The Socio-political rapper and protest poet EPR Iyer released his Album named Protest Poetry. This is no doubt one of the best albums in Desi Hip-hop. As the title of this album suggests the aim of this Album, all songs in this album are either based on some kind of social issue or beliefs. One thing is for sure that you are going to fall in love with this album if you are a Hip-hop fan! The album consists of 17 tracks in which all the tracks are pre-released except Into the Unknown. all the tracks are pre-released but we are pretty sure that many of you would not have listened to many of them because EPR is really underrated and not everyone likes the socio-political rap songs. But give this album a try and you will observe the musicality of EPR and what EPR and GJ storm does when they are together. since GJ Storm is mentioned that let us know more about him, GJ Storm produces all songs of EPR and he is really one of the best producers in India, he’s been with EPR for a long time now, they have made tons of song together and we think they are the best fit for each other.
As the title of this article suggests, we are going to review this album. there are 17 songs and obviously it would be boring to read about songs because there is a limit to transcribe music into paper with thoughts. So we will review a few songs which we have enlisted to give you an idea of the whole album and how great EPR is with his art. We chose songs that explain EPR the best and the moto of this album as well. we are confident that you are going to like this, so let’s discuss the tracks.
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PROTEST POETRY ALBUM REVIEW
Before we review tracks, just want to say that these tracks in this album contains a lot of truths or political point of views which you might not agree with but don’t hate the artist for doing so, it’s his freedom of speech to sing such songs and he is not forcing his thoughts on anyone, he is just putting his opinion with facts in front of everyone and rest is your choice to believe them or not, even if you disagree with his opinions than just focus on his Art. With that said lets finally review the album!
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SRINI BANA EPR – EPR
The first track of the album and the best track to start with, lets talk about the music first. the beat is made by Bombay Beat Broadcast and this is just the best beat to fit this particular track. The beat sets the vibe from start and its a really great and emotional beat. About this track , it tells how Srini became EPR. the real name of EPR is Santhanam Srinivasan Iyer, thats why he made such title. In this track he talks about himself ,his art and how hiphop changed him! this song perfectly explains what EPR is! He is a true poet and an insane rapper. the best thing about this track is the way EPR explains his personality and thoughts with insane references. He is so creative with his references, metaphors and his most unique flow . No doubt he is in top 5 lyrical rappers at the moment.
This track starts with EPR stating that he is going to tell about his heroic journey of hip-hop and the beat gives his word some immense power support to start the verse. And one thing for sure, EPR songs doesn’t work in uphill slope format, he will always hit you with his lyrics from the start to end. He starts with his spectacular lyrical verse and then he smoothes in the hook and the hook will hit you differently, it will chill out all the lyrical tension EPR built with his verse and will take you to a chill emotional vibe. After the hook, the verse 2nd verse starts and it ends with a statement for MTV hustle, as many people know that EPR was runner up on the reality show MTV Hustle and many fans were disappointed that he did not win the show. He even performed this song on the show and in this track he said that it does not matter who won because he has planted a seed of hip-hop in every listener of him and that’s what matters for him! now listen to this great song.
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WE INNA HINDUSTAN – EPR FEATURING VOID
Protest Poetry wrapped in a chill reggae vibe as ear candy. EPR knows how to spread his thoughts. And we got Void as a feature too. This track is mainly focused on the recent CAA, NRC riots mainly, and many other topics where government was discriminating against people. This really needs a lot of guts to make such songs with direct shots on Government because freedom of speech is no more taken as a right. Hats off to EPR and Void for making this song without any fear. We won’t discuss much about technicalities about this track as EPR and Void are one of the finest rappers, we will focus more on the topics covered in this track to give you an idea of Protest Poetry. This track has a lot of opinions, so just to remind you again that even if you don’t agree with them just support his art.
So this track starts with some weird adlibs by EPR, just kidding. It starts with adlibs and the verse starts when the beat goes crazy chill, EPR starts by talking about Kolkata and Bengal talking about the Unemployment and he calls it the capital of political works. If you watch the video you will get to know better about his points. after that, he gets into the CAA, NRC, and NPR matter as he talks about how people are getting asked for papers for no real reason and all the tax they paid is just going to detention camps. EPR covered a lot more which you should listen to in this track but after that, he forwards it to Void. Void starts with storytelling about the JNU incident, he portrays himself as a student trying to finish his assignment and he talked about his point of view about that incident. You will love this more with the video, so just watch it and enjoy people, Protest poets are rare, so support them.
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EKLA CHOLO RE – EPR
This might be the song to give you goosebumps because it is filled with emotions, you might have heard this on MTV Hustle or on YouTube too, if not then don’t miss it by any chance, just listen to this and you will know a lot about the agriculture situation in India. EPR covered agriculture and the condition of farmers in India, even the video concept is really sad. the video concept is based on how a farmer’s crop is destroyed and he chose to himself alive with his daughter. The visuals are just too sad and what makes them sad is that it really happens, farmers do commit suicide. EPR used his art perfectly and only EPR can do songs like this.
The lyrics were super good and informative and meaningful. It starts with an audio from a video of a farmer which went viral, in that video, the farmer was talking about his crops and his condition while crying which was heartbreaking. the first verse starts with great lyrics and EPR talks about how farmers are committing suicide and there is no report if it, he talked about how these agriculture companies make harmful pesticides and costly seeds and still farmers don’t get what they deserve for their work. and he even said that there were protests done by farmers but it got no media coverage. after first verse the hook hits which will just take you deep into the song, GJ Storm put so much efforts in music and the hook is so catchy and emotional. the second verse talks about how these farmers can’t even afford to make their kids go to school and even their crops are sold at cheap prices. this written paragraph cant explain this masterpiece so listen to this legendry song and support the artist.
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BADLURAM KA BADAN – EPR
So this is a storytelling rap about the martyrs Badluram and Hangpan Dada who fought with bravery in World War 2. Many people don’t know about him and his sacrifice. Even this song Badluram Ka Badan is a song which is sung by Assam regiment to pay respect to Badluram. EPR explained the whole story in this rap song and we will explain the story. the first verse starts with an easy description of the incident, back in World War 2, when Japan was trying to invade in India and Badluram fought bravely and lost his life for the nation and in that time if a soldier dies, his ration won’t be transferred to the regiment but the quartermaster accidentally forgot to cancel his ration and kept sending his ration to the regiment, so when japan cut all the connections to provide ration to Regiment then the soldiers got stuck there without any ration arriving and it was Badluram’s share of ration which kept them alive and that is why Badluram is respected for his sacrifice to save the country. after the verse the chorus hits and it is the original song of Badluram, the chorus is a sample of some kids singing and the regiment singing the song in respect to Badluram. It will make you proud as well as emotional.
The second verse starts with a new story of a different soldier named Hangpan Dada. He starts with the childhood of Hangpan Dada who was born in a village of Arunanchal Pradesh and sacrificed his life while fighting with terrorists, he killed 3 terrorists but could not survive and he still lives in the heart of people, the songs ends with a clip of soldiers of Assam Regiment clapping and Singing Badluram ka Badan to pay respect to him and all the martyrs. Doesn’t matter how good we explain this but we can’t get those emotions in an article, to feel the stories you have to listen to the track.
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A SYRIAN LULLABY – EPR
Everyone knows what happened in Syria in the past years. EPR made this track in 2019 and just put his feelings into words with this song. GJ Storm puts emotions in his music, this beat was just great, it was simple but perfect.EPR starts the track with the hook, he sings it in a nice way and the lyrics are great. the verses contain information and pain of Syria. EPR talks about how the people were massacred there and the childhood of those kids is just ruined, Syria has always been a warzone active country, people have never lived with peace there, the cities were attacked and destroyed, many people became homeless and many died. Terrorism has taken over the control and it is just sad. This track is gloomy but worth listening to.EPR is a protest poet and his main aim is to spread awareness and he is doing it the best way. Listen to this track for sure, you will get to know a lot of things about the condition of Syria.
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RAASTAFARI – EPR FEATURING KARMA
After all the tension-filled tracks, this is something to chill on!! If you think this is going to be easy with lyrics then you are wrong buddy! EPR is just insane in this and Karma too! Not a single line without metaphors, this level of lyricism is just too great. Many hungry for bars reaction channels tried to break it down but they all accepted their defeat in this song. Everyone is waiting for Rohan Cariappa to break it down and now his breakdown video is uploaded you guys can watch it, but its a really chill track as GJ Storm knew that no one would catch the bars so he just made the beat more enjoyable and he added a drop too. It has a lyrical video on Youtube and you should definitely check it out! there is no particular topic for this song but just showing their skills.
Many of you must be confused about what does Rastafari means? Rastafari has been described as a religion, meeting many of the proposed definitions for what constitutes a religion, and is legally recognized as such in various countries. scholars of religion have categorized Rastafari as a new religious movement. In simple words, Rastafari is a way of living life and to dedicate life for social movements, and since it meets the definition of religion so in many countries, it’s considered as a religion legally. this song starts with crazy metaphors and references by EPR with words which are insanely hard to even pronounce but yeah if you get a slightest of meaning out of them then you will know how great of a writer EPR is and it’s not that hard to get them all, Google is always there to help. The best thing about this song I liked was the way both artists praised each other with their bars and the music is obviously great. Karma came prepared too with his metaphors but his flow and rhyme scheme are just insane.
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With this, we end the Review here and these are our top picked tracks out of the whole album and this album really deserves a lot. There are tracks like Maya, In the Unknown Rastamahn, Yeh Bata etc. and EPR just slew them all, so support the art and artist.
