KOCHI: Over the past decade, Febin Joseph aka Fejo has contributed much towards popularising Malayalam rap across the country. His latest compositions, ‘Workil Aanu Karyam’ and ‘Oorjam’, juxtapose contexts of good-evil, known-unknown, light-dark and white-black
Febin Joseph aka Fejo is a familiar name among indie music listeners in Kerala. This erstwhile Kerala State Electricity Board employee jumped head first into rap over a decade ago when people in India were still trying to comprehend how quick and rhythmic utterance of words birthed a subversive music culture abroad. Febin joined a select league of artists who not only delved into a renegade genre but also chose to do it in their own tongue. Over the years, Febin has come out with a prolific list of more than 25 tracks and has contributed much towards popularising Malayalam rap across the country.
His latest compositions, ‘Workil Aanu Karyam’ and ‘Oorjam’, released after the lockdown, juxtapose contexts of good-evil, known-unknown, light-dark and white-black in absolute terms as a way of telling his listeners that the world has no space for ambivalence. While ‘Workil Aanu Karyam’ which was authored last year, explores a universal and timeless theme, ‘Oorjam’ delves into positive and negative energies that command our everyday lives. With the titular refrain which translates to ‘light’, Febin emphasises the importance of focusing on optimistic aspects especially in a contemporaneous world riding on gloom.
“Workil Aanu Karyam says that it doesn’t matter if someone is fair or dark. What is important is his or her deeds. I also included a small part about Sushant Singh Rajput following his death. I had heard that he was interested in astronomy and had bought a piece of land on moon. Just like the moon, he hid his dark and depressed side from everyone,” says Febin, highlighting again the play of contrasts in his work. It is through this juxtaposition that Febin underlines the hypocrisies of society and its leaders. His words emphasise that the issues we grapple with today cannot be dealt with uncertainty or hesitancy; there is simply no room for grey.
With his skill in rapping spanning over a decade, Febin has become a master in use of metaphor. Much of his wordplay can only be caught by an astute listener paying close attention to his high tempo rap. Perhaps this is why he caught the attention of prominent Hindi rapper Raftaar who recently named Febin as his favourite regional rap artist. “Raftaar bhai is the most genuine and kind supporter I have met. He is very busy but finds time to call me almost every month to know about my projects. He chanced upon my work quite serendipitously. I had done an interview for a FM channel in which I remixed a Post Malone song and Raftaar bhai happened to hear it.
He gave me a shout-out on his Instagram and I got hundreds of messages from people across the country,” says the Kochi native. It was through Raftaar that Febin bagged an opportunity to work with actor Varun Dhawan last year to promote Breezer Vivid Shuffle, India’s largest hip-hop dance festival. He was also one of the participants of an all-India regional language rap cypher conducted by MTV which was judged by the likes of Nucleya and Raja Kumari.
The 29-year-old is ecstatic about the booming rap milieu in the state. “A lot of new talent is coming into the scene. Rap music is definitely at a high point in Kerala. When I started, a lot of people didn’t know what rapping was and many thought only Tamil was powerful enough to rap with. But Malayalam rappers have proved that wrong with some incredible work. I think currently Malayalam rap is more popular than Tamil,” says Febin.
Having worked in the industry for so long, Febin is all too familiar with what it takes to make one’s mark. Apart from training young kids on the basics of rapping, he wants to use his reach to give a platform to budding artists. Febin is already walking his talk, as ‘Workil Aanu Karyam’ introduces a new artist who goes by MC Mushti. “I am now very excited about reintroducing an English rap artist from Kerala who retired a few years ago. For most of us he is like a legend.”