Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

Hip hop music with a local flavour
By N. Dilshath Banu
His voice floats through the thin air not only in Sri Lanka, but also to other parts of the world, casting a spell over anyone with a taste for ‘new music’. His name will be recognised as one of the revolutionaries on the contemporary Sri Lankan music scene. He is not unknown to our audience; he is Iraj Weeraratne, the wizard of hip-hop music. And now, his fans can look forward to his newly released solo album.

“My cassette was released prior to the CD, and it sold 8000 copies within two days,” said Iraj, adding, “I kept my name as the title of the album, as this is my solo album.” Iraj’s solo album consists of 12 songs, including some we hear on the radio, such as “J-town story”, “Roots”, “ILL Noize” and “Players Lounge”.

“Everything began somewhere in 1994 with Ranidu.We went to the same school and thought of doing something together,” said Iraj. At sixteen, Iraj won the best keyboardist title in Sri Lanka awarded by Guildhall Music School and then joined his school mates Ranidu Lankage and Yauwana Wigneswaran to form Zealots when he was in school.

After that Iraj teamed with Ruki and Urban Sound, formed by two brothers – Gajan and Krishan, to work on another original named ‘Sri Lankan 2030’ in 1998. In 2000, Iraj, working with the same people produced “Down Dirty” which held the position No.4 on the Sun FM Top 40 countdown. As everyone knows, “Roots”, produced by Iraj – hip-hop music with an Asian twist was hummed by many young people beyond Sri Lanka and it became No.18 on the UK Asia Charts of BBC Radio 1. And this year, with Ranidu’s R’n’B track, Iraj experimented with the Punjabi remix of “Ahankara Nagare”.

And this year, Iraj ventured out to reach the Tamil audience in Sri Lanka through “J-Town Story”, a story telling of a young boy who comes to the city, as his life was in turmoil in Jaffna, but was discriminated due to racial difference. This was played on Shakthi FM, Sooriyan FM, Shakthi TV, TNL TV, Sirasa TV, YATV, Channel Eye and Swarnawahini. This was also No. 2 on the Sun FM Top 40.

“I am planning to promote Southern Indian music in the future, because people love it,” said Iraj, looking into the future, and added, “Next year, somewhere in April, I am planning to go to New York to work with Ranidu.” Son of film producer, Preethiraj Weeraratne, Iraj adds that soon he hopes to produce music for films. When asked whether his first music for films would be in his father’s films, he smiles and says, “Maybe...”

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