Mumbai-based hip-hop artist Rae Mulla has released ‘Girls’, the first single from his upcoming album 'Lonely Singles In Your Area', featuring Shreyas Sagvekar. The track comes with a music video starring Rae as a Parsi labourer transporting cardboard cutouts of saree-clad anime women.
Mumbai-based hip-hop artist Rae Mulla’s got 99 problems and a bitch is at least four of them — the 'Knifey Wifey' whom he wanted his whole life even if she drives him crazy, the 'ugly girl' he hooked up with for some Zoloft in 'Pantone 448 C', and the hypergamous diva he was 'Never In Love' with. Now we find him succumbed to the charms of the sick, bipolar girls in the exclusive first single from his upcoming album, 'Lonely Singles In Your Area'.
As an artist, Rae has been unshakeable in the changing, sometimes stagnating landscape of the Indian rap scene because of his singular voice of radical honesty that never seems to run out of fuel. His left-of-centre discography has space for everything from sex, vanity, morality, jealousy, drugs and inner demons and you can always count on him to reach higher than the low-hanging fruits of self expression. Besides being provocatively delightful, Rae also has a Kanye-like appetite to push the envelope when it comes to production.
Having been his fan for a while, I have come to know two Raes from his music — one that's going through something, and one that wants to fuck (not mutually exclusive). We get a little bit of both in 'Girls'. On paper: same old slick Rae with the bars on questioning his religion over a fat ass and "being the best in the bistar". But in the music video, which has also been one of the rapper's strongsuit across projects, he's a Parsi labourer loading and transporting cardboard cutouts of Saree-clad anime baddies in a truck.
After a hard day at work, he goes back home to the wife and winds down with some desi alcohol lounging in front of the TV where Shreyas Sagvekar, the feature on the track, becomes an alluring call of stardom for Rae, who sees himself in him. While the track is a bop, the music video taps into the abstract ideals and pipe-dreamification of a creative life. And what better symbol for the cycle of deification to idolatry to objectification than the 'Girls', who are also put on a pedestal; a trophy to attain and tell others, ”Look I made it!" only to end up a cardboard fantasy.
"The song was really just us having fun," shares Rae who wanted the whole track to feel like a hook. "But the video gave me a chance to tie the song into my album and explore a different side to this story. For me; the video is a reflection of one of my biggest fears — not living up to my potential. The video reflects that — It’s just a dude daydreaming at his job and singing to himself, getting home from work ,and seeing someone who looks exactly like him on TV — living the life he could have lived. "
Follow Rae here and watch the music video below:
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