JOIN USBengaluru has opened itself to experiments be it in music or other artforms. The rap music scene here is also growing by leaps and bounds. Sandalwood, like other industries, is influenced by different musical styles and rap seems to be the latest entrant here.
Actor-singer Alok Babu aka ‘All.Okay’ composed the rap version of ‘Allah Allah’ for Sharan-starrer ‘Nataraja Service’. “I made the song and gave it to them and the team used it through the movie in parts,” he says.
Ask him why this fad in Sandalwood and he says, “There has been a tremendous growth of rap music in the industry. It is just like how filmmaking equipment has changed over the years. The whole industry is taking a new shape now, technically and scriptwise,” says Alok. He adds that the music also adds a ‘youthful quotient’ to
projects.
Kannada rapper Karthik Gubbi says that the youth of today connect well with Kannada rap music and it is the ‘ín thing’.
“The music producers in the movie industry are more open to experiments now. It started off as fillers. In ‘Coma’, I was given the opportunity to prepare a full-fledged song, with complete artistic freedom to structure the song the way I wanted it to. It was a complete rap song, which was also used to promote the movie,” says Karthik.
He adds that such music also helps to bring in the ‘fun factor’ of dance and promote the project well. “The song for ‘Coma’ was meant to communicate ‘a moment of shock’. So I had to bring out this idea through the song. I have also done music for ‘Plus’ which was an inspirational upbeat number,” says Karthik. The rap artiste believes that hiphop music is here to stay. “Its just like the trend wherein Bollywood singers are brought in to sing for Kannada movies,” he adds.
There are other independent artistes like Bijjala Nataraj aka MC Bijju, whose rap track will be seen in movies like ‘Malli’ and ‘Santhu’. He co-created a track for the movie ‘Selfie’ with other artistes and says that the evolving of rap music in the movie industry is an encouraging trend.
“People are often confused about music in different genres but this spotlight on real rap music is fantastic, especially in movies. I am excited about this change. There will be artistes who will keep experimenting with rap music,” he adds. Though rap music is booming all around, Bijjala feels that it will only reach its prime in Sandalwood in the coming years.
Some believe that rap music in Sandalwood is at a nascent stage. Sumukh Mysore or ‘Smokey The Ghost’, who did ‘Go Take That U Turn’ for the movie ‘U Turn’, says that this is a welcome change.
“I have been rapping for a while now. Shraddha Srinath, who acted in the film, used to sing with us, and I was talking to her about doing a song together. This is when she told me about the movie and I checked with storywriter Pawan Kumar. I mostly make contextual songs so it all fell in place. One wouldn’t be able to understand the song unless one watches the movie though it the flagship song. It was played when credits roll at the end of the movie,” he details.
His latest works include tracks for ‘Nannu Coffee Hucha’ and an unnamed movie.
“It is the nature of the industry which makes rap a newcomer. I rap in English and the kind of reactions I got compared to a Kannada rap artiste is different. We have a long way to go. It’s great to see all this happen now,” says Sumukh.