Rapping for the vulnerable of Singapore

Subhas Nair, a Singaporean of Indian origin, has made a profession of ruffling feathers in Singapore, attracting 1000’s of followers together with his daring raps on controversial and delicate matters together with racial points.

But his work, alongside sister Preeti, has additionally attracted the consideration of the authorities in the carefully managed metropolis.

“I am here to stand up for my community and as a rapper, my role is to speak truth to power – not just for my people, but for all of us who are living under capitalism and this authoritarian regime,” 29-year-old Subhas advised Al Jazeera. “Mainstream media can say what they want – they are mouthpieces of the state anyway; a state whose mother tongue is money.”

Subhas’s rhymes are designed to amplify the voice of what he calls the disenfranchised “Brown folk” via subversive, witty humour.

Nearly 75 p.c of Singapore’s inhabitants is ethnic Chinese, however the island can also be house to ethnic Malay Muslims, Indians and different minorities.

Subhas’s debut album Not a Public Assembly (2018) addressed a spread of native sociopolitical points, from conflicting notions of masculinity to rising up as a low-income minority – all issues that Subhas has skilled personally. The rapper can also be concerned in mutual support work centred round justice for migrant staff – many of them from Bangladesh and India –  who’re amongst the most disenfranchised communities in Singapore.

A pointy wit and tongue appear to run in the household: Preeti – higher referred to as the YouTube counter-influencer Preetipls  – not solely raps, however can also be a proud “plus-size” girl; the very reverse of the skinny, pale-skinned fashions who are inclined to dominate Singapore media.

Preetipls’s debut single THICC, launched in 2018, was an ode to plus-size femininity and a whistle blow towards the macho-dominated, Western-influenced requirements of hip-hop music.

For our second version of IWD video characteristic we have now @plspreeti ❤️ Wise phrases from her about the significance of intersectionality!

Keen to take the leap of religion into the leisure business too? Join our #ListenToHer workshop now & study suggestions from business specialists #linkinbio pic.twitter.com/QKcWIRuc7b

— Universal Music Singapore???? (@universalmusg) March 17, 2022

“Growing up, there was hardly any plus-size representation in the hip-hop music I was exposed to, unless it was heavily hyper-sexualised,” Preetipls advised Al Jazeera. She has 41,500 Instagram followers and a YouTube channel with greater than 16,000 subscribers.

“THICC was all about how I felt about my body on a good day and how it was time for THICC girls like me to thrive in the spotlight.”

The duo’s rising profile as tongue-in-cheek social commentators, nevertheless, has additionally ended up muzzling their caustic rhymes.

A battle towards ethnic windmills

The Nairs’ first brush with the regulation was in July 2019, once they uploaded a self-produced rap video in response to an commercial for an digital fee service from the Singapore authorities that featured Chinese Singaporean actor Dennis Chew made up in brownface to impersonate an Indian character.

The Nairs’ expletive-laden video – a remix of Australian feminine rapper Iggy Azalea’s track F**okay It Up – focused Singaporean Chinese, accusing them of being privileged, racist and exploitative of Indians and different minorities.

The video was rapidly taken down, however Subhas was given a two-year conditional warning for allegedly making an attempt to advertise unwell emotions between Chinese Singaporeans and the island’s minorities. Subhas was warned that he can be prosecuted if once more discovered responsible of any comparable offence.

Chew, who additionally dressed up as a Malay girl in a hijab for the industrial, apologised for collaborating, whereas the e-payments firm additionally stated it was sorry.

Singapore’s Info-Communications Media Development Authority (IMDA), which regulates the business, stated that whereas the commercial was in poor style and “caused offence” to minorities, it didn’t breach the native Internet Code of Practice.

Still, the Nairs’ video does appear to have had some constructive impact.

“Since the incident, I haven’t seen ‘brownface’ happen in Singapore,” Preetipls stated. “Before the ‘brownface’ video, mainstream media has been wholly inadequate in covering race issues, and it is still alternative/independent media that regularly provides coverage on racist incidents.”

Fearless critics

Despite the warning, in July 2020 Subhas posted a response to a video of ethnic Chinese Christians making hateful remarks towards one other group.

In October of that 12 months, he additionally commented on a murderous brawl that left 31-year-old Satheesh Gobidass, an Indian Singaporean man, lifeless at Orchard Towers, one of metropolis state’s earliest retail complexes and now higher identified for its shady nightlife.

The final straw for the authorities was when Subhas used a cartoon drawing of the put up on the Orchard Towers incident to brighten the stage at the launch of his album Tabula Rasa on March 11 final 12 months at the now-closed different tradition house The Substation.

On 1 November 2021, Subhas was charged with 4 counts of making an attempt to advertise unwell will between Singapore’s completely different ethnic teams over issues of faith and race with the police saying the rapper had breached the situations of the earlier warning.

Accompanied by Preetipls, Subhas confirmed little contrition.

He walked to court docket carrying a T-shirt emblazoned with the face of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a 34-year-old Malaysian Indian man who was then on loss of life row after being convicted of a drug trafficking offence.

Nagaenthran’s attorneys argued he was intellectually disabled to a level that he couldn’t have made an knowledgeable resolution. A final-ditch attraction to cease his execution was rejected and Nagaenthran was hanged final month.

“It was just me making the most of the platform and keeping the focus on the collective work ahead of us in abolishing the death penalty and saving the lives of Naga and everyone on death row,” Subhas advised Al Jazeera.

“In Singapore, so many groups have been displaced, disenfranchised and systemically targeted. As I’ve said on a track before, it feels like ‘the gallows are the only place we get representation.’”

Rapping in a tough place

The clampdown on the Nairs is barely the most up-to-date instance of how Singapore polices not solely the most rebellious varieties of fashionable music and tradition – as just lately as 2019, Swedish black steel combo Watain had its debut Singapore present cancelled as a consequence of complaints by native Christian teams – but in addition satire and social commentary.

In 2021, a sequence of incidents renewed debate on the nature of ethnic relations in the city-state, the place racial riots in 1964 left some 22 folks lifeless and tons of injured.

In one incident, a Chinese man kicked an Indian girl in the chest uttering racial slurs as he did so, whereas in one other, an older Chinese man confronted an interracial couple who had been out collectively in a park, questioning their relationship. Weeks later, a Malay girl was sentenced to jail for insulting an Indian girl on a public bus.

man in the singapore tshirt actually stated “i think it’s racist that indians marry a chinese” WTFF
credit score: FB/Dave Park Ash pic.twitter.com/gqvtzU7uqh

— YEOLO™ (@tzehern_) June 6, 2021

After the incidents went viral on social media, Minister of Finance Lawrence Wong admitted Singapore had “seen significantly more [racist incidents] cases than usual” in the earlier months, including that it was “most likely because of the stress of COVID-19”.

Wong careworn Singapore remained a multiracial society that doesn’t “devalue” variety, however “we accept and celebrate it”.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong devoted a 3rd of his 2021 National Day speech to race and faith, and stated the majority needed to be extra delicate to the issues of the minorities. He additionally introduced a brand new Maintenance of Racial Harmony Act to encourage folks to reside collectively higher.

“Laws may not, by themselves, make people get along with one another better,” Lee stated. “But laws can signal what our society considers right or wrong, and nudge people over time to behave better.”

After contemplating a responsible plea, Subhas has determined to go to trial over the costs towards him.

A court docket date is pending.

“I don’t have illusions of grandeur or aspirations to be rich or famous,” Subhas stated. “I just want to speak truth to power and run as hard as I can while the baton is still in my hand.”

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