Hiphop Tamizha Adhi’s love for the Tamil language is well known. The young musician-actor has spoken about it in multiple forums, even in his films.
Last year, he released a research documentary series, Tamizhi , which traces the evolution of the written Tamil script. “I was intrigued seeing a lot of foreigners reacting to that. We need to take Tamil to the world,” he says, over phone. Part of that plan involves dubbing Tamizhi in English and producing another documentary on the same subject that he hopes to send to film festivals.
This is in line with what Adhi has been mulling over the past few months during lockdown. “Earlier, we were running around and did not have any time to reflect. We have now, and it’s time we got our priorities right and understand what is important and what isn’t,” he adds.
What is important to him is not only spreading the glory of Tamil but also giving a thrust to the independent music scene. Adhi broke into the scene way back in 2012 — with the superhit ‘Hip Hop Tamizha’ — and is set to make a comeback now with ‘Naa Oru Alien’, presented by Think Music.
Join the tribe
The album’s first single, ‘Net Ah Thoranda’, released to much expectation a few days ago and has already clocked more than a million views; the remaining songs release this weekend. Its six songs (including ‘Dark Horse’, ‘Imayam Enbadhu Mayakkanadi’, ‘Ellame Konjam Kaalam’ and ‘Pogattum Po’) are all musical representations of his current state of mind.
“We had planned to make a big comeback to independent music in 2020. In fact, an album with all the songs are locked and ready. But with the pandemic and lockdown, upon us, we decided to take this concept up and got it all done within the last few months,” he says.
He hopes that this will bring back attention to independent music, something he has been gunning for since his debut in 2012. “Our recent ‘Underground Tribe’ initiative too was a success. We have facilitated the process for people to showcase their talents. You never know... in a few years, we might have a dozen artistes who are bigger than Hip Hop Tamizha. That is a dream I want to make happen,” he adds.
The way forward
The last few years have also seen Adhi in front of the camera, with successful outings in films like Meesaya Murukku and Natpe Thunai . He next has a “big project” produced by TG Thyagarajan of Sathya Jyothi Films (details of which is expected soon), but assures that he will devote a lot of time to music as well.
“My next five years will revolve around creating an independent music industry. I’m coordinating with a lot of aspiring artistes, connecting them with labels and hoping to expand their reach to other parts of the world.”
A big inspiration for him in this plan is the influence of Latin trap, a sub-genre of Latin hiphop, in the world music scene. “They are also like us. Ten years ago, there was no music industry there, but today, three of their songs feature in Billboard’s 10 songs. Today, they are a global industry. Why cannot Tamil hiphop also follow suit?” asks Adhi.
With his recent songs talking about the need to abstain from negativity, Adhi is, in his own words, “looking at spreading some cheer”. Interestingly, this comes just a few weeks after the controversy surrounding stand-up comedian Jagan Krishnan’s take on his music in the recent Acadummy Awards 2019 . Adhi refuses to be drawn into that, but says that his recent songs are an answer to all his critics. He adds: “I feel people lose focus because they feel they are very important in the virtual world. We have people who post sad things about Sushant Singh’s suicide and troll someone the very next minute. If you look at yourself as a third person and see what you are doing, you will get all the answers for things bothering you. Also, spread some love... it will only come back to you in a beautiful circle.”
