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Musically yours

PHOTO: S.S. KUMAR

Making a mark Emcee Jesz

Emcee Jesz has all the markings of a top hip-hop artiste. Loose-fitting, baggy clothes, often riddled with logos. Long hair pony-tailed, when not knitted. A confident gait. An irreverent look. Fat voice. An original beat-boxing style. Catchy Tamil rap lyrics. You heard us right — Emcee Jesz raps in Tamil.

If that surprises you and if you have been thinking that hip-hop is as alien to Tamil music as Twitter to prehistoric man, you are just not with it. And also, quite obviously, you have not been watching Tamil films lately. Tamil hip-hop is a fast-growing music industry.

Kuala Lumpur-based Emcee Jesz is one of its icons. Jesz shot to fame in 2003 with the release of Tamil hip-hop video album ‘Vallavan’. It was not a solo effort; he shared the spotlight with Yogi B and Dr. Burn, also from Malaysia. Ever since, the trio has performed together as ‘Nakshatra’ and also in Tamil films (“Laadam” is the last film they rapped for).

Jesz calls Yogi B ‘annan’ (big brother); and as gratitude to Yogi B for signing him up for “Vallavan”, Jesz has dedicated the first track in his solo album ‘Kavithai Gundar’ (produced by Studio 8) to Yogi B.

The track speaks about the greatness of Yogi B and the Tamil hip-hop camp that they belong to and how Tamil hip-hop has come of age. ‘Kavithai Gundar’ (in music stores since May 1) is a giant step forward for Jesz, whose mind was set on Tamil rapping glory even when he was a student of computer science.

Growing up in Malaysia, he could not escape Tamil hip-hop. Much before the world was caught by the hip-hop fever, Yogi B experimented with the genre. In 1990, he formed the group Poetic Ammo, which has produced hip-hop albums in Bahasa Melayu, Cantonese and Tamil and English.

In the 1990s, wanting to become a hip-hop album artiste set off panic bells in a parent. A police officer, Jesz’ father wanted his son to follow in his foot steps or get into engineering. His mother, a teacher, was more sympathetic towards Jesz’ aspirations — but papa’s word prevailed. After getting a degree in computer science, Jesz told his dad he had degree to fall back on and wanted to pursue his dream.

Much as he admired Yogi B, Jesz wanted a distinct style for himself. From the start, he has been working towards that. “When someone is like everybody else, there can’t be much need for him. I want to be different.” He has worked hard on his beatboxing (producing musical sounds without their corresponding instruments and also mimicking animals and other sound-producing agents). Jesz can simulate the sounds of Tamil percussion instruments such as the tapu and urimi. Making bird calls is his trademark.

Jesz also aims at versatility. “I try to prove that no theme is off-limits for rapping. A track in ‘Kavithai Gundar’ is based on devotion to God. The track ‘Thaniye’, which features Neha Bhasin, is a mix of melody and rapping. I have also shown that I can rap slow and fast. ” Jesz treatment of old melodies has come in for a lot of praise. Ilayaraaja’s ‘Devathai Ilam Devi’ is among the haunting songs from the past that have been woven into Jesz’s musical fabric. Other things going for this Malaysian rapper: a burning desire to succeed and a willingness to forgo short-term gains for something bigger.

For the making of ‘Kavithai Gundar’, he pitched tent in Chennai for three months and in Delhi (where the mixing was done in analogue format) for another 20 days. “I cancelled about 40 international tours in this period,” says Jesz. “A first solo album is a milestone in an album artiste’s career. I wanted to give it all.”

Jesz waits for the reward.

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