The night sky in Osian is an ink-stained expanse dotted by a few lone stars. Under the blue-black canopy are cabanas lined one after another. Strewn across the sand are cushions to lounge on. In the ancient desert town in Jodhpur, an oasis in the Thar desert, an evening heavily enveloped in music is underway — there is a slight nip in the air as Bombay Bassment, the reggae ensemble from Mumbai, takes over the stage. An hour into the performance, they have managed to get the audience before the stage grooving happily to their unique, often lauded as ‘feel good’ sounds. They were at Colour Me Pink, a precursor musical event to Jodhpur Jazz Safari slated to be held in 2021, that was held in early March to a closed audience.
‘Bam Bam (One Love)’, the indie outfit’s 2019 club track echoes into the distance, as the ensemble’s rapper and vocalist Bob Omulo aka MC Bobkat, invites the audience to sing along. The track is an instant crowd favourite — a foot-tapping, fast-paced rap track that invokes an important message. The video and lyrics speak of the need for equality: ‘One love, one kind, one mind’, the peppy chorus goes on.
Bombay Bassment was started purely as a bass and drum outfit by Ruell Barretto (bassist) and the band’s ex-drummer Levin Mendes. In pursuit for a fuller sound, the duo was soon linked to Chandrashekhar Kunder aka Major C and Bobkat and a new sound was born. They are now a decade old and were the first Indian hip hop musicians to perform at the Glastonbury Festival, UK, in 2016. As is evident from the name, the ensemble was born in Mumbai and “growing up in Mumbai meant struggling to find space for anything non-mainstream,” says Bobkat. But being the entertainment capital, it also gave them a lot of exposure to varied sounds before the Internet era. “We were doing hip hop, Afro and reggae dancehall before it became a thing,” he continues.
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Though each of the band members brings a unique sound to the table, the creative process that involves varied genres is not challenging any more. “Someone comes up with an idea; usually Major C, but it could also be a bass line by Ruell or a hook by me, then the rest build on to it,” continues Bob. But as a complete sound, who are they? ‘Feel-good’ is their definition. “We come to make you dance, although we toss in some consciousness, wokeness, but by and large, we know anyone who listens to us ultimately expects to have a happy time.” As is seen in many of their relatively recent tracks.
Ten years down the line, they still feel that there are fewer performance spaces for indie music in the country, especially in Mumbai. How the COVID-19 situation will affect the entertainment industry is also something that the ensemble is deliberating on. “As long as we are working outside the mainstream ecosystem, we will always have creative freedom, which means we will always come up with sounds that the rest of the industry jumps on only when it becomes huge commercially,” continues Bob.
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While self-isolating, the band is currently catching up on some unfinished projects and is working on new tracks. “We are still old school hip hop heads and we are not about to give up that title, so expect more of the same old with new flavour coming your way soon,” assures Bob.