Bengaluru's hip-hop industry grooves amid COVID-19

Bengaluru-based musicians Hanumankind and Parimal Shais' new single is a earworm packed with dopamine rush.
Bengaluru-based music producer Parimal Shais (Photo| Facebook)
Bengaluru-based music producer Parimal Shais (Photo| Facebook)

BENGALURU: While the pandemic left art and artistes stagnating all over the country, hip-hop music was the only flame that kept burning. For Hanumankind (HMK), the Texas-bred Bengaluru-based rapper, the uncertainty was more of a learning curve, he says.

His 2019 EP Kalari was a grand display of HMK's many facets as an artist, poet, rapper, revelling in the Southside spirit and an assiduous advocate of everything from mental health to socio-political dilemmas.

Between Bottle of MH and Daily Dose, the album easily vocalises his process - balance. Fast forward to now, HMK’s new single Damn Son that dropped last week, is another powerful, unprecedented masterpiece raging the streets (and soon the pubs) on a Contessa.

Bengaluru-based music producer Parimal Shais put that show on the road, with his haunting groovy beat. The duo started working together in 2019, with Pharmaceutical from Parimal's debut album Kumari Kandam Traps, Vol 1. Since then, they have brought out a  few impressive numbers together, like S.L.A.B, Beer and Biryani and more.

Damn Son was preceded by Genghis that came out in March 2021, the first collaboration from HMK and Bijoy Shetty, who also visualised Damn Son. While the former is a verse-heavy, cerebral number rendered in monochrome, the latter is a beat-heavy, volatile track shot like a renaissance painting.

"I am not a trained musician. For me, it is all about creating the right sound. As much as I enjoy feeling the beat and pumping it, I love the process of writing. I could do both and also do something entirely different from either too. This is all me testing the waters," quips HMK.

But underneath all that glam and golden grill, HMK is still in love with his roots, his Dravidian identity and the quirks of being a South Indian - a virtue he shares with Shais. This is probably why his verses in Netflix original Namma stories celebrates lungi and chai, and it also explains his obsession with a Contessa, the antagonist’s ride in every vintage South Indian movie.

The opening scene of Damn Son has HMK driving around in the car, with a number plate that reads ‘HMKOTW’ (Hanumankind on the way). It is perhaps his self-made, eclectic brand that has effortlessly put him under the spotlight in such little time, and what makes HMK one of a kind.

"It takes patience. You are always writing and making music, thinking about the next verse and keeping that momentum going. Even through the lockdown, it has kept me afloat," he says.

Damn Son

  • Production: Parimal Shais

  • Direction : Bijoy Shetty

  • Camera: Rohan Johnson

  • Streaming on: YouTube

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The New Indian Express
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