Over the years, conscious rap has found some mainstream appeal as well. “What is freedom? Do you have freedom my friend? It exists but still what we see is insults and injustice,” question rappers Tony Sebastian and Rajesh Radhakrishnan in the video, taking an anti-establishment stance. Dopeadelicz put out a track titled ‘Vishama (poison)’. Thirteen people were killed and over 100 injured.
In 2018, during the Thoothukudi Sterlite protests, police opened fire on the protesters who objected to the proposed expansion of Sterlite corporation’s copper smelter plant. We now rap in Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Hindi and English,” Tony tells TNM. But once we started speaking about the issues that were closer to home, it resonated with people. “We were finding it difficult to find an audience for English and Tamil rap in Mumbai. Initially, they found it hard to establish themselves. And since its inception, the band has been trying to discuss important issues like identity through its music. Dopeadelicz was started in 2012 by Tony, who is known by his stage name ‘Pyscho’, along with rappers Rajesh Radhakrishnan and Agnel Avinash Benson. In recent years, many indie bands and musicians like Lady Kash, M.I.A, Shan Vincent De Paul, Navz-47 and Rolex Rasathy have produced music shaped by inter-cultural influences and their identities.īut the journey towards finding their niche hasn’t always been easy. It emerged as a disruptor on many fronts, by questioning the caste system, systemic injustice against Dalits, honour killings, and more through music. And he isn’t the only one.īacked by director Pa Ranjith, the ensemble political band, the Casteless Collective, was founded in 2017. But it was only after 2015 that we have seen Tamil artistes like Tony, represent their communities and discuss their identity through music. Whether their brand of music is reflective of the ethos of conscious rap is an area of contention. In India, the hip-hop wave has been characterised by the works of musicians like Honey Singh and Badshah in Bollywood and HipHop Tamizha in Tamil cinema, among others.
Historically, conscious rap and hip-hop have been used as a form of social protest and encompass a range of perspectives and ideologies. A part of the country’s conscious hip-hop movement, Tony was one of the early ones to use music to speak truth to power.
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