HYDERABAD:Independent artists have less scope to show case their talent in a public platform, especially with fierce competition from mainstream cinema and other mediums. Many artistes experiment with independent music, before fading away due to lack of funds or opportunities. However, the Jimpak chipak song fame artists MC Mike (Kanna Murali, 25years), MC Uneek(Harish Gorapalli, 24 years) and Omi(Sai Teja Sripathi, 26 years), the Hyderabad-based independent artists, are happy with their work and have laid a very strong foundation to their music(rapping) careers.
Their music is in sync with the Hyderabadi culture, language and mindset and hence their popularity rose soon after the release of the song Jimpak Chipak, which has over eleven million viewers till date.
Their journey as independent artists began when Om introduced Uneek to Mike and their love for music or rapping was similar, and that is when they decided to collaborate to make some creative music.“I studied in Loyola College, Alwal.
One day, when I was in the studio and started freestyling – shoes macha, fb macha and so on, Sunny Austin, who was a beat boxer, was doing his beat boxing at the same time around and it did blend wonderfully. Two years later Sunny, me, Uneek and Om collaborated and Jimpak Chipak happened,” shares MC Mike.
Their agenda is simple and straight – they want to entertain music lovers and make a strong foundation as artists in Hyderabad first, then go to the next level of rap music that is diversifying their music to English audience too and create sensation there.
“Many odds are faced by independent artists in Hyderabad. I personally have experienced few in my career. However, untilwe are producing quality music nothing or nobody can stop us from making music,” MC Uneek says, passionately.
Uneek, who also works in Infosys as a software engineer, says the misconceptions about rap in the city is disturbing.
“It will take a lifetime to master rapping. People have a misconception that rapping is an assimilation of words, which are spoken in a fast way. One needs to have the technique, write good lyrics and consider many technical aspects that are involved in rapping. Composers from the Telugu film industry have approached us, but those were very small roles and I feel, with our talent, we deserve better opportunities than this,” Uneek observes.
“As there is not much diversity in Tollywood industry in terms of encouraging new music or artist, we decide to be independent artists and make our own music,” he adds.
After Jimpak Chipak, the youngsters have also created a stir with their recent song ‘Tipiri Tipiri’, which received overwhelming appreciation from the audience.
“Many people are comparing Tipiri Tipiri with Jimpak Chipak, which they mustn’t do. Tipiri Tipiri is a concept-oriented song. We tried something different and new from what we did earlier. We have been attracting people of all age groups with our music, and that is a great achievement for us,” Mike expresses.
When asked about the secret behind their success, Uneek quips,”What makes us unique is that we mix pop, urban and English music with our Hyderabadi teenmar music and language, and that is how we caught the people’s attention.
Our inspiration comes from western artists like Drake, Kendrick Lamar and many more independent artists. We have localized rap in our culture through the blend of teenmar mix.” The team’s next project is ‘Hey Pilla 2’, a sequel of sorts to their hit song ‘Hey Pilla’. “It is a soft, romantic song. The lady version has been sung by Vidya Sirisha, who was also a part of ‘Hey Pilla’,” adds MC Mike.