On the music scene, the recent talk-of-the-town was rapper Yashraj Mehra’s collaboration with Zaeden and Lost Stories for a remix of Tere Bina at Vh1 Supersonic. This dynamic rapper, who is just 20, is now out with his first-ever EP, Azaad Hu Mein. Consisting of three soulful songs Azaad Hu Mein, Sote Raho, and Kaise Badlenge, the theme of the EP revolves around resolving the inner conflict first in order to fight the world in any situation.
Excerpts from interview:
What motivated you to work on this theme?
As a huge fan of cinema, I’ve always read about how the protagonist in every impactful movie tends to resolve his inner conflict first in order to fight outer conflict. In this process of personality change, there tends to be a domino effect on your work and relationships, hence completely altering the dynamics. Azaad Hu Mein is a very personal project, as I shed light on a number of instances and situations that I faced mentally and emotionally in my life. I have portrayed these with some of the most unfamiliar yet familiar sounds, and lyrically simple and justifiable words that get my message through. The word Azaad is not only impactful enough to portray an entire country’s freedom struggle, but also articulative to describe what goes on in the mind of a middle-class boy who wants his art to be his voice. I believe that the most beautiful pieces of writing or any form of art comes only when you are personally attached to it. A lot of people comment on social issues and give their perspective, but the next day they completely change their stance. I wanted to give a very individualistic and personal approach because I believe that if you are true to yourself and your art, it reflects in your work.
You believe in not sticking to a cookie-cutter formula. Tell us more about your creative streak, and how it manifested in your EP?
In a field like music, which is an everchanging, ever-evolving medium, and even though there might be a recipe for a ‘hit song’, it doesn’t mean that its music is good. I truly believe in experimenting and constantly working on your skills is required to grow in this field. Versatility for an artist himself and excel at everything he did. How are you spending time during the lockdown? ist is as important as finding his/her sound. In this EP, I have tried to experiment with my topics, different flows, using different sounds in each track, and consciously tried to make all the songs revolve under one centralised idea.
You draw inspiration from Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino’s creative intellectuality. Tell us more about it.
This artist has won Grammys, Golden Globes, Writer’s Guild Awards, BET awards, that too, for not just music, but acting, standup, writing, direction, etc. It is so inspiring to see artists like him operate at the utmost peak of creative liberty. He could have easily stopped at any one field, but instead chose to push himself and excel at everything he did.
How are you spending time during the lockdown?
Honestly, I’m just struggling to make a time table. I am trying to get as much work done as possible. while trying to cater to my laziness. But yes, I’m not trying to force myself creatively, rather letting things come to me naturally, that way it hopefully turn outs to be better.