Street Academics

Last updated
Street Academics
Street Academics at The Humming Tree.jpg
Street Academics at The Humming Tree, Bangalore 2017
Background information
Origin Kerala, India
Genres Alternative hip-hop
Instrument(s)Vocals, Sampler, Drum machine, Synthesizer, Turntables.
Years active2009–present

Street Academics is an Indian alternative hip-hop group from Kerala, known for their songs blending malayalam, english and tamil lyrics. The collective of rappers based out of various districts from their home state are noted for emphasizing on contemporary and philosophical themes ranging from social realism to dystopian fantasy. [1] [2] [3] [4] They collaborate with projects like Mappila Lahala and Palakkadan Dystopia, to release songs that focus on having cultural discussions set in avant-garde backdrops. [5] [6] [7] [8]

Contents

History

Street Academics was an idea brought forward by Rjv Ernesto in 1999, as a small group for spoken word poetry and making pause tapes. [9] Later he was introduced to Haris Saleem through hip-hop communities in Myspace and Orkut. After recording various demo tracks, they brought in Amjad Nadeem, Abhimanyu Raman and Pranav to move forward as a hip-hop collective in 2009. Keyboardist & music producer Ruthin Thej worked with the group to produce a couple of singles, before leaving to pursue his career as keyboardist for Thaikkudam Bridge. Later Vivek Radhakrishnan joined the group as the DJ/producer providing a bass-oriented sound. They started collaborating with the cultural music collective Mappila Lahala, led by filmmaker Muhsin Parari, to release politically oriented singles which featured veteran actor Mamukkoya and national award-winning composer Bijibal. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] The group has also formed avant garde hip-hop project Palakkadan Dystopia to release singles and went on to collaborate with experimental theatre acts, performing shows which combined spoken word, theatre, hip-hop music & graffiti. [5] [15] After working on singles and compilations over the years, the group released a complete multilingual album titled "Loop" loosely based on seven deadly sins. [16] [17] [18]

On July 13, 2019, a live performance of Street Academics along with Bandish Projekt and Swadesi, was interrupted by a group of people who demanded the venue officials to play Kannada songs, instead of the group's original Malayalam tracks, as they were in Bengaluru. The group's set was cut short and forced off stage. After the performance, rapper/vocalist Amjad and few of his friends were taken away by the police, allegedly for causing public nuisance. Venue management later released a public statement, apologizing to Street Academics regarding the incident. [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] The group released a protest song titled "Hara Hara" along with a music video, and performed it live during Citizenship Amendment Act protests at Kozhikode. [25] [26] [27] [28] [29]

Themes and influences

Members state that they started off through slam poetry before getting introduced to hip-hop music. [30] Rjv Ernesto cites spoken word poetry and sports/pro-wrestling commentary as his influence in rap music. Developing an interest towards drum solos, he recalls creating beats by cutting out bits of tape from cassettes using a razor blade and glueing them back before inserting the tape into the cartridge. [11] [31] The group's multilingual lyricism usually brings up questions of expression & identity, affirming the place of vernacular rap in India, being one of the first acts to do so. [4] [32] [33] [34] [35] Street Academics is considered to be one of the oldest independent hip-hop outfits in India. [36] [37] [38] They are noted for pioneering Malayalam rap with serious content & multisyllabic rhyme patterns, against the comical parody image that rap/hip-hop music has had in their region. Even though the production relies on minimal boom bap oriented sampling as the backbone, the collective effort exhibits influences of musique concrète, lo-fi, glitch, folk, ambient, R&B, jazz poetry, grime and funk. [39] [40] [41] [42] Most of the themes are set in an alternate reality or a post-apocalyptic world, often presented from the narrative mode of various alter egos. It is noted that majority of those plots are inter-connected & follow a particular nonlinear storyline throughout the body of their work. [5] [43] [44] [7] [45] [46] The "Dead Crow" symbolism goes hand in hand with their journey and has pretty much established itself as a mascot for Street Academics over time. [47] The group's singles Vandi Puncture and Native Bapa, both released in 2012, are often held responsible for taking Malayalam hip-hop music to mainstream. [9] [48]

Members

Former Members:-

Discography

Albums:-

Remix Albums:-

Film Soundtracks:-

Singles:-

Collaboration Albums:-

Mixtapes/Solo Albums:-

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References

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