KOCHI: The film Gully Boy, a box office hit, narrated the life of a young rapper who struggled through life to become a rockstar. When Karthik Krishna watched the movie two years ago, it resonated with his love for hip-hop, inspiring him to write verses that matter. His latest release, Sex Education Rap, which has over six lakh views online now, is a mix of his passion and his aspiration to change the world.
Karthik believes that achievement speaks for itself. The Humble Musician, his stage names, is on-point, as Karthik is someone who likes to stay humble about the paths he has covered. “I received over 50,000 shares on Instagram in 24hours of sharing Sex Education Rap. This made me realise that such a progressive line of thinking is appreciated by many,” he says.
The Malayalam rap conveys ambiguities around the term ‘sex’. The stigma around it that all of us experience since we are teenagers. “Like most youngsters, even I had my share of misinformation on the subject. Teachers, parents or society takes no initiative in educating kids, so the kids turn to porn and other unhealthy channels to satisfy their curiosity. Back in school, when we act up in class, the teacher would make us sit among the girls as punishment.
This kind of things saw the first seed of ignorance — being included among girls is something shameful and such. The teachers even skip lessons on reproduction in our science textbooks, which is quite unscientific. My rap says, that introducing sex education may be the only way to bring about gender equality and reduce the sexual atrocities against women,” he says.
Sex Education Rap is Karthik’s third song. “Shockingly, many youngsters of my age and younger than me messaged saying they have similar doubts, and went looking for answers in porn and are now addicted. Others commented that their marital relationship failed due to lack of proper sex education,” says the Kochi-native.Karthik’s earlier composition ‘Kalyanam’ that talks about the stress faced by youngsters due to early and forced marriages was also a hit. Karthik started his music career posting cover songs from 2017.