HARDBONE BOY, or Deepak Kumar — the rapper from Jaipur who boasts of being crowned the winner of Nexa Music Season 3 by A R Rahman himself — has a new EP to his name, TOD — or Total Overdose. The 4 track, 10 minute long EP has the rapper come together with producer/engineer UZIII — and this collaborative venture is refreshing.For one, the entire project is extremely lyric-heavy, with the rapper cutting through with a rapid-fire delivery that comes at you in charging-bullet form.
UZIII constructs beats that do not overpower the content of the tracks, not relaxing into beat-porn — intelligently because he realizes that none of these tracks require that. Hardbone Boy’s do not require the crutch of autotuned soundscapes that distort what he is saying to oblivion — and it catches your interest, because it is not everyday you find production and lyricism on a DHH track not overpowering or eclipsing, but instead complementing each other. A press release from the artist states that the opening track, Caution, “where Hardbone shares how a corporate job can make your life messy and also he shares about how he has given up on the idea of love & relationship in a manner where he is just taking out his anger and frustration and also he is letting people know that now ahead he’s just gonna uplift his things.”
The rapper works himself on a loop, building a pulsating form of rage that translates in the following track, UCHHAL MAT which has him collaborating with Prathamesh. There is a definite speed-up, and the two artists riff off without compromising on substance. My favorite, on this record, is perhaps the last track — SAMBHAL KE CHAL, where Kumar pairs up with vichaar, which seems like the number the producer-rapper duo were building up to. I am unaware if the arrangement of the tracks is strategic — but it sure works the way it has been, considering the ebb and flow of the pacings of the four on the record. The artist’s team explains “Here both the artist talk about how you have to be very careful in this industry if you want to do better and stay relevant while doing good in your career.”
UZIII deserves his tens, especially for this one, because it seems like the production is almost chasing down the rapping on this one, and I could almost see him making music for video games — a lot of his soundmaking has the character of what could build up to be more cyberpunk, or neo-noir hyperpop. This is a record where the artist is raging, sarcastic, and full of disdain for the murkiness of the industry he works in. This is a compounding of the stylistic elements that the rapper has touched upon throughout his career — he is sharpening his skills on this one, not attempting to randomly surprise with something completely out of left field where he loses control in unfamiliar waters — and this is a promising revelation, because it is always nice to see someone shape up their signature without seeming like a non-committal gimmick.
