JOIN USHigh on rap and hip-hop
Metrolife spoke to some musicians and popular bands in the City about how the rap and hip-hop scene in the City was shaping up. Vighnesh alias Brodha V of Machas with Attitude, a three member hip-hop band which has gained immense popularity in the recent years says, “Frankly speaking, the hip-hop crowd in Bangalore is very less. However, of late, I have seen a lot of school and college kids getting into hip-hop. It is still very nascent but slowly picking up.”
Machas with Attitude started in early 2006 and the three members — Brodha V alias Vighnesh Shivanand, Bigg Nikk alias Nikhil Padmanabh and Smokey alias Sumukh Mysore met through an online battling community. From providing music to Tamil movies to the release of an independent album recently, they are a force to reckon in the hip-hop scene. About their music, they say, “We do almost every kind of song, from songs that purely just have an entertainment value to songs that speak about socially sensitive issues that we strongly feel for. We also incorporate many Indian elements and our costuming is also very different. It is all about surprising the crowd and giving them something they will remember you by.”
Things are looking rather bright for rap and hip-hop music enthusiasts in the City and Colin Terrence, a rapper, says that by next year, many new artistes will be seen. “We have the whole beat boxer and rapper routine in colleges. People are highly amused by it and it is like a whole new culture which people are embracing. Facebook is one of the bigger stages and has aided in getting rap and hip-hop popular in the City.”
Karthik Sundar, an engineering student and Sushant Swamy, a medical student, form Neo Fatal, a five-year-old rap and hip-hop band. About their music they say, “It is the best way of putting across what we are going through. Our lyrics always try to convey a message about things that matter to us. We have recently come up with songs on corruption, women rights and pollution. We also have bits of Carnatic music in our songs as Swamy is a mridangam player. Our music retains our roots as we don’t want to forget where we come from.”
Prakash Kanchan, a musician, has a different perspective about rap and hip-hop music, says, “‘Rap music these days is called hip-hop and most of the hip-hop we see on TV is fake. It was a grassroots’ movement that was started as a tool against social oppression and people used to sing about social issues and important things — now they sing only about money, girls and guns! True, hip-hop isn’t found on radio anymore.”