Blazing a trail

“I'm not blasé, I'm BlaaZe”. An apt tagline for “Time For Gandhi”, hip-hop artiste BlaaZe's debut album, which not only expresses displeasure over deeply entrenched injustices, but also castigates our growing indifference to them. Since the eight songs in the album have been written at various times in response to social and political upheavals that BlaaZe watched from close quarters, they have a ring of authenticity. An undergirding of autobiography in these commentaries enhances their charm.

In “Ban The Crooked Police”, for example, he recalls his childhood ambition to don the khakhi uniform — “me remember when me was a little boy/ and me wanted to be a policeman/ me a wanted to wear in all di uniform/ and serve all of di people” — and goes on to say how the dishonesty of a few policemen has changed people's perception of the force. Listing certain historical events in the last decade — where some policemen were found guilty of moral turpitude — he says the force has to be rid of such elements.

For BlaaZe, this album signifies a heart-warming return to the roots of hip-hop. “Hip-hop is essentially a music of protest. The hip-hop artiste functions as a voice of the suppressed,” explains BlaaZe. In “Revolution Son”, he says how the hip-hop artiste feels unfulfilled in his vocation and fulminates against the wrongs happening in front of his eyes.

Authenticity matters

BlaaZe believes the protest can't be authentic unless it is directed at injustices happening in the society he lives in. “Notwithstanding his greatness as a rapper, Snoop Dogg can't sing about communal riots in India without sounding superficial.”

BlaaZe admits to have mindlessly dwelt on gangsta themes — which depict ghetto life, gang wars and urban crimes — that he could approach only with his intellect, and not with his emotions. The change happened in the early 2000s when he visited Zambia — where he had grown up — to perform religious rites for his departed father, who had worked as an architect in that country. Through accounts of his father's associates, BlaaZe learnt that his father had been useful to the local community.

Having returned to India for good, BlaaZe decided he should emulate his father and focus on issues in his backyard. “As an NRI who has returned to his homeland, I worked towards understanding local issues,” he says. A song about his long Indian name — Lakshmi Narasimha Vijaya Rajagopal Seshadri Sharma Rajesh Raman — was aimed at asserting his Indian identity. “While in Zambia, I hid this name from friends.”

BlaaZe, however, does not turn a blind eye to events elsewhere that have touched his heart. In this album, he has a song about “Robben Island”, where Nelson Mandela served time and which was visited by Gandhiji.

Gandhiji, with his non-violent methods of protest, is the centre of this album — a fact reflected in the title song, “Time For Gandhi” — and BlaaZe's debut album is linked with the great man. “I decided to call it a day if I did not have an album by 1999. I did not have one by then and gave up hip-hop for a year and D Wood, a legendary jazz musician from Mumbai, reasoned me out of my stubbornness. He said he meets his ‘Muze' daily and works on his music, even when record labels are not in sight. Ever since, I have kept my daily date with my ‘Muze'. She has ensured that my debut album is a vehicle for social change.”

THE LAUNCH

Time For Gandhi, BlaaZe's debut album, will be released at a function hosted by Landmark and EMI Music at Chennai Citi Centre, 7 p.m. on Friday. The launch will be followed by a live performance of a few songs from the album. BlaaZe will perform with a team that includes ‘scratch master' Kave, Paul Jacob, Donnan Murray and folk musicians from Madurai.