Staccato beats paired with infectious riffs open a song,The Journey,in a video that has been doing the rounds on YouTube these days. A few seconds later,an instrumental warm up introduces 26-year-old Borkung Hrangkhawl aka BK. His slang is crisp,sarcasm sharp and the problems of Tripura,his home state,evident. The singer raps Dont hate the state/ Cause Im truly embraced/To blow like a grenade. For most looking at this,it may seem like an attempt to grab eyeballs,but for Hrangkhawl (his tribe name that he uses as his surname),it is a way to steer attention towards his state. This is how I can out reach out to the masses and tell them about the truth of whats happening, says Hrangkhawl,whose track has garnered over a million hits online. For someone whose journey has been defined by his growing up years in Kamlachhera,a village in Tripura,Hrangkhawl calls his passion for music a natural progression. He is the son of Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawal,leader of the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT). Ethnic strife and issues in the state was what Hrangkhawl grew up with. As a teenager,he would go to remote areas with his father and attend rallies just before the elections. I saw my father struggling to fight for the rights of our people. I was motivated because his purpose in life was to fight for them. So I decided to follow in his footsteps,but on a slightly different path, says Hrangkhawl. He was exposed to pop,rock,jazz,blues and hip hop in school,a time when MTV and Channel V still played music and were not all about the bleep of four-letter words. Rapping in India began with the likes of Baba Sehgal and Apache Indian. To an extent,it is being followed in Punjabi by Yo Yo Honey Singh,among others. Currently,many young rappers are reaching out to the audience through their protest music. According to Hrangkhawal,the genre is gaining much attention. But in times when it is relatively easier to put ones music out there,Hrangkhawl did not go via a record company and chose YouTube as his platform. You can upload your videos and can be assured that people are going to comment. However,I did not expect the response I got, says the musician,whose songs quite often deal with racism,discrimination and injustice. Before The Journey,Hrangkhawl released a song titled The Roots (Chini Haa) (our land in Kokborok,a dialect of Tripura). Those in the virtual world were swaying and reacting to Im from Tripura you fakers/ Thats the first thing you ought to know/ I did grow from Dhalai district and I need no passport. It was lack of education,homes,employment and people living under the poverty line that prompted Hrangkhawl to make this track. The economic condition of the native people is worsening every day. Many of them have being displaced due to poverty. The government should address their land rights issues and give them the right to live without fear. I chose this topic for my song because I felt these issues should be spoken out loud and clear,and music is the best medium for this, says Hrangkhawal,who is now busy working on a new project that deals with commercialism.
