“I switch on my laptop to start working on the article, I glance at the clock, and it is exactly 3:16 in the afternoon, I chuckle as I continue with my work.”
Around 2010, young Akshay stumbled upon the song “Beautiful” by Eminem while searching for “Beautiful” by Akon. The song’s insane lyricism inspired him to start writing music. The lyrics from Eminem’s song Lose Yourself, “Snap back to reality, ope there goes gravity” inspired his stage name, and that is how Akshay Poojary became Gravity. Gravity states, “I want people to be pulled to my music, to listen to it, and fall in love with it, you know like the Earth’s gravitational pull, exactly like that.”
His newest album 3:16 is one of a kind experience his listeners will go through. Similar to a movie, the listeners will go through numerous emotions with every song they listen to. Even more interesting is the title of his album. Gravity confesses to seeing these numbers everywhere since he was 16. “ The first time was seeing it on WWE’s “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s t-shirt engraved “Austin 3:16”. Eventually, I would wake up randomly at night at 3:16, if I’m working on something and look up to the clock it’s 3:16, I look at the number plate of the car it is 316, I visited a person and his house number was 316, I notice a random tree on the side of the road and it has 316 engraved on it.” It was an uncanny recurring phenomenon in his life and when he looked it up, it said 316 are angel numbers that mean ‘take care of yourself.’ Other than the quirky name, the album successfully wraps up the entire trance of music into a tiny knot and presents it to its listeners.
The album has 7 tracks. The first track is the intro track- “Eye of the Clock,”(Prod. by Gravity), it is the number 316 chanted unanimously, the intro sets the tone for the project wherein gravity talks about the recurring phenomena of him seeing 316 throughout his life. The second track “Breaking News” (Prod. by Noran Beatz and Tderenner), is a West Coast-inspired banger with smooth melodies, bouncy drums, and a gut-wrecking bass. Lyrically, the track expresses Gravity’s journey of hardships to becoming one of the most versatile artists looked up to in the industry, and the new coming artists who are simply following the trend to become the next ‘breaking news’ are running after temporary success. The third track, Konnichiwa (Ft. Roro and Prod. by Outfly) is a Reggae-Trap with hard-hitting 808s and a distinct drum groove, a style that has not been experimented with in mainstream Indian Hip-Hop music. The song is a conversation between Gravity and Roro where they sprightly talk about their accomplishments, talents, and the well-thought lyrics they can put on a beat.
The fourth track, “Chehre” (Prod. by Prod. Rane) is a modern twist on an old-school R&B composition with great hooks making it sound like a ballad wherein he talks about finding his lost love. This track is also one of the two tracks that run for 3 minutes and 16 seconds. The fifth track, “Kimono” (Ft. Started Off Poor, DC Karma and Roro and Prod. by Outfly), is a banging drill beat climbing up the charts as one of India’s greatest posse cuts ever produced. The features’ lyricism and electrifying flow took this song to the next level, making this song one of the highest-streamed songs on the album.
The sixth track, “Sim Sim (Ft. Shah Rule and The Spin Doctor and Prod. by Rekoil Chafe) is a literal room shaker, elevated by Rekoil’s bouncy timbaland-type drum groove on smooth jazz chords, and the scratching by The Spin Doctor takes the track to the next level, helping the rappers to transition between hooks and verses. The last track, the outro, “3:16” (Ft. Maanuni and Prod. by Yksdog) is the perfect ending to this rollercoaster of an album. It is also the second track with a duration of 3 minutes and 16 seconds. It was in this track Gravity brought forward his demons and childhood traumas and shared them with the world. The song is sung on an old-school jazz-rap beat with layers of hard-hitting drums on the bridge and the saxophone patterns on which Maanuni perfectly bridges the gap between Gravity’s verses beautifully.
Gravity confesses that the initial process of making this album was tiresome and frustrating. After recording and finalizing a few songs, the entire album had to be discarded due to some unforeseen circumstances and Gravity seemed to face a lot of hurdles because of people backing off from their initial commitment. Outfly decided to step in and help Gravity complete the album. Gravity smiles, “Outfly said, ‘tera bhai heina!’ and with this newfound inspiration and comraderie I started working on the album again.” He also confesses that the album he released is very different from what he had envisioned earlier. Outfly pushed him out of his comfort zone and kept him pushing till he outdid himself. It was the dynamic between Gravity and Outfly that turned this album into a blockbuster experience.
The album’s artwork is made by Malvika and is a royal illustration of the album itself. It is a very simple yet precise artwork that sets the thematics for the entire album. On the bottom is an eye that can also be interpreted as the globe and on the top are the numbers 3:16 flying in space.
The album has crossed 50k+ streams on Spotify itself and the numbers are only charting up. The best part is that all the features and even the producers are listed as primary artists and in this way, the songs that they worked on would also be visible on their discography which would help their listener charts too. The album is an attempt to push all the artists and producers to move forward together and help each other to reach their aspirations. And with this vision Gravity strives to keep moving forward.
