The frame is delightfully eccentric. Mrs. Go and Debbie Pari, two independent Tamil female rappers, sit on an ornate throne as the beat accelerates. ‘Showtime’, their debut single, is a statement cleverly wrapped in pounding beats with a visual language that’s worth watching again and again.

The bizarre video shows Mrs Go spitting at the little girl in a pristine white sari she was carrying: “Chinna Sirupazhagi/ Iduppu Karuppu Nerathazhagi/ Ichil Mutham Kodutha Thai-ku Naan Per Azhagi“, she raps. A self-introduction, perhaps? Debbie Angel joins in with her signature phrase, “I’m the GOAT Vechico, Debbie Pari Vandha Show, The comments section is filled with praise from women. There are some mothers who see Mrs. Go as their child as an integral part of her poetry and filmography.

The growing Tamil rap circuit now has a powerful female voice as more female artists are making waves with strong writing and unique ideas. While Tamil contemporary rap has recently seen success with exposure in mainstream cinema, domestic female artists are still a minority. But a new generation of young women are on their way to disrupting this monopoly, as more music producers embrace this talent with open arms.

“For the longest time, we only heard that person’s perspective. It’s definitely changing,” confirms Nawaz-47 of ‘Niye Oli’ fame.

queens of verse

North Chennai has produced many Tamil hip hop artists in the past. Rubini Gopinath aka Mrs. Go is no different. She rapped along with a poem written while studying at Ethiraj College for Women in 2015. Her friends were surprised that an unfamiliar female voice was experimenting with a different format. “I didn’t know what rap meant until then,” she says.

It was in 2018 that he collaborated with fellow indie rapper Asal Kolar and VC Rapper for his debut single ‘En Kathai’, which reflected their different outlooks on life in North Chennai.

Within a few years, she met Go, a rap artist, and later married him. “I married my favorite artiste,” she says, laughing. “It was only after we got married that we realized we were India’s first rap couple.” In recent travels, Mrs Go’s USP has been her child who often features in her videos. Dressed in a silk sari and bright red headphones, she is often seen in the background, holding a child in her hand potty pan (small shops). “Bringing my child into this wasn’t a planned move but I felt it was important to show that despite being a mom, I’m able to pursue my dreams and career.” A lot of good feedback reinforced the idea which eventually became his signature.

As far as signatures go, Deborah Sharon aka Debbie Pari, who currently lives in Toronto, Canada, puts her female identity at the center of her writing. Rap as a medium is never separated from the lived realities of the artist and hence, the writing is never forced.

Debbie attributes her proficiency in the language to her childhood time spent in parish choir groups. Although Blaze was definitely an inspiration, the artists who really shook her up in eighth grade were Yogi B and Natchara. “I used to talk with the boys in class!” she adds. “As a literature student, women’s writing influenced me during college, especially the writings of Maya Angelou phenomenal woman, “These lessons inspired me to think about finding my own voice,” Debbie says. That’s when she started listening to hip hop. “My perspective on the world changed, why should we get an education if the expectation is to be limited as women? This was a central question.”

In 2018, when he was offered the opportunity to rap a ghost-written verse, he turned it down and decided to write his own. His first song came in 2018. Their debut extended play (EP) will be released this month.

It’s no news that self-expression is a cornerstone of this medium. Sabreen Salauddin, a fairly new entrant to the scene, attributes the genre’s instant attraction to its scope for personal expression. A 23-year-old single mother who left her career to become a musician, Sabreen finds the format and writing process very cathartic. For example, her track ‘Thai’ delves into the nuances of a young mother’s subconscious guilt.

Despite being a Malayali, born and brought up in Chennai, he finds comfort in writing and rapping in Tamil.

“Coming from a middle-class family, I always thought I wasn’t privileged enough until I saw the other side of the majority. The realization that I am actually very privileged inspired me to write about the socio-political realities around me as an individual. Sabreen admits that her political awareness has always been half-baked. “Not just mine, but my friends too. We never cared enough to try to understand what was happening around us. But we need to change it, we’re the ones who need to question, right?” The rapper says she hopes to reach the demographic she herself relates to through her extremely honest poetry. .

Sabreen Salauddin aka Ungal Nachi | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A sense of belonging

For the Tamil diaspora spread across the country, a personal medium like rap is also about finding a trusted community in an unfamiliar land. After every club performance, Nevz-47 aka Naveen Athanasius Phillips’s inbox is filled with messages from young girls. “A lot of Tamil girls in their 30s come to my shows and often, it is their first time clubbing. In the diaspora Tamil community, many women were taught to be subdued in terms of their dress or conduct. So many girls were suppressing their emotions,” says Nawaz. they call him Akka, She says.

While most people seek advice on how to break into the foreign rap circuit as a young South Asian woman, many are surprised by the popularity that a Tamil, female voice has achieved on a global scale.

Navaz reminds us that British-Tamil musician MIA was the first to do it. “At first I thought I invented the genre of rap,” she says, laughing. “My brother asked me to tap Tupac, Diggy [Simmons] And when I discovered Nas and MIA, it all started to make sense to me. Because growing up, I didn’t see women like me in the mainstream. Seeing MIA embrace her identity and her art really inspired me.”

Born in Sri Lanka, Neves moved to Canada with her family to escape the civil war and then got a rude culture shock. “I started mourning the loss of my identity. Music came as a savior in my adolescence,” she says, adding that her first song, 2017’s AMU, focused on the years of bullying she faced because of her skin color and accent, which have defined who she was. What does music mean? Several singles, albums and performances in mainstream cinema through ‘Niye Oli’, later titled their new album fresh off the boat Documenting the journey of ‘FOBs’, a derogatory term often used for immigrants, is coming to a close this June.

Rapper Nawaz-47 | Photo Credit: StudioFairytales

Back home, Mrs. Go is leading a cool community through her social media by inviting budding female rappers to join hands for an upcoming project. “If we host a rap battle now, there will easily be 200 male rappers showing up. Sadly, this is not the case for women,” she adds. “A lot of women are reaching out through social media, especially in 2021. Almost all of them want to get started but don’t know how.” Although specific details have not been worked out yet, the idea is to foster a physical community that Chennai currently lacks.

This will mean events, gatherings and regular community meetings. “When they start seeing deep interest in this format, they will be more confident. Many of them are afraid of what others will say,” adds Mrs Go.

And hence, it is understandable that women choose the medium of rap to express their views due to this fear. There is nothing that a rhythm, meter and rhyme cannot do.