Hailing from the verdant West Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, Dalaphi Lamare aka Reble is perhaps one of the best leading female rappers of the country. She is truly a force to reckon with when it comes to the genres of Rap, Hip-Hop and R&B with a dash of pop and folk in between. Drawing inspirations from artists like Linkin Park, Eminem, Andre 3000 and others, whom she listened to while growing up, Reble expertise in razor-sharp lyricism and unique flows sets her apart from her contemporaries.
In a country dominated by male rappers, Reble continues to inspire and influence budding female rappers to take on the stage and showcase their mettle. She recently collaborated with Boiler Room x Ballantine’s True Music Studios where she got candid about her music career and what’s more to come.
Here are the excerpts:
How do you feel about performing at the Boiler Room x Ballantine’s True Music Studios?
It was a memorable experience, and the lineup was amazing. I personally feel honored to have been one of the first few rappers from India to have performed at Boiler Room x Ballantine’s Glassware True Music Studios.
Ballantine’s Glassware True Music Studios’ philosophy is to ‘Stay True’ to oneself. How does this align with your personal thoughts and how do you ‘Stay True’ to yourself and your work?
By embracing the struggle and connecting with other people’s struggles, we all go through very similar situations, and masking it all doesn’t work for me. If I’m broke, I want to rap about it. If I’m happy, I’ll say it out loud through my art. I don’t want any filter or fake persona. This is more of a reality for me, and my music is just an expression of my personal struggles as a human being.
The wordplay in your songs forms the backbone of your music. What evokes such stirring and strong emotions?
I think it’s the struggle that fuels it all. The difficult part of things makes you feel so much more than the good side of it sometimes.
Entropy is an underrated EP by you. What was your journey with it, and how did you zero in the collaborations?
I don’t believe Entropy is underrated, and personally, I have mixed feelings about the EP. It marked my first solo project and received sponsorship from Kamani, which I’m grateful for. While I acknowledge that it has its flaws and might not have reached its full sonic potential, I see it as a crucial stepping stone in my journey. It could’ve been better had I known what I do today. I’m excited about my upcoming album because it has corrected the wrongs done in Entropy. Entropy, as the name suggests, was chaotic.
Do you feel the female representation in the Hip Hop scene in India has improved? Or whether there is still room for improvement?
I think it can improve if we improve our sound and level up our pen game. I don’t think that people should listen to you because you are a female. I think people should listen to the music because it’s genuinely good. What can definitely improve are the opportunities and the need for sexualizing female rap can also decrease. People don’t need to sexualize themselves to sell music. If they want to do it, it should come from a place of self-expression, which is completely cool. But yeah, the female rap scene can definitely improve in my opinion.
What more should one expect from your sound in the coming times?
The sonics will be better, and the production will be top-notch. We are currently working with the best right now, and the collaborations on this album include so many people that I look up to. It, in my opinion, has India’s best music producers.
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