Rhyme, rhythm renegade

Rapper Gubbi
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Yo! Listen up! Rapper Gubbi is all set to unleash his razor sharp words with a lyrical dexterity, in the city. The word rap sends you into a world of rhythm so much that when Bengaluru-based rapper, Karthik Sundar Gubbi, talks over a call from JP Nagar, your brain starts to listen to him in auto-rap mode.

Popularly known as Gubbi, the rapper will perform as part of RuPay Zomaland, a festival of food and music, on March 15 and 16. “Anyone with the basic understanding of music, will surely know melody and rhythm,” says Gubbi. “Rap is more rhythm dominant than melody. It is also lyric heavy. Rap has elements like a flow, the switch and the lyrics that are like double entendre (word or phrase with two meanings, one literal and the other suggestive or humorous).”

Local influences, are an important component, says Gubbi. “It took a few years to develop as this genre’s influence came from American hip- hop. Today we use a lot more local words and lyrics.”

Gubbi, an avid Eminem fan, is known to rap in Kannada, English, Hindi and German. He has been rapping since 2007 and has rapped for films including for Kannada films such as Old Monk (Kannada), Coma promo song, Dear Comrade Anthem, Oke Oka Jeevitham teaser and Nidra Devi Next Door, composed by Nakul Abhyankar, and for ‘Pathayeram Kodi’ for Pathayeram Kodi in Tamil.

He has a long list of singles to his credit, including ‘Prove You Wrong’ (2014), ‘Outta This World’ (2015), ‘Naadamaya’ (2016), ‘Indina Makkalu’ (2021) and albums such as Who are you? Nannu Gubbi in 2019, The Calm EP (2021) and The Storm EP in 2022 besides collaborating with artists like MC Bijju, Vasu Dixit, Sandeep Chowta and Sachin Basrur.

The self-taught-rapper talks about the signature challenges of rapping, including speed and breath control. “The speed is managed in the writing stage itself, as in, it is in this stage that you know where you need to take a breath. For clarity, I depend on a bunch of people who are my biggest critics before finalising the lyrics.”

His mother, Gubbi says with a laugh is his biggest critic. “I have even created reels on social media called the Savagemom series, where she trolls my rapping skills. Before every show, I practise extensively and after a point it becomes like a muscle memory.”

Though the mechanical engineer quit engineering as he found numbers daunting, he finds comfort in the beats, counts and rhythms of music “My heart was into counting rhythm rather than numbers.”

Gubbi believes rap can be used not only to share humour or rebellion, but also to express pain and pathos. “When rap originated, it was used as a tool to raise a voice against oppression. Rap in pop culture is used to celebrate and have fun. At its core, rap has an audience for deep lyricism and a message.”

Favouring lyrics with a message, Gubbi wrote ‘Lathi In Charge’ about police brutality. “I worked with a doctor from NIMHANS for the rap-song, ‘Goodbye’, which was created for Suicide Prevention Day last year. Though serious topics with rap are not popular with people, there are many who rap on serious themes.”

At Zomaland Gubbi will be performing with a drummer and a DJ. “I will present quite a few unreleased songs.”

Zomaland is on March 15 and 16 at Embassy International Riding School, Bengaluru. Tickets on District and Zomato Live.