Mini Asia: Sri Lanka, Yo!
[Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka] Mini Asia brings you intimately closer to the music from different parts of Asia. This month, we are heading to the Pearl of the Indian Ocean or rather the Bling of the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka, where hip hop and R&B rule the airwaves.
In the late 16th century Sri Lanka was occupied by the Portuguese and by the Dutch in the 17th century, the island was captured by the British Empire in 1796. After surrendering to the British, they named this beautiful island Ceylon in 1815.
Ok, that was really boring. Truth of the matter is, I have never heard of the music scene in Sri Lanka until a Sri Lankan friend of mine, Christy, shoved his mp3 phone up my ear and forced me to take a listen to a man named Ranidu.
My friend said with a smile, “You must be hearing to this,” in his broken English and thick Singhalese accent.
I loved it. Brilliant vocal range, the song composition was awesome and a tight production to match. The song is called ‘Unmada Dethol’. I was thinking - in a close mindedness way - that I was going to take a listen to some cultural Sri Lankan music, you know the ones with sitars and bongos. Boy was I wrong! This was probably one of the best R&B tracks in Asia that I’ve heard in a long while!
IN SEARCH OF SRI LANKA
I felt like a stereotypical, close minded, shrugging idiot. Before today, I have never heard of any modern music from Sri Lanka, let alone from that corner of the world. I felt that this was something people of Asia would like to hear about.
Christy, my Sri Lankan friend said, “Hip hop and R&B in Sri Lanka is more developed than in Singapore.”
“Get the fuck out of town man!” I retorted.
“No, (I’m) serious! Here, I give you names!” and Christy excitedly gave me leads to popular artistes from Sri Lanka. I asked him what he meant when he said that Sri Lanka’s hip hop and R&B is more developed than Singapore’s, and all he did was shrugged and gave me a weak smile.
I was really pumped to check out the artistes he had referred to. One of the names on that list was Ranidu, the same artiste that my friend forced me to listen to.
Ranidu Lankage (left insert) is the undisputed icon of Sinhalese hip hop and R&B, who has captured the imagination of the Sri Lankan masses with his breathtaking voice and enigmatic compositions. Being the first Sri Lankan artiste to be played on the venerated Radio1 of the BBC, Ranidu has single-handedly taken the genre of Sri Lankan R&B and pop to greater heights in the international arena. He was also the creator of the first Sinhalese single to be played on MTV, Channel V and Z Music India.
Sri Lankan Tamil MC, Mathangi Arulpragasam aka M.I.A is one of the most sought after artiste in the UK and United States now. A self taught, tone deaf, mega energetic MC; M.I.A infuses her highly politicised views with madly infectious rhythmic beats and nonsensical lyrics.
M.I.A - Bucky Done Gun
According to the 28 year old, her moniker stands for ‘Missing in action’; a name inspired by the suburb in West London where she and many other Asians reside. Having lived through the war in her home town of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, ‘Missing in action’ also has military connotations, as war is something that moves and inspires her works.
M.I.A has worked with the likes of Root Manuva, Missy Elliot and was also coveted by hip hop greats like Kanye West. She has rocked revelers in Brixton Academy and was signed by Interscope records. M.I.A is surely a sensation waiting to explode worldwide.
Currently signed with Sony Music & M Entertainment, Ashanthi (left insert) is the new face of Sri Lanka’s youth music and the youngest and only female in the island to be signed to the internationally recognized record label.
Ashanthi’s unique genre of ethnic music combines ethnic R&B and hip hop coupled with lighthearted pop & soul ballads that comes together to create a new fusion that will appeal to the masses.
LO’ DOWN ON MODERN SRI LANKAN MUSIC
Since 1998, many R&B and pop groups have emerged in Sri Lanka - the most prominent of which is Bathiya and Santhush, whom are considered pioneers in contemporary Sri Lankan pop and have performed with the likes of Ashanthi and rapper Randhir. Among their accomplishments; they are the first Sri Lankan group to be signed to an international record label, Sony BMG, and were an integral component in the label’s entrance into the Sri Lanka’s music industry in 2002 and 2003. They have received international awards for their compositions, and have performed in several countries - including on BBC radio in the UK.
In late 2006, a unique style of music began to emerge in Sri Lanka. Borrowing elements from modern African rhythms and the acoustic sound of Latin American music, the members of the group Pahan Silu (left insert) have begun to make a name for themselves primarily by avoiding the electronic keyboard-based sound pioneered by groups such as Bathiya and Santhush and Centigradz, both of whom have borrowed heavily from western music cultures.
Today, hip hop and R&B are Sri Lankan youth’s favorites, allowing them a release from the struggles of a nation torn in two by a long standing civil war.
PIONEERS OF MODERN SRI LANKAN MUSIC
Bathiya and Santhush (BNS) (right insert) are Sri Lanka’s most accomplished musical duo in the field of ethnic fusion music, combining both cultural vocals and beats with rap. In the last 5 years the duo have secured over 350 live performances, a music publishing contract with Universal Music, a recording contract with Sony BMG Music Entertainment / M entertainment and released 3 platinum albums.
Since their inception in 1998, the duo has achieved fourteen entries in the Sri Lankan music charts along with 7 number-one singles. Their single ‘Siri Sangabodhi Maligawedi’ off the album “Life” was the first ever multilingual (English and Singhalese) hit to be played on English radio after 3 decades. The latest album “Neththara” released in 2005 sold up to 75,000 copies in just 5 months. The album has been ranked as one of the highest selling Sony Music releases in Sri Lanka.
Bathiya & Santhush - Oh Sathi
BNS have also enjoyed enormous success overseas. In 2001 they were runners up at both the Voice of Asia Music Festival in Kazakhstan and the Shanghai Music Festival in China. To this day, the duo has toured over 20 countries, their most memorable overseas show being to a crowd of over 27,000 in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. They have also opened concerts for legendary acts such as UB40 and famous contemporary artists The Vengaboys and DJ Bobo. The video for the duo’s hit song ‘Neththara’ off the album of the same name is now regularly broadcast on India’s MTV and Channel V.
SRI LANKA FOR PEACE
The Sri Lankan Civil War is an ongoing conflict. Since the year 1983, there has been on-and-off civil war, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers. Left insert), a separatist militant organization who fight to create an independent state named Tamil Eelam in the North and East of the island. It is estimated that the war has claimed the lives of more than 68,000 people since 1983 and it has caused significant harm to the population and economy of the country.
Hopes of a lasting peace were dashed, when renewed hostilities broke out in late 2005 and have continued to escalate, resulting in the deaths of over 4,000 people since November 2005.
For some years now, the government of Sri Lanka has tried to bring about a decisive end to the island’s long-running civil war. It spends more than $850 million a year on the war effort, and has more than 100,000 troops deployed in the battle against the Tamil Tigers.
In a sl2uk.com interview with M.I.A, she had this to say on the impact of the civil war on its people, “Jaffna (a state in Sri Lanka) suffered in a way that someone who hasn’t lived it would not understand; in terms of the massacre from Governments and the Army.
The fear for life caused by human beings who don’t even care that every life is worth something to someone, a total disregard for human life. The terror that comes from not knowing if it is your house that is going to be shelled down or if it is your Mother or sister or indeed yourself who is going to be raped. The gunshots come from anywhere; the fact that one has to be on alert at every given moment, for fear of dying.”
The impact of the Sri Lankan civil war is best explained in a heartfelt and emotional song entitled, ‘Teardrops’ by 22 year old Sri Lankan rapper, Loven, who’s based in South London. This is a Tamil made English song about the conflict in Sri Lanka and it’s countless number of innocent victims that includes a large number of children.
Loven - Teardrops
Similar to Loven, hip hop group Shine base their works on the sufferings and hardship caused by the instability in their home land. The group consist of two brothers, Sudas and Sahaya. Although Shine usually raps in English, their latest hit was the first song they’ve ever written in both Tamil and English. Aptly titled, ‘Ulagam Mudium Varai’ (Till The End of Time), a story based on tribulations of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
As a form of creative rebellion towards the current affairs happening in Sri Lanka, local artistes would consciously create music as a means of escapism for their people.
I called my friend, Christy after finishing most of my research on Sri Lanka’s music and asked him why he shrugged when I questioned about why he thought Sri Lanka’s hip hop and R&B was more developed than Singapore’s.
After an awkward silence, he replied, “Yes, our music is good because our country is in no good shape. The music we sing about are of real experiences, the pain and the suffering. Watching your brothers die for nothing. Your family force to fight. I am not happy (about the condition of Sri Lanka), just like most of the Sri Lankans.
We make good what our country has made worst through music. In music we learn how to sing and dance. We remember that we are still brothers. And the most important, we learn how to smile again, how to be happy again.
It’s half-half. I can be proud of my country’s music but not of my country. So you can now see why I was half happy and half not happy.”
I replied, “I can’t say I understand your situation because I have not experienced it but what I can say is, yes, that’s the power of music.”
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