Rebel rapper Sofia Ashraf comes together with fellow Chennai artiste for their first duo gig in the city together
Rapper Sofia Ashraf has a lot on her plate; she uploads satirical videos under her moniker Sista From The South. She is also working to develop gifs for her gigs. A long-time project in the making is a new album, in collaboration with electronic musician, Marti Bharath, aka Sapta.
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Marti Bharath aka Sapta and Sofia Ashraf
“Mumbai is like home, and this is a home match. We perform with drummer Tapass Naresh, but this time, we are doing an electronic set,” says the 30-year-old rapper over the phone. This will be their debut performance in Mumbai.
How did the two of you meet?
We are both from Chennai, but we met at his performance in Mumbai. I fell in love with his music and approached him via social media to check if we could collaborate.
How did you connect musically?
Marti has studied electronic music, and teaches it too. We first collaborated on one song, and before we knew it, we had a whole album. He used to be a rapper. Each song is like a page from my diary. Before we get going, I tell Marti where the song comes from and he interprets it through his music and takes it to the level that I myself don’t envision.
Tell us about the album.
The songs are about the corporate lifestyle; being an artiste in India; societal and parental pressure; and what it’s like being a woman today. There are fun songs too. I deal with many trolls and haters whom I don’t reply to online, but find an outlet through my music. [The song] Opinions talks about this. Embroidery Bi**h is a super fun feminist song. I feel that the term cool has been hijacked by men. You know how they say, ‘Football or action films are cool but make-up isn’t,’ — anything that is women-like is un-cool. And if you are a woman who likes things that men like, you are cool. I think this isn’t correct, and embroidery is bada#$. It’s a tongue-in-cheek gangster rap that says we need to do away with these norms and you don’t have to be embarrassed about your likes. I like rapping about political and other relevant issues as art is a great way to break the uprising of the jingoist ideology the country is facing today.
On : November 24, 9 pm (also features a set by CHRMS)
At : Bonobo, Bandra West.
Call : 26055050
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