30s.
“Boss Toyo” seems to be a nickname he gave himself as a grown-up. “Toyo” is Filipino slang for “crazy” or “weirdly unpredictable.” The expression is actually “may toyo sa utak” (you have soy sauce in your brain).
As a businessman, he is into jewelry, clothing, buying and selling collector items from Pinoy celebrities of all kinds, leasing space to entrepreneurs, vlogging and producing online shows mainly starring himself. His vlogs and his online shows have a combined viewership of about two million. (One of his online shows is Pinoy Pawn Stars, patterned after the History Channel’s Pawn Stars; Sen. Imee Marcos was featured recently in the show selling to Boss Toyo a pair of rubber shoes gifted to her by some foreign personality and which she wore only once. After she signed both shoes, Boss Toyo offered her P50,000, which she gleefully accepted and said would be used for bags of health-giving nutribuns she will send to public elementary schools).
Some jewelry pieces in Boss Toyo’s jewelry store in Kamias Road, QC, sell for at least a million pesos each. He bought for P500,000 the Mercedes Benz used by Sen. Imee Marcos in the film Maid in Malacanang. He paid P600,000 for the shirt worn by Francis Magalona in historic gigs with some fellow rappers and with Chito Miranda and his iconic band Parokya ni Edgar.
Childhood dream
At his Blvck Entertainment media launch in a restaurant in Quezon City, Boss Toyo confided that he got into rapping only a few years ago to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a rock star.
He also admitted to being a drug user in his youth who went in and out of rehab centers many times. He started fathering children early and with different women. It was when a
sari-sari store shooed him away when he pleaded to be loaned a can of corned beef for his pregnant live-in partner that he decided to mend his ways. He was in his late 20s at that time.
Narrated the rapper:
“Nag-buy-and-sell ako ng Casio watches pero nagsimula ako sa isang relos lang. Du’n sa amin sa Cavite, may nagpautang sa akin ng P2,000. Bumili ako ng isang relo na worth P1,200, dinala ko sa Manila, naibenta ko ng almost P2,000. Ganu’n yung routine ko ng buy-and-sell ng Casio watches. Bili sa Cavite at benta sa Manila (I went into buying and selling Casio watches, but I started with just one Casio watch. Someone loaned me P2,000 in Cavite. I bought a watch worth P1,200, brought it to Manila and sold it for P2,000. That became my routine — buy in Cavite and sell in Manila).
“May mga watch seller na na-impress sa tiyaga kong magbenta ng tao sa tao. Eventually, nag-trust na ang watch dealers sa akin at dumating sa puntong hundreds of thousands and millions na yung
ikino-consign nila sa akin na mga relos, na nabebenta ko naman lahat, at nababayaran ko sa kanila. Ganu’n ako nagsimula (Some watch sellers were impressed at my patience to sell to people personally. Eventually, they began trusting me with hundreds of thousands and millions’ worth of watches which I sold. That’s how I started).”
‘Inspirational rap’
Boss Toyo, who claimed to have completed only grade school, is a multimillionaire now, and he is not shy to wear his wealth. He turned up at his Blvck Entertainment launch wearing a dazzling huge necklace that cost a million pesos. He also had on several rings with big glittering stones.
Boss Toyo is now raring to buy the shirts worn by Tito, Vic and Joey when they announced their departure from Eat Bulaga. He already has the bato ni Darna (Darna’s magical stone) used by Marian Rivera when she played the superheroine in GMA 7’s version of the Pinoy komiks yarn, as well as the sword Robin Padilla used in a scene in the movie Mistah.
He revealed that he has nine children with several mothers, and he supports them all. However, he and his current wife of 10 years now are still waiting to be blessed with their own children.
Boss Toyo himself idolizes rappers and takes pride that he has become friends with every known rapper in the country, including Gloc 9, Shanti Dope and Flow G. That friendship led to him becoming a rapper himself, with two independently released rap singles before Blvck Entertainment signed him up.
But what he really wants to be known for, he said, is “inspirational rap, at ‘yung malinis, walang mura para hindi ako ikahiya ng mga anak ko (clean rap, without cuss words, so my kids wouldn’t be embarrassed of me).”