Sol Moravia-Rosenberg, known simply as Sol in the hip-hop circle, has been in India for about seven weeks now. He has been touring various cities and interacting with as many artistes as he can. “I’ve made a supreme effort to meet other artistes,” says Sol, who once had he honour of staying on top of the ITunes chart for an entire week in the hip-hop section.
Sol,who took a year off from education to focus on music, says he was drained as an artiste after putting out a very successful album last year, Yours Truly. “I had to work really hard for my album and I was exhausted. Sometimes, if you’re not careful, if it becomes too much like work, it drains your creativity and becomes less like art,” he attempts to explain, “I had an opportunity to take a break and India is a place that I always wanted to go to,” he says, perhaps trying to camouflage the fact that what he really is doing here is vacationing. “But I am taking it more seriously than just vacationing,” he laughs. “This is an opportunity for me to network and meet more artistes.”
He is no expert, he is sure to clarify, but while he has been here, Sol says he has noticed that hip-hop is still in its early stages in India. “When I was growing up, hip-hop had already spread throughout the US and had gone through a few generations. It’s really interesting being here now and seeing it in its early form in a different country,” he excitedly explains. “But musically, as far their skill level goes, hip-hop musicians are not in their early stages. They’re sophisticated artistes. But as far as how much it has spread, it’s still in its early stages.”
In places like Mumbai and Delhi, the hip-hop communities are definitely larger, Sol observes. But in South India, just because of its cultural history, he says he feels a lot more connection to hip-hop in Tamil.
Hip hop in the West has a very specific rhythm to it, says Sol, who has put out five albums, including Yours Truly and The Ride. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be like that.“That’s something I’ve learnt from hip-hop artistes in India,” he says. “It’s all about incorporating different rhythm patterns. Hip-hop is itself a fusion of many kinds of music. Because of that, it’s easy to add a new influence.” To drive home his point, he further explains, “It’s like making a curry and adding all the different spices.” We can see that Sol has been vacationing quite well!
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