Loading...
| Indonesian hip hop, rightly or wrongly has a pretty bad reputation in my ears. Besides memories of listening to IWA K from my younger days, I virtually haven’t heard of any worthwhile Indonesian hip hop ever since. I must admit, that is mainly down to the embarrassing fact that I wasn’t even searching. That was until the Internet (and a host of friends) introduced me to a whole host of producers and emcees who are making Jakarta’s creative hip hop scene. One of these is Serenada Iblis, a beat-smith; jazz head and punk enthusiast who produces jazz-heavy tracks for Magnum Opus and other Indonesian hip hop heads, which sound like a cross between an updated version of early 1990s jazz-rap and early 2000s underground hip hop. W_Music caught up with Mr. Iblis and sent him a few questions.
W: Tell us a little bit about the man behind Serenada Iblis. I was born Muhammad Irfan Handeputra, 23 years ago in Jakarta. I completed my primary and secondary education in Kalimalang, East Jakarta, before earning my bachelors degree from the University of Indonesia, majoring in Communication. W: Serenada, tell us how you got into hip-hop. Well to tell you the truth, I only really started listening to hip hop in 2006. I was basically brought up on the hardcore punk scene with added love for anarcho-punk, hardcore punk, rude boy, new wave, rocksteady, ska, garage rock, stuff by Jackie Mittoo and bluebeat. It was at my sophomore where I joined with a few bands who want to make new tracks. I couldn’t play an instrument to save my life, but I was directing the musicians’ arrangement. So that was essentially my first taste at being a ‘producer’ in the broad sense. At that time, the first song I heard with rapping on it (certainly not conventional rap) was CRASS, the late-70s anarcho-punk British band. As for the first hip-hop track I listened to, I think it was a cover of the Dead Kennedy’s California Uber Alles by a band on Jello Biafra’s label roster, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Soon after, I finally I got introduced to (and subsequently loved) the works of MF DOOM & MF Grimm, Large Professor, J Dilla, 9th Wonder, Pete Rock and DJ Premier. It was after this that I tried to find out more about hip hop production. W: So how and when did you decide to pick up a sampler? I chose sampling because it represents the culture of that genre and also because people who sample pieces of music tend to give the sample a unique personal flavor, where the producer is expected to provide looped tracks while still keeping it interesting. |
It also brings out a lot of creativity as a producer who may not play any musical instruments yet can still improve a piece of music just by relying on his ears and musical references. For instance, I tend to incorporate punk or rocksteady bass lines (which tend to be more melodic) into my music. I actually learned to use the sampler from a Yogyakarta based producer, Pramudhya Adi (LaCostra). Funnily, I learned to do it all through the internet as I never actually met Pramudya until a year after we first contacted each other. He then taught me the basics of sampling, from scratch. For me, he’s a personal idol and one of the few best producers in the country.
On top of that, I also got acquainted with Rizky Lazuardi from Modus Operandi in Semarang where I was able to absorb a lot of production techniques and he introduced me to many of the people in the Indonesian hip hop scene who share common interest in ‘the game’. He also ended up as the one providing the scratches when my group performed. W: Sounds like you started life as a producer as a wide range of other genres before delving into producing hip hop tracks. Is that a fair assessment? Yep! I certainly don’t call myself exclusively a hip hop head, as this was a recent development. I hope to be a bridge between hip hop and the genres I listened to before. Serenada Iblis • Through The Rhythm
|
