Street Academics is an Indian

alternative hip-hop Alternative hip-hop (also known as alternative rap and experimental hip-hop) is a subgenre of hip-hop music that encompasses a wide range of styles that are not typically identified as mainstream. AllMusic defines it as comprising "hip-hop group ...

group from

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, known for their songs blending

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

lyrics. The collective based out of rapper from various districts are noted for emphasizing on contemporary and philosophical themes ranging from social realism to dystopian fantasy. They collaborate with projects like Mappila Lahala and Palakkadan Dystopia, to release songs that focus on having cultural discussions set in avant-garde backdrops.

History

Street Academics was an idea brought forward by Rjv Ernesto in 1999, as a small group for

spoken word poetry Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of recitation ...

and making pause tapes. Later he was introduced to Haris Saleem through hip-hop communities in Myspace and Orkut. After recording various demo tracks, they brought in Amjad Nadeem, Abhimanyu Raman and Pranav to move forward as a hip-hop collective in 2009. Keyboardist & music producer Ruthin Thej worked with the group to produce a couple of singles, before leaving to pursue his career as keyboardist for

Thaikkudam Bridge Thaikkudam Bridge is a multi-genre Indian music band, originated from Kerala in 2013. The band achieved its first commercial success through the musical show ''Music Mojo'', which used to telecast on Kappa TV where they released their debut ori ...

. Later Vivek Radhakrishnan joined the group as the DJ/producer providing a bass-oriented sound. They started collaborating with the cultural music collective Mappila Lahala, led by filmmaker

Muhsin Parari Muhsin Parari, known professionally as Mu.Ri is an Indian film director, writer, producer and lyricist who works in Malayalam films. Career He started his career by directing the music album ''Native Bapa'' (2012), in which actor Mamukkoya pl ...

, to release politically oriented singles which featured veteran actor

Mamukkoya Mamukkoya (5 July 1946 – 26 April 2023) was an Indian actor known for his work predominately in Malayalam cinema. He mostly appeared in comedic roles. His unique usage of Kozhikode dialect and style marked his presence in the industry. In a c ...

and national award-winning composer

Bijibal Bijibal Maniyil is an Indian music composer and playback singer who works predominantly in Malayalam films. In a career spanning more than twenty years, he has composed for more than 150 feature films, several television commercials and a few d ...

. The group has also formed

avant garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

hip-hop project Palakkadan Dystopia to release singles and went on to collaborate with

experimental theatre Experimental theatre (also known as avant-garde theatre), inspired largely by Richard Wagner, Wagner's concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, began in Western theatre in the late 19th century with Alfred Jarry and his Ubu Roi, Ubu plays as a rejection of bot ...

acts, performing shows which combined spoken word, theatre, hip-hop music &

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

. After working on singles and compilations over the years, the group released a complete multilingual album titled "Loop" loosely based on

seven deadly sins The seven deadly sins (also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins) function as a grouping of major vices within the teachings of Christianity. In the standard list, the seven deadly sins according to the Catholic Church are pride, greed ...

. On July 13, 2019, a live performance of Street Academics along with

Bandish Projekt Bandish Projekt is the pseudonym of composer, producer, DJ and multi-instrumentalist Mayur Narvekar. Bandish Projekt is a musical act featuring a blend of Indian elements in an electronica format. The title "Bandish Projekt" is derived from Ban ...

and Swadesi, was interrupted by a group of people who demanded the venue officials to play

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

songs, instead of the group's original Malayalam tracks, as they were in

Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

. The group's set was cut short and forced off stage. After the performance, rapper/vocalist Amjad and few of his friends were taken away by the police, allegedly for causing public nuisance. Venue management later released a public statement, apologizing to Street Academics regarding the incident. The group released a protest song titled "Hara Hara" along with a music video, and performed it live during

Citizenship Amendment Act protests The Citizenship Amendment Act (Bill) protests, also known as the CAA Protest, CAB Protest or CAA and NRC protests, occurred after the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was enacted by the Government of India on 12 December 2019. The move sparked ...

at Kozhikode.

Themes and influences

Members state that they started off through

slam poetry A poetry slam is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. Poetry slams began in Chicago in the 1980s, with the first slam competition designed to move poetry recitals from a ...

before getting introduced to hip-hop music. Rjv Ernesto cites spoken word poetry and sports/pro-wrestling commentary as his influence in rap music. Developing an interest towards drum solos, he recalls creating beats by cutting out bits of tape from cassettes using a razor blade and glueing them back before inserting the tape into the cartridge. The group's

multilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

lyricism usually brings up questions of expression & identity, affirming the place of vernacular rap in India, being one of the first acts to do so. Street Academics is considered to be one of the oldest independent hip-hop outfits in India. They are noted for pioneering Malayalam rap with serious content & multisyllabic rhyme patterns, against the comical parody image that rap/hip-hop music has had in their region. Even though the production relies on minimal boom bap oriented sampling as the backbone, the collective effort exhibits influences of

musique concrète Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic ...

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate stylistic ch ...

glitch A glitch is a short-lived technical fault, such as a transient one that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among pl ...

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

ambient Ambient or ambiance or ambience may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ambiancé'', an unreleased experimental film * ''Ambient'' (novel), a novel by Jack Womack Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgr ...

, R&B,

jazz poetry Jazz poetry has been defined as poetry that "demonstrates jazz-like rhythm or the feel of improvisation" and also as poetry that takes jazz music, musicians, or the jazz milieu as its subject, and is Performance poetry, designed to be performed. So ...

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust Music * Grime music, a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * "Grime", a 2023 song by Macklemore from ''Ben'' * "Grime", a 2024 song by Kittie from ''Fire ...

and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

. Most of the themes are set in an alternate reality or a

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...

world, often presented from the narrative mode of various alter egos. It is noted that majority of those plots are inter-connected & follow a particular nonlinear storyline throughout the body of their work. The "Dead Crow" symbolism goes hand in hand with their journey and has pretty much established itself as a mascot for Street Academics over time. The group's singles Vandi Puncture and Native Bapa, both released in 2012, are often held responsible for taking Malayalam hip-hop music to mainstream.

Members

* Rjv Ernesto (Pakarcha Vyadhi) - Rapper, MC, lyricist, music producer, visual artist. * Dr. Haris Saleem (Maapla) - Rapper, lyricist. * Amjad Nadeem (Azuran) - Rapper, MC, lyricist, vocalist, music producer. * Vivek Radhakrishnan (V3K) - Music producer, DJ, vocalist, rapper, record producer. * Arjjun (Imbachi) - Rapper, MC, lyricist, vocalist, b-boy. * Sai Giridhar - Filmmaker, editor, cinematographer. Former Members:- * Ruthin Thej - Music producer. * Abhimanyu Raman (Earthgrime) - Rapper, lyricist, music producer. * Pranav CH - Rapper, lyricist. * Sandeep Thulasidas (Yestey) - Music producer, DJ, record producer.

Discography

Albums:-

* 1. Aathmasphere EP (2013) * 2. Chatha Kaakka EP (2016) * 3. Loop (2019)

Remix Albums:-

* 1. Loop Flip (2020) * 2. Kaliyug Remix (2020)

Film Soundtracks:-

* 1. Paisa Paisa - "Paisa Paisa" with

Rahul Raj Rahul Raj is an Indian music composer. He has composed and produced Film score, scores and soundtracks predominantly for Malayalam language, Malayalam movies. He is an alumnus of the prestigious Berklee College of Music and holds a postgraduat ...

, Aby Salvin Thomas, Namitha Correya & Carl Frenies, Haris Saleem (2013) *2. Valiyaperunnal - "Uyirullavaram" with

Rex Vijayan Rex Vijayan (born 26 April 1983) is an Indian composer, guitarist, singer, record producer and multi-instrumentalist from Kerala. He is best known for being co-founder and guitarist for the alternative Malayali rock band Avial. He started out hi ...

Benny Dayal Benny Dayal (born 13 May 1984) is a UAE-born Indian playback singer. He is a prominent singer in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi and more languages films. He is a member of the band S5, launched by ...

, Anwar Ali, Haris Saleem (2019) *3.

Mariyam Vannu Vilakkoothi ''Mariyam Vannu Vilakkoothi'' () is an Indian Malayalam-language stoner film written and directed by debutant Jenith Kachappilly and produced by Rajesh Augustine under the banner of ARK Media. The film starring Siju Wilson, Krishna Shankar, Sh ...

- "Thala Therichoru Aalkkoottam" with Wazim Ashraf, Murali Krishnan, Sandhoop Narayanan, Imbachi (2020) *4. Vichithram - "Paanje" with V3K, Azuran, Pakarcha Vyadhi (2022) *5. Adrishyam - "Akalekkodi" with Dawn Vincent, Pakarcha Vyadhi (2022)

Singles:-

* 1. Rest In Peace (2011) * 2. Vandi Puncture (2012) * 3. Native Bapa ft. Mappila Lahala (2012) * 4. Trapped In Rhymes (2013) * 5. Aathmasphere (2013) * 6. Angot Onnai (2013) * 7. 16 Adiyanthiram (2015) * 8. Funeral of a Native Son ft. Mappila Lahala (2016) * 9. Chatha Kaakka (2016) * 10. Space Station ft. Space Behind The Yellow Room (2017) * 11. Kalapila (2017) * 12. Aara? (2019) * 13. Kolilakkam (2019) * 14. Hara Hara (2019) * 15. Pambaram (2020) * 16. Pambaram - V3K Remix (2020) * 17. Kalapila - V3K Remix (2020) * 18. Kaliyug ft. Hrishi (2020) * 19. Walayar (2021) * 20. Pathiye (2021) * 21. Coco FC Anthem(2024)

Collaboration Albums:-

* 1. Palakkadan Dystopia - Narakasabha (2017) * 2. Palakkadan Dystopia & Dead Author - Kaav (2020) * 3. Palakkadan Dystopia & Dead Author - Marupiravi (2022) * 4. Palakkadan Dystopia - Vere Mari (2024)

Mixtapes/Solo Albums:-

* 1. Rjv Ernesto - Industrial Area (2003, 2006, 2008) * 2. Maapla - Biohazard (2010) * 3. Rjv Ernesto - Country Fellow EP: The Clairvoyant of Alter Egos (2012) * 4. Asylum of Philosophy - A Bottle of Paranoia EP (2012) * 5. Earthgrime & Sez - Standalone Complex Vol 1: Paradox EP (2012) * 6. Earthgrime & Sez - Geostatis EP (2012) * 7. V3K - Psycle Edukk (2012) * 8. Earthgrime - Street Lights In The Sun LP (2013) * 9. V3K - The Gateway EP (2013) * 10. Street Academics - Rest In Peace (2014) * 11. Spank The Queen: The Death of Rjv Ernesto (2015) * 12. Molten Wax: The Revenge of Rjv Ernesto (2016) * 13. Shrapnels: The Autopsy of Rjv Ernesto (2016) * 14. V3K - 240P: Third World Bass EP (2016) * 15. Digging In The Wasteland: The Filth of Rjv Ernesto (2017) * 16. V3K - 1010B & The Broken Laptop (2018) * 17. Sex And Time Altering Nibs: The Hand of Rjv Ernesto (2018) * 18. 25th Hour: The Miscarriages of Rjv Ernesto (2018) * 19. V3K - Mojo (2019) * 20. V3K - Minni (2020) * 21. Blind Old Ape: The Tree of Rjv Ernesto (2022) * 22. Mass Grave: The Womb of Rjv Ernesto (2022) * 23. Imbachi - Lingo (2023)

References

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{{Authority control Indian rappers Hip-hop record producers Underground hip-hop groups Indian hip-hop groups Alternative hip-hop groups Hip-hop activists Indian lyricists Indian record producers Music bands from Kerala Rappers from Kerala