Last November, it was a very disturbing day for Tuhin Menon, CEO of Asiaville, a Chennai-based media-tech firm, when he spent your complete day between work calls and obligation delegation at his workplace at Palarivattom, Kochi, unable to take a break.
All Tuhin might consider was a plate of crisp, flaky parotta and a few scorching beef roast— a craving he happy instantly after work.
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The subsequent day, Tuhin, who was at all times fascinated by lyric and poetry, awoke with an ode to Kerala parotta and beef, which he instantly jotted down. “I remember waking up with a special feeling, realising how food can help you get away from the monotony of day-to-day life,” says Tuhin. This is how a disturbing day led to ‘Parotta & Beef,’ a rap tune which has garnered over one million views on YouTube. The track was produced by Sandeep Thulasidas a.ok.a Yestey, and distributed by Divo Music.
From media mogul to rapper
“I am completely taken aback by the response. The most gratifying feeling is the outpouring of messages from people, my acquaintances,” says Tuhin, who based Asiaville in 2019.
Tuhin Menon in ‘Parotta & Beef’
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“Rapping is something that I have liked since my early days. I earned a bachelor’s in communication and media studies from New York University. I was doing gigs in New York with my friends from India, Pakistan, Australia, and Japan. We used to go to underground rap sessions and participate in rap battles,” says Tuhin.
“When we founded Asiaville, I remember writing a few raps for one of the verticals too,” says Tuhin.
“Rap is the background music to my life,” says Tuhin, a fan of East Coast rap, which originated in New York. “Apart from The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur, I followed artists such as Big El, Rakim, and Jurassic 5.” Tuhin factors out how the second half of the track belongs to increase bap, a hip-hop subgenre from the late Eighties.
“The first half of the song is a mass masala hook with parotta and beef, which appeals to the audience and their love for the combination,” says Tuhin.
The music video
The video is full of loud colors and quirky settings to convey the “transcendental experience” felt by the protagonist after taking a chew of parotta and beef.
The video was shot in three days, throughout Chennai in April. “This was technically five days’ worth of shoot, but we had to control the cost,” says Tuhin, whereas lauding the efforts of Vijay Siddhartha Ravindranaath, who directed the video.
(*1*) says Tuhin, whose different performing stints embrace a task in Mohanlal-directorial Barozz3D, and theatre with Chennai-based theatre artist Michael Muthu.
The undercurrents
When requested concerning the political undertones with regard to parotta and beef, Tuhin says his intention was to not push any narrative concerning the dishes. “Emotion is universal. The specific reference to parotta and beef resonates in Kerala. Disrupting the mundane with something magical is what I was trying to say with this song. Parotta and beef just happen to be that sort of mechanism for me, but someone else can switch it up with a food of their choice.”
Road forward
“I was worried about ‘Parotta & Beef’, whether people would understand what we are trying to do with the message and the song itself. We have ticked both boxes,” says Tuhin, who has three tracks with Sandeep, who additionally composed the background rating for the hit Kannada film Su from So, lined up. “He and I have been cooking.”
“We know Malayalam hip-hop is blowing up, and we have so much talent. There’s a space for a Malayalam-and-English combination, which is a huge market to tap into. I have not had the good fortune of growing up in Kerala, so what I bring to the table is an appreciation for the sound. My influences are all American hip-hop,” says Tuhin.
Tuhin is presently working on AyeVee, an interactive leisure platform that has produced a number of net sequence that may be performed like a recreation. “We are also planning on including gamification and interactivity to microdramas, which are reel-sized content with multiple episodes.”
