You’ve probably heard of Pak Joko, but if you’ve really gotten to know him, you know him simply as Cyan Erdita. There is a lot to say about Erdita, for one, he is a full-time student at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) as well as a residential advisor. He is also one of the most consistent student-performers on campus.
Erdita or Pak Joko, a stage name he created as a joke and translates to “Mr. Joseph” in Indonesian, has been performing on stages at CSUMB since the beginning of his in-person college career in 2022. As a long-time fan of hip-hop and rap, he has been sharing his passion for both genres ever since he can remember.
“When I was a kid, I used to memorize songs and just rap the entire thing,” said Erdita. “In freshman year of high school, I remixed the song ‘Old English’ by Young Thug and made it my own lyrics. I made it for my aunt’s birthday and that was my first song ever. I just remixed it and was hyping up my aunt in the song.”
Like so many others who are passionate about music, Erdita has dedicated his future to pursuing his passion. Yet, for a time, he was ready to quit.
“Honestly I was gonna give up on music because I’m going to college. I was like, ‘there’s no point really because I’m probably gonna be busy or whatever,’ but my first roommate that I ever had in college had a mic and said, ‘I used to make music.’ We just messed around making songs and then I kept making them for fun, and my friends started hyping me up about it more, and after, I was like ‘you know what, I’m actually gonna try and make an EP.’”
One of the songs from that EP, “Still a Dub,” is his most streamed song across all platforms. From then on, Erdita started to perform at CSUMB and around the 831, as well as in Los Angeles where he is originally from.
At every show of his I have been to, the crowds are as lively as his performances. You expect to see people jumping around, moshing and collectively singing every line of his songs.
“It’s rewarding to see that people enjoy the music that I make, and it’s nice for me to see people genuinely like me and my music to the point where [they] are memorizing the lyrics and yelling it. It’s crazy,” said Erdita. “My fans are my friends because I know anywhere that I’m going, I’m gonna have my friends there to support me.”
There is a lot that goes into Pak Joko, as Erdita dedicates most of his time to building up his brand, constantly performing and keeping up with social media daily. It’s easy to forget that he is a full-time student pursuing an undergraduate degree.
“If there’s a will, there’s a way, being a full-time student with music. And as a communication major, it’s not that bad. There definitely have been times when I feel like I can’t write music because my inspiration is kind of gone or it’s just my mind is somewhere else. But I feel like that’s not the hardest part.
The hardest part with being a musician and being a student is throwing shows. That’s the most time-consuming thing because a big part of why I feel I’m so successful is that a lot of people don’t take the initiative for themselves to throw their own events. And it’s important to make investments towards that,” he explained.
“A lot of the time it is super [time and mentally] consuming to throw a show like that because a lot of the time we’re throwing, what I like to call guerrilla shows. It’s like a show that’s obviously not authorized by the school. Usually, all the shows I do are never authorized.”
“You also just got to say, ‘f*** it.’ If this is something you want to do in your life, even if you’re going to get in trouble, f*** it. This is now or never. That’s why I say if there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Erdita’s drive for the music he creates and performs is unwavering and deeply embedded in his heart. At the end of the day, he isn’t Pak Joko first, he is Cyan, a kid who started with a dream and who isn’t going to stop.
“I like to tell people that this is me and a lot of the times I do say crazy stuff in my music, but at the same time, that’s just me having fun, just messing around. But a lot of people say that when they speak to me in person, I’m completely different than I am on stage,” shared Erdita.
“I want people to honestly see me as an honorable person, honorable meaning a person going past the music. I value that a lot because in the real world, it’s good times over evil, you know?”