Mumbai’s very own Yashraj, jumped back into the foray with his first EP release in 2 years, with “Meri Jaan Pehle Naach”. The project, which was teased for almost 5 months, dropped on July 15th, 2024.
Since the release of his first EP, “Azaad Hu Mein” in 2020, Yashraj has quietly been on the rise and his music has spread like wildfire, making him one of the most trusted narrators with the pen. He’s been known to experiment with all kinds of sonics, with calm, laid back tracks like ‘Hausla’, ‘kho gaya’, and ‘Toast’, to boom bap and trap influenced sounds on his 2022 project ‘Takiya Kalaam’, to his trap and rage fueled tracks like ‘Bombay Coast’ and his recent two packer ‘Ladke Convict’ with Hanumankind and Chaar Diwaari.
This time is no different, as he takes us back to the 70s and 80s alt-disco sound, drawing inspiration from the likes of RD Burman. There’s also a very heavy and noticeable evolution of subject matter on this record, with Yashraj embracing his braggadocious and witty side, a fresh change of pace from a lot of his other work, which contains more introspective and emotional writing from him. These lines however, still contain some veiled and direct insights into his life and psyche, as an artist and as a person.
The first track, GABBAR (prod. by PUNA) pulls you in with a classic retro guitar stab and a haunting vocal melody, over which Yashraj’s “Ek saans andar, Ek saans bahar” whispers set the tone. The beat drops with a lot of percussion elements, a synth pinging off in the background and a classic retro hindi film sting. The classical vocals build up the tension, after which Yashraj comes in. He uses the intro perfectly, giving us an insight into this project, so to speak, with his bars talking about how he doesn’t need to prove to anyone that he can rap, how he was fed up with hearing stuff that all sounded the same, and so he came through with this EP. The second verse of the song is my favourite one, with the percussion elements fading out and letting Yashraj’s vocals take centre stage for a second, after which they’re replaced with the big punchy drums which go on throughout the whole song. He carries on similar themes with the 4th cut ‘Theme Music’ (with Kimeraa), with a much quicker, in-your-face instrumental.
Studio-29 (with lil help), named after the iconic Bombay disco club, starts off with Yashraj’s voice eq’ed out, sounding as if it’s coming out an old radio set, embellished by the over-the-top DISCO acronym segment. He paints a picture of being in the club (studio-29, I assume), being completely gone, lost in the music and substances, oblivious to what is happening around him. Vocal layers are stacked on top of each other until the end of the verse until we just hear a cacophony of voices, an accurate representation of what being intoxicated feels like. Suddenly, the tape rewinds and we hear the beat switch, with muffled vocals, pulsating and panning synths and some Timbaland type percussion, another audio-visual instrumental which paints a picture about how music in the club sounds like when you’re gone out of your mind. Yashraj drops what I think is the best verse of this album on this instrumental, with witty bars, classic hip hop references, some introspection, and braggadocio thrown in for good measure. A huge shoutout to Jaini9e and Sahi Singh on the visualisers for all the songs. The old school vinyl player and record really send the vibe of this project home, and the BUR-MAN inscription is a nice little touch.
The third track “Daae/Baae” has to be my favourite cut from this record, featuring the classic Yashraj “/” in the title. It has big, airy drums paired with retro muted electric guitars, a match made in heaven. Yashraj talks about a girl who’s scared of the world, only truly opening up when she’s dancing to disco tunes in the dark. The whole song is a conversation between the two, with Yashraj asking her not to look around her, and just dance, with the titular “Meri Jaan Pehle Naach” chant. Right after the second verse, when you think the song is over, the instrumental hits once again, with Yashraj doing a sung outro. This is without a doubt one of the best, if not the best outro I’ve heard from him, with the plucky synths adding the icing on top of the immaculate vocal delivery.
We get another “/” track in the form of Kaayda/Faayda. Akash Shravan does a wonderful job with the instrumental, blending disco and hip hop elements. Bebhumika’s flawless croons at the start of the track lull you into a false sense of calm, until Yashraj comes out of the gates swinging, delivering quick lines. Juggling flows all through the song, he talks about his life as a kid and a young adult, how he grew up a single child, how he used to be down and out, how this music has patched his life, and how he’s better than anyone else doing it, while also playing the devil’s advocate about living the artist life, making money off of his traumas, adverse experiences and victories. The bridge features a classic jazz call and response section with bebhumika playing off the instrumental with luxurious vocal lines. The outro ends with the reiteration of the fact that anything you do in life is, in fact, a matter of Kaayda and Faayda, making it impossible to be one hundred percent true to yourself.
Custom Fabric features a self-produced instrumental by Yashraj. This one breaks the fourth wall in a way, making you feel as if you’re watching the song being recorded or performed live, as if live samples are being triggered while Yashraj raps about being part of the music industry, the challenges of expressing yourself and everything you feel when you do it for a living, while also not letting up on the staple flex lines he drops through the EP. The abrupt end of the first verse being interrupted by a metronome catches the listener off guard, making sure you’re tuned in to listen to what Yashraj has to say in his second verse. The outro on this one segs very nicely into the last track of this EP.
Yashraj closes out the MJPN with the most raw and unfiltered song on it titled “F.G.H.M” which stands for Fass Gaya Hu Mai. The easy-going and somewhat fun vibe of this record is flipped on its head with this track, featuring a sultry instrumental with a lazy and sombre vocal delivery by Yashraj, really sending the message of this song home. He sings about how even though he came with a new sound, like he always does, he feels like he’s caught in a loop of putting his pain to words, everytime he writes a song or creates a project. He’s caught in a Catch-22 situation, where even though he loves making music which patches his life, he has to resort to going into the deepest and darkest corners of his mind to come up with it. This song is a beautiful and unadulterated commentary about the artistic process.
Yashraj has surely exceeded my expectation with this record, as he’s not only come with a new sound sonically, the avant garde lyrical content contains more depth and layers than ever before, and I truly think that this is some of the best writing I’ve seen from him. The album puts you through a riot of experiences and emotions, all while ostentatious disco instrumentals are playing in the background, and by the end you realise that this project is more than just another experimental record, it’s a soundtrack to Yashraj’s, and possibly, the listener’s life, which is exactly what I believe, he wanted to accomplish with this record.
