fire
Your Top 5 Rappers?
One hidden talent you have that nobody
knows?
Lupe Fiasco, The Game, Eminem, J Cole, DMX
I can do the betwixt nose twist
What comes to your mind when you hear the
following? The best gig you ever had?
a. Rap God- KRS One, Rakim Redbull Tour Bus- A slice Of Indian Hip-hop
b. RDB- Manjh Music Most fun artist you’ve worked with?
c. Kerala- God’s own country
d. Delhi- My own Countr y
Which is your best song till date?
My artist- Unan and Vishal Dadlani
The song that turns you up?
Goosebumps by Travis Scott
Allah Ve
mistakes. My dad sat down with me and talked about sex.
He told me what a condom is. But, if you have an upbringing
where your dad is hurling abuses at your mom or he’s
beating her, that’s what you grow up to be. We are taught
that men are superior to women. That’s bullshit. We need
to kill taboo. I have a Malyali upbringing. In my side of the
family, the girl child inherits her father’s property. That’s
beautiful. I’ve never seen my dad disrespect my mom in
any way. So, I grew up respecting women. But, now this
insidious mentality has been embedded in us. It’ll wither
away only if we educate our kids better. We need to teach
our kids to respect a woman’s womanhood. And we need
to make an example out of genuine culprits. It’ll take time,
but it’ll get better until the next generation grows up.
You release a lot of independent music along with film
music. What is difference in the process of the two and what
adjustments do you have to make while shifting from one
to another?
The primary difference is that I do Bollywood music for
others and independent for myself. While making a Bollywood
song, I do what the script demands and what the director
wants. I write the lyrics as per that. We mak e the whole song,
give it to the director, and make the changes if there’re any.
When I’m making an independent song, I do what I want to do
with the song. I decide everything from production to lyrics.
Despite having many hit singles independently and in movies, you
haven’t released a full album yet. Can we expect your debut rap
album any soon?
My debut album is on the way. It should be complete in a
matter of the next two months. It’s called ‘Zero to Infinity’.
We’ll have eight tracks on the album. After that, I’ll be
back making mixtapes. I’ve already competed a song with
Emiway. I’m making a song with Brodha V. Brodha V is
producing music for the track. There’s an upcoming song
called ‘O Chori’ where I’ve collaborated with Jyotica Tangri
who sang ‘Pallo Latke’. She’s a phenomenal vocalist. All
my upcoming songs have collaborations with artists who
are not very known yet, but they’re talented musicians.
There’s a track from my album called ‘Mundeya Di
Maut’ with Uday who’s also a very talented rapper.
You never shied off supporting young talent. Recently you signed
five underground rap artistes. Tell us a bit more about that?
Yeah. The artists that I’ve signed recently are Krishna,
Deep Khalsi, Harjas, Unan, and Karma. We’re going to
drop a compilation of songs where everybody has their
own song and own music video. We’ve already shot Karma
and Unan’s music videos. Krishna did an immaculate
track called ‘Vyanjan’ recently where he raps the whole
hindi alphabetic characters in order. It is the toughest rap
song that you will hear in recent times. I treat everybody
as equal artists without any personal bias and we’re all
collaborating together to make new music. I promise that
people will remember me as a person who has not made
hip-hop bigger but made hip-hop able to feed families.
Rap and hip hop’s growing worldwide popularity
has reflected in the Indian circuit too. Do you think
this is its best chance to get into the mainstream
music or do you think it still lacks refinement?
Rap started making an impact in the industry since the time
Bohemia dropped ‘Kali Denali’ in 2006. That’s when
I as a listener heard desi rap and got influenced by it. Until
2016, people were developing an ear for it. What we did 5
years back developed a momentum for such music. There’s
a hip-hop show on radio called ‘Rap Jones’ now. BBC
Asian is recording hip-hop music in India. India hosted its
first hip-hop festival called ‘A Slice of Indian Hip-Hop’ by
Redbull Tour Bus in Guwahati this February. Divine was
performing there, Khasi Bloodz were there and a whole
new breed of vernacular hip-hop artists performed at the
festival. I myself, was headlining the concert. That was
the best concert I’ve ever performed at. The vibe there was
electrifying. So, yes, the listening has developed. It’ll take
time for artists to get paid by making hip-hop. But, I’d still
definitely say that hip-hop is the mainstream music now.
You’ve time and again said that Rap must be more skewed
towards storytelling. Do you think popular Bollywood music has
done justice to the genre?
There are two genres- Hip-hop and Hip-pop. So, Bollywood
might not be essentially hip-hop, but it is blending into
the genre with a mix of pop music. It’s like a leakage in the
pipe that we’ve entered and we’re now headed towards the
opening where rap becomes a thing in itself. Divine is the
perfect example of that. People who didn’t weren’t aware
of hip-hop music have now developed the taste for it due to
Bollywood. So, yes Bollywood has certainly nurtured
an audience for rap music.
What message do you have for our readers?
I will say- be a wannabe. Because everybody starts as
wannabe and then someday you become somebody by
following your passion. It is very necessary to wish for
something to make it happen.
The
Score Magazine
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