Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Exclusive Interview: “ Rhythm and Poetry” with Hk’ s iconic Style! ( DesiHipHop.Com )
Exclusive Interview: “ Rhythm and Poetry” with Hk’s iconic Style!
By KARTIK NIJHAWAN
Today I have got an eminent, illustrious, prominent, outstanding, famed, celebrious and
distinguished personality to sit tête-à-tête with me. Well, to be frank, it was quiet hard for
me to pick the veracious and unerring word to portray the image of this Rap/R&B artiste in
the very first sentence. So, I decide to put several words matching his persona.
I’m talking about Vansh Mankoo also known as ‘The hk’, is one of the familiar faces in
Underground Rap Music. Let’s have a meticulous colloquy about his journey of this
combination of Rhythm and poetry with him to know more about the scenario of rap music
when he launched his first single ‘Million Dollar Man’ in 2009 and now when he is all set
to release his second Mixtape ‘Punjab to Mars’.
So, our conversation goes like this –
Me: Welcome Vansh.
HK: Thank You so much!
Me: First of all I want you to tell me what should I call you? Vansh or HK? I’m getting
confused over this.
HK: (chuckles!) Let me tell you something about the name HK, back in 2009 when I was in
my mid teens, high on excitement and spirits, I wanted to pursue my passion but sound
cool as well, so I adopted Hustle King as my stage name.. Later on, as I continued, I
realized that Hustle King sounded stupid & childish and by that time people started calling
me HK, so I didn’t change it then.
I like to be called HK that makes me feel people know me from my work, my art speaks for
me.
Me: You started rap in 2009 in your 12th standard with releasing your first single ‘million
dollar man’ which received decent response. Who was the inspiration behind the move?
HK: I have been writing from 8th grade. I used to do poetry, and during that time, I was
introduced to this genre of music by a friend of mine. So, it grabbed my interest since it
was all about poetry blended with music. No artist was an inspiration as such.
Me: Poetry? Sounds interesting! You must have fought several poetry competitions? Share
the memories with us!
HK: Nope! Never, I have always kept it just for myself cause I wasn’t confident about what
I’m doing till the time I was introduced to rap music and finally decided to put my heart in
front of the world.
Me: As you know Rap in India was not so popular in 2009 until bohemia’s ‘The Rap star’
was out! Slowly people started to recognize the genre! How did you make your place in the
messy scenario of rap in India?
HK: (chuckles!) Actually, I knew that I want to record something, but didn’t know how, so I
took my dad’s digital camera and shot a video of me while performing on a beat, converted
that into an audio and placed on the original beat. I was out of any idea on how do I
sound, how people are going to react to that, I sucked but I did that. Like every other
artist, there was a group of friends who supported me for the effort, even if I was whack
and all others who made sure that I feel I’m whack.
Me: Quiet astonishing! I mean really you did that? Because that’s something called love
for the pursuit! Hats off!
HK: Thank you brother! “Million Dollar Man” was the one I recorded on the digicam,
otherwise it was “M So Desi” which was recorded in a studio, back in 2009.
Me: How you used to promote your songs, where you used to share them in 2009, because
as far as I know Indians were not much familiar with Facebook at that time?
HK: I used to share them on Orkut by uploading them on myspace. I wasn’t known to
everything back then, took me a little while to understand these things.
Me: Honestly, do you believe if facebook wasn’t there, you wouldn’t have been the The
Hk?
HK: Of course. For an underground artist, social media is the biggest & probably the only
way out we have apart from live performances. Since, everyone in the world cannot perform
everywhere; social media puts everyone under the spotlight and gives an artist a fair
chance.
Me: Vansh, I am far away from the ground reality! But how was the scenario of
underground rap back in 2009 and how is it now in 2013? I think we can call it a tech year
because phones are getting bigger as tabs and tabs are getting bigger as starting size of
LCD! The number of Smartphone users has drastically improved in India!
HK: (chuckles!) That’s truth. Back then in 2009, everyone was recording at home and the
amount of listeners used to be way less than now. Everyone was putting their art on
display and it became even more populated in 2010-2011, but in 2013, only few
hardworking artists are left with a passion for music and not for the show off.
Now, people like Honey Singh & Bohemia have popularized commercial rap music to the
masses. Even our parents are listening to this genre which used to be noise to their ears
back then.
Me: But I’ve seen some stereotype listeners considering rap as a conversation killer genre
only! What’s your take on this?
HK: I disagree to the statement. I know our culture & society doesn’t connects with the
kind of music the youth is listening, but that’s how things are, that’s why the music has
always been categorized as THE 70s, 80s, 90s and this will go on like this, the generation I
share my thoughts with love Eminem, Lil Wayne, Rihanna, Bohemia, Honey Singh etc they
love listening to the kind of music they like.
Everyone likes to listen to the genre they like, no one is forced and no one can ever be
forced, people want to listen to this and I don’t think anyone’s opinion or disliking can
change this.
Me: As you’re saying youth does like rap genre! But I’ve seen distinct mindset of youth! It
happens with me all the time, while traveling in car; I love to play Eminem, Lil’ Wayne or
Wale! But my friends start shouting on me to change the song and don’t play rap songs!
Well, this is turning into a discussion!
HK: Hahaha. That’s because they do not feel the genre, you like to listen to rap music, and
you do. I told you, there was a group of friends who liked it and encouraged me, just like
every other artist and there were others who were asking me to shut up because someone
else was better than me.
Me: How do you pick up the concepts for your songs? Do you fulfill desires of your fans
who expects R&B songs from Hk or you go opposite to that and pick up concepts like
Ammi, Kitaab, Batti balke?
HK: As far as I know, I’m known for my poetry & deep lyrical work. I have done only a
couple R&B songs. I want to do everything that comes my way. Be it Ammi, Kitaab or Batti
Baalke.
Me: Let your fans know about M-Brigade also known as Mohali-Brigade! How the crew
was formed?
HK: Mohali Brigade consists of Sikander Kahlon, Navi Virk and I. It’s been more than 3
years that we have been making music together. We’re brothers now, not just 3 young
artists making music together. I feel proud to be a part of the best Punjabi rap clan that
has ever emerged in the underground scene. It was a mutual decision, Kahlon & I
collaborated on a song called Mohali Souljaz before putting up all the ideas into a group
called M Brigade.
Me: I haven’t heard any commercial song featuring you! Why don’t you consider that?
HK: Commercial artists just want to use us rap artistes as filler to their songs, I’m not
about those 8 bars in some Punjabi song with club beats and crappy lyrics. I do not
connect to that sort of music. 90 percent of commercial artists do not even mention rap
artists in the credits to their song and especially in Punjab where almost everyone is
recording songs about Bullet, Gehriyan, Disco, Sandals and all that. I don’t think real
music or poetry has a space to emerge as something big. I would rather go solo than to
ride a ship that’s probably going to sink after a month or so.
Me: Hk, Love-a-holic was a super hit mixtape Of Underground Music! How many
downloads it had hit?
HK: Yes, Love-a-Holic was my debut mixtape which was released back in 2011. It has
crossed 5000 downloads last month on different websites that I’m aware of. I don’t have
the statistics to all other sources which provide listeners with download to my mixtape.
Me: Till now how many songs hk has released? And how many are in only hk’s phone’s
playlists that are waiting to go on internet?
HK: I have released almost 2 dozen songs as an individual artist. Been featured on some
another 2 dozen songs. Rappers these days are out of content and quite monotonous
stuck at that same state of mind. So, that makes me feel that I’ve been out of this jungle
with a different sound.
Me: 6 Singles already have been released off Punjab to mars (your next mixtape) including batti
balke! When the whole mixtape is coming out and how many songs are in it and who else
is featuring in it?
HK: In Punjab to Mars, I’m working with many new artistes including my home team Kala
Kurta Gang. There will be near about 10 more songs apart from those 6 pre-released
singles. I wish I could post more details on that, but some surprises are always great to
look out for.
Me: Hahahah! That’s enough to escalation enthusiasm!
Okay! if you get a chance to make some changes to upgrade this whole rap scene! What
those changes would be?
HK: The first and the most important change would be bringing up more lyrical content &
diversity in the music. See, we cannot change what people want to listen but we can
surely change an image of the genre we’re holding a passion for. Sticking to all those
played out concepts, same lyrical content, and same type of musical approach needs to be
changed. Rappers should go commercial but with a content that’s worth appreciation, so
that the expectations of our society about rap music can be encouraged.
Me: Last word for the struggling rappers?
HK: We have stages, experiences, lessons and improvement. I’m not big enough to tell
anyone what to do and what not, I’m myself seeking the magic trick, but I guess believing
in your art is what works but surely takes a lot of time.
Me: That was such an inspirational talk! I’m inspired towards rap music, may be you are
going to listen my vocals on any beat! And you’ll catch me going off beat! Just Kidding!
All over it was fun talking to you vansh! Thanks for sharing your special moments with us.
Got Somethin' To Say? I know you Do!
Source : DesiHipHop.Com
